Pontiac GTO (1964)
The Pontiac GTO was, arguably, the first true muscle car in America. The firm wanted to build a faster, more powerful version of the Tempest but parent company General Motors imposed a 330-cubic-inch (5.4-litre) displacement limit on its A-body cars. Decision-makers astutely noticed the limit didn’t officially apply to options. They also found out the 389-cubic-inch (6.3-litre) V8 from bigger models fit in the Tempest’s engine bay without major modifications.
Pontiac launched the GTO nameplate as an option package on the Tempest Le Mans in 1964. The eight-cylinder made 325bhp when fitted with a single four-barrel carburetor or 348bhp when equipped with a trip of two-barrel carburetors. Pontiac sold over 32,000 examples of the GTO in 1964, a number that far exceeded even the most wildly optimistic expectations.
