The Pontiac GTO was a muscle car, built by General Motors in the period 1964 to 1974, and was based initially on, and took over from, the Pontiac Tempest.

General Motors had placed a ban on motor racing in 1963, therefore taking away from Pontiac the “win on Sunday sell on Monday” sales generation. With the GTO, Pontiac’s relatively youthful management team looked to street performance to excite the public and sell the GTO.

The GTO name was inspired by the Ferrari 250 GTO, with the GTO standing for Gran Turismo Omologato, the ‘grand tourer’ racing class in Europe. The selection of the name caused something of an uprorar, as the Pontiac GTO was a car of the street, not the race track.

The team responsible for the first Pontiac GTO was Russell Gee (engine specialist), Bill Collins (chassis engineer), and the chief engineer at the time, John DeLorean. The Sales Manager of Pontiac, Frank Bridge, had no great faith in the car, and limited production of the first model to 5,000.

Instead of the Tempest’s 326 cu in (5.3 L), the trio of engineers put more muscle into the 1964 GTO, which rather then being a ‘standalone’ car, it offered as an option package with a 389 cu in (6.4 L) V8 engine. With this engine option, the Pontiac GTO was available as a two-door coupe, 2-door hardtop coupe, and 2-door convertible. With all the option upgrades, engine, break, badging, transmission, cooling system and more, the 1964 Pontiac GTO sold for $4,500. Frank Bridge’s caution was unnecessary - 10,000 GTOs were sold before the beginning of 1964, with sales going to reach 32,450.

For 1964, GTO was lengthened by just over 3 inches, on the same chassis as the ‘64, and with the same interior size. A little more life was tweaked from the 389 V8 engines, rated at up to 360 hp. General Motors revved up the marketing on the ‘65 Pontiac GTO, and sales jumped to 75,342.

In 1966, the Pontiac moved from being an upgrade package of the Tempest, to being a model in its own right. It retained the engine options of 1965, but it was restyled, lengthened just a little more, and was available as available as a pillared sports coupe, a pillarless hardtop, and a convertible. The sales figures continued to grow, to 96,946.

Sales peaked in the late 1960s at around the 80,000 mark, dropping to below 5,000 in 1973. The Pontiac GTO was hit by all the usual problems of the muscle car car era, such as safety restrictions and the oil crisis, along with a growing disinterest in Pontiac marketing the car. The Pontiac GTO’s last hurrah was as a compact muscle car in 1974, an option package for the Pontiac Ventura. Sales for this model improved, to 7,058, but it was not enough to keep the model going.

The GTO name was resuscitated in 2004, this time the badge was placed on an Australian car, the Holden Monaro. Production of this ‘new’ Pontiac GTO continued until 2006, with just over 40,000 sold.