• Jalopnik Book Reviews

    GTO: Pontiac's Great One, by Darwin Holmstrom

    When this monstrous volume showed up at Chez Murilee- and this is one freakin' huge slab-o-musclecar-porn, displacing 206 cubic inches- I figured I'd find nothing but pretty pictures within. Such was not the case. More »
  • classic ad watch

    50 Classic Pontiac Print Ads

    Pontiac made some pretty good television ads, but we mustn't overlook the print ads. Franzouse has found a treasure trove — here are 50 Pontiac classics. More »
  • question of the day

    What Was Your First Pontiac?

    I'm guessing that a respectable percentage of you have owned at least one Pontiac (you foreign types with your Polski Fiats and Proton Sagas can sit this one out). What was the first one? More »
  • down on the street

    Pontiac Is No More, But The Survivors Flourish Down On The Street

    Oldsmobile, Plymouth, and now Pontiac; this century is rough on the old Detroit marques. With the the demise of Pontiac in mind, let's check out the classic Pontiacs I've photographed down on the Alameda street. More »
  • Carpocalypse

    The Ten Greatest Pontiacs

    We told you months ago Pontiac was dead, but today GM CEO Fritz Henderson made it official. Now that the pointy-arrow brand is gone, we'll mourn by celebrating our ten favorite examples of driving excitement. More »
  • classic ad watch

    Jalopnik's Top 28 Vintage GM Car Commercials

    We've shown our favorite Vintage Chevrolet commercials, but what about GM's other car divisions? And we don't just mean Cadillac, Buick, Pontiac, and Oldsmobile; Vauxhall, Holden, and Opel did some great ads as well! More »
  • auctions

    2009 Barrett-Jackson Auction Scottsdale: Eight Highest-Priced Cars Through Day Three

    The big Barrett-Jackson car auction in Scottsdale's going on right now and we're already into the fourth day of hot gavel action. Here's the eight top cars that have found new owners through day three. More »
  • two lane blacktop

    Color Me Gone, Baby!

    "What kinda sounds you like? Rock, soul, hillbilly...western?" That's exactly what any courteous GTO Judge driver should ask his passenger when reaching for the 8-track stash in the center console. Thanks to this YouTuber, we can all enjoy some Two-Lane Blacktop to get our Monday afternoon started right. This sequence has had a powerful effect on me over the years; back when I owned a slushbox-equipped Volvo 144, I would stomp on the gas, wait about ten seconds for the downshift, then scream "Color me GONE, baby!" as all 118 Swedish horses kicked- or rather, trudged- in (for some reason, it never occurred to me to do this while driving my GTO).
  • melbourne international motor show

    Forum Fan-Boy Builds Excitement With Pontiac GTO Photoshop Of Holden Coupe 60

    We can always trust the GM fan-boys at GMInsideNews to get their p-shop pens out whenever Holden drops a hot piece of Aussie 'roo tail out for the muscle-craving hoons of the world. Yesterday's Coupe 60 concept was no exception to the rule. camaro_freak, one of the Vegemite-loving forumites over at GMI has photoshopped the Coupe 60 concept in a way that builds swelling excitement in the loins of any muscle car lover — it's his take on what it could look like with the Pontiac arrowhead affixed firmly to the front. That's right, we bring you the camaro_freak GTO 60 concept. Eat your heart out "Maximum" Bob. Hit the jump to see the p-chop bigger, longer and more uncut and getting ready to drive, Pontiac, drive! More »
  • custom cars

    German Confounds Us With Pontiac LeSupra

    The immediate reaction to this article sent to us by The Bouncer was an indignant cry of 'blasphemy!' What you see above is no ordinary 1972 Pontiac LeMans, indeed this dark horse has a dirty little secret. Tucked away under that sleek hood there lies no V8 engine, not even a V6, in fact, the engine wasn't even born in Detroit. It was plucked from none other than a Toyota Supra. More »
  • choose your eternity

    PCH, John Z. De Lorean Edition: GTO or DMC-12?

    Even a Sport PV544 can't compete with a two-stroke three-banger wagon, according to the voters in yesterday's Swedish Hell Choose Your Eternity poll. Today we're going to pit a couple of the creations of John Zachary De Lorean against each other, and we're not even going to make any cocaine-smuggling jokes, because the jury said the whole deal was entrapment. More »
  • question of the day

    Should We Be Reviving Expired Brands?

    While we love the Trabant, the idea of a new Trabant has us conflicted. Resurrection carries a lot of risks (think Death Takes A Holiday and Meet Joe Black). This is especially true if you're going to resurrect a name without also recreating any of the things that made us love it in the first place (ahem, FWD V6 Chevy Impala). On the other hand, both the Mini Cooper and Fiat 500 have enjoyed successful second comings. More »
  • offbeat news

    The Price is Right Gives Winner Wrong GTO

    "The price is wrong, Bitch!" A contestant on the The Price is Right is suing the show, claiming that the 2004 Pontiac GTO she received was a lemon (hopefully, she read our overview of Lemon Laws.) After paying taxes and license fees for her prize she was told the car on the stage had mechanical problems and she would have to wait for it. When the car was delivered it was a different car and had more miles on the odometer than the Goat she was promised. And then it gets worse. More »
  • sema

    SEMA 2007: Turbo Plumbing Bonanza, Part 1

    You would be correct if you're thinking that we ran something like this from last year's friction materials SEMA convention accompanied by some random musings about Norse death metal. Thundering crescendos of dualing lead guitar aside, a year ago we only ran one image. Thanks to the ongoing miracle of the internets we can now bring you shots of not only the VQ, but some 1000 hp twin-turbo LS1-LS2 action along with some scooby doo. Zoinks! [Air Power Systems]
  • custom cars

    Vandenbrink Design GTO, Now on Video

    Dig the haunting piano theme, or just sit back and admire the digital rendering of Vandenbrink Design's coachworks project. It's in honor of the Ferrari 250 GTO. Production starts on the first of five cars next year, with a top spec model producing 750 horsepower. Otherwise, think of the millions of dollars it'll take to put something like it in your driveway, either original or reproduced, and laugh maniacally.
  • custom cars

    Vandenbrink Design to Build Coachworks Homage to the Ferrari 250 GTO

    Back in 2006, when Michiel van den Brink revealed his designs for a tribute to the 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO, Ferraristi were taken by its curvilinear sex appeal. So taken, that some offered their deep pockets in exchange for one in three dimensions. Now, it appears the designer's turned the spec project into a real, coachbuilding exercise. His company, Vandenbrink Design, announced today five of the GTOs will be built, each one based on the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano. The price for the rebody job will start at a stout 993,000 Euros or $1.4 million, which includes interior specialization by Henk van Lith. Two models are in the offing: a 599 GTO with stock 6.0-liter V12 producing 650 hp, and the 630 GTO, which offers some manner of engine tune by EDO Competition to produce 750 hp. Production will start in 2008, the company says, though there's no confirmation that the first buyer will be descended from one of the guys on the Dutch Masters cigar box. [UPDATE: Now, there's video.] [Vandebrink Design] More »
  • retro

    Ferrari Breadvan

    Oh, you're going to nitpick me about whether or not the 456 Venice is a shooting brake? Well, I call your mouth and re-raise you all in with this: Behold the Breadvan. The car is a direct result of the infamous "Palace Revolt" of 1961 when many of Ferrari's top boffins were sacked and/or quit because of a dust up with Enzo's wife. The big names? Giotto Bizzarrini, our personal lord and savior. Plus his awesome right-hand man, Carlos Chiti. These were the two cats who did the bulk of the work on the 250 GTO. Their plan? Build a better GTO. You can read all about it here, but the car they wound up creating, chassis #2819 , is a vehicle honed from a block of unadulterated awesome. Was it better than the GTO? The Breadvan was 143 lbs. lighter and was leading all the GTOs at Le Mans in 1962 when a mechanical snafu forced it out of the race. Plus, shooting, frigging brake. I think you know our answer. [supercars.net] More »
  • classic ad watch

    You Don't Need To Be Over 30 To Drive the T37!

    We've always liked the Pontiac T-37, the Car Formerly Known As The Tempest. Not as flashy and obvious as its more expensive (and heavier) GTO sibling, the T-37 could be ordered with (or upgraded to) any Pontiac engine in the General's option list. Here we see Pontiac trying to woo the kinda-now-kinda-wow younger crowd into a hardtop T-37, GT-37, or Firebird Esprit for 1971. Four-speeds for all, please!
  • down on the street

    1968 Pontiac GTO

    This is actually the car that inspired the Down on the Street series in the first place; it parks in my neighborhood, and every time I passed it I'd say to myself: "Hey, the Jalopnik readers would probably like this car." Then I realized such cars were all over town. But parking is tough in this downtown 'hood, and it's been hard to catch the Goat when it isn't hemmed in by a couple of parallel-parked Sentras and thus unphotographable. More »
  • sketch artistes

    Design Exhibit Explores Detroit's Glory Days

    If you find yourself in Louisville, Kentucky within drop-in distance from the Visual Art Association's Water Tower building — it's the one that looks like a lighthouse — go there. As the NY Times's car-design beatwalker Phil Patton reports, a current exhibition offers a glimpse inside Detroit's studios during the we-can-do-anything days when the Buick Riviera, Pontiac GTO Judge and Chevy Chevelle were on the drawing board. It's an amazing retrospective, considering most early designs were closely guarded and most destroyed before anyone could stash them away for posterity. Apparently, some designers were better than others at selling their creations to the higher-ups, often by using devices like snow falling on a would-be Cadillac to add context. The guy who drew the Aztec must have studied under one of those guys. [NYT (reg. req.)]
  • choose your eternity

    Project Car Hell: Volare Road Runner or Ventura GTO?

    In a shocking upset, the Short Bus soundly trounced the Pink Pig in yesterday's Choose Your Eternity poll, no doubt because it's equipped with a V8 and a 4-speed. Today we're going to see what happens when we pit a couple of Malaise Era post-musclecars against each other... More »
  • sorry ma, forgot to take out the goat

    The Trashiest A-Body?

    While a number of Los Jalops agree that the GM A-bodies were the best-sorted and best-looking vehicles of the musclecar era, and 1970 is regarded by numerous muscle-heads as the platform's finest year, both in terms of styling — and certainly in terms of power — here's another question. Which example is the trashiest? We realize that most everyone will lean toward the El Camino, but we might actually call out the Monte Carlo as the king trashmobile of the line. Poll after the jump. Arguments in the comments. Ready, steady, go! More »
  • jalopnik fantasy garage

    Ferrari 250 GTO

    "You can't give one without the other." My mother repeated these words every time my father would buy a new bicycle for me but neglect to do the same for my sister. Fair, after all, is fair. I mention this because after researching last week's Fantasy Garage superstar, the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe, not including the 250 GTO would be sacrilege. We can't have one without the other. After all, the reason the Daytona is so breathtakingly fantastic is because it had to compete with this Ferrari. Put another way, without the Ferrari 250 GTO, the Daytona Coupe wouldn't exist. Was Muhammad Ali any less of a fighter because he lost one to Ken Norton? [Ed Note: oops!] Of course not. And there is no doubt that when the 250 GTO debuted in 1962, it was the greatest car in the world. More »
  • while supplies last

    Deal of the Week: 2006 Pontiac GTO

    Despite its elongated jelly bean looks and decade-old Australian underpinnings, the current Pontiac GTO is a fun, rather unsung muscle car. At least it's got both a V8 and rear drive, which is rarer these days than a news cycle without a bleary-eyed Lindsay Lohan mug shot. As the model winds down, however, there are deals aplenty. Right now, Pontiac's offering an incentive of zero percent financing for 72 months on all remaining 2006 Pontiac GTO models. GM Inside News says there are around 1,000 in stock. Have at 'em, but don't get upside down on the loan, and avoid the automatics and their dang ol' gas-guzzler tax. [via GM Inside News]
  • magnum messes up

    GTO vs. GTS

    Thomas Magnum takes on a pair of armed yahoos in a Goat and winds up ending the chase in a most unfortunate manner. Neither the Fezza nor the Poncho are injured, but fans of Mk. 1 Golf/Rabbits may want to avert their eyes.
  • i'm worth a million in prizes

    Will Pontiac Go With the Screaming Chicken or the Goat?

    Will dealerships resemble flaming aviaries or well-gnawed gardens when Pontiac gets its own version of the Zeta-platform coupe? It sounds like the GM division's leaning toward another iteration of the GTO moniker, according to Car and Driver. While the last model, despite its obvious horsepower and handling charms, failed to deliver the magic spark of essential GTO-ness, Pontiac seems to see it as a vehicle that wouldn't simply be a badge-engineered version of the Camaro. As it stands now, GM seems to think there's only room for one Zeta-derived coupe under the Pontiac banner, so if we do get a GTO, don't stick your head under water while waiting for a Firebird. You'll likely end up with prune-head. And you can't make your donuts with prune-head. More »
  • we love capricorns

    Finance It, Clyde! '68 GTO Spot

    If you don't love the '68-72 GM A-Bodies, you not only have a screw loose, you likely have snapped carriage bolts rattling around in your brainpan. Even some sort of future-transplanted Clyde Barrow and his girlie want a crack at the '68 Goat, and they're willing to pay cash. They even leave the salesman with cab fare home! Who said outlaws don't have hearts of gold? Bleat. More »
  • question of the day

    What's Your Favorite Racecar?

    Herr Wert's earlier post about the $9.275 million Ferrari got me thinking about all kinds of stuff. First, of course, is that car worth that much scratch? Sure, it won Le Mans, but what was it running against? A bunch of GTOs and E-Types. Big whoop. And, the only other cars in its class — +3.0-liter Experimental — were two Maserati Tipos and a Ferrari 330LM GTO. And none of them finished the race. So, according to one reporter's opinion, that 330 TRI/LM ain't worth the money. However, there are some Le Mans racing machines that to me, would not only be worth the filthy lucre, but are also my favorite racecars. I am having trouble picking just one, though. More »
  • classic ad watch

    69 In A Wide-Track Pontiac

    What's it gonna be for your breakaway? A Firebird? A Grand Prix? Or even a Geeee Teeeee Ohhhhhhh? With a theme song performed by musicians that rock almost as hard as the Fifth Dimension, the '69 Pontiacs were clearly aimed at those who were, like, hep. And, just so you know, you could get the Grand Prix with a 428 ($105 extra) and a four-speed (another $185). More »
  • jalopnik fantasy garage

    Crowning the King of 1970: Buick GSX vs Chevy Chevelle SS. vs Olds 442 vs Pontiac GTO Judge

    Yes friends, we're here to talk muscle cars. We absolutely need a ride (or two) for the porterhouse steak and french fry set. But as you know, we've got just 50 spots in our +10 Garage of Fantasy, so we need to choose with care. First we have to eliminate some contenders. So let's pick a year. 1970 seems like a nice round number. More than being round though, 1970 was the apex of not only muscle cars themselves, but of the muscle car era. Gas was $0.36 per gallon. 40,000 troops are to be pulled out of Vietnam, and an entire week went by without any dead American soldiers. Men are still golfing on the moon while Gary Gabelich drives the Blue Flame (in a very muscle car-like straight line) to a top speed of 1,014 kph. But life in the US had its downsides, too. The National Guard opened fire at Kent State killing four students. Police opened fire at Jackson State killing two. The Beatles called it quits and Elvis went back on tour. There has to be a single, burly car that encapsulates all that triumph and tumult. More »
  • shanghai auto show

    Stuck in the Middle Way-Oh, Way-Oh: IMSA GTO Audi 90

    In 1969, a man was born. His name was John Reis. At the tail end of the 1980s, he formed a band known as Rocket From the Crypt, which would go on to rock the faces off of the masses until their final show on Halloween of 2005. At the tail end of the 1980s, Audi entered two balls-to-the-wall 90s in IMSA GTO competition. The two prime movers behind the wheels were Hurley Haywood (who'd wrangled Porsche's Moby Dick and lived to tell the tale) and Hans J. Stuck. For longer events, the two were supplemented by Scott Goodyear and rally vet Walter R hrl. Displayed somewhat incongruously at the Shanghai Auto Show, this gonzo Stuck/R hrl 90 played bass licks on our grave and left skidmarks on our soul. The next year, after managing second in the manufacturers' standings in GTO in '89, Audi dumped their racing bux into DTM, handing Stuck a championship in the process. We want a ridiculously turbo'd and flared 90 with one final modification: an integrated iPod with the entire RFTC discography on it and a very light sound system that can be heard over the roar of the five-cylinder mill. If one is willingly inducing deafness, we can think of few finer ways to do it. More »
  • commentary

    The Apocalypse Dudes: An Open Letter to Auto Designers

    Last fall, after the Paris Auto Show, I hopped the Thalys train to Amsterdam. It was my first time on a TGV, and other than the fact that the loos stunk to high heaven and the whiny kid who caused the occupants off the carriage to cheer when he and his idiotic mother exited somewhere around Rotterdam, it was a wonderful travel experience. I grabbed a hotel room and set off in search of my pal Aziz. If in Amsterdam, Los Jalops recommend a visit to his shop, Independent Outlet, as it is simply the business. We spent the evening tooling around town on bicycles, hitting the city's rock 'n' roll bars. And then not an hour or two before the time bell rang, we happened upon a man with salt-and-pepper hair wearing a denim Turbojugend jacket. Aziz said, "Hey! Dave! That's Tony Slug!" Tony had written for Hit List, a punkzine I'd art-directed and written for back around the turn of the century. More importantly, Tony had penned the immortal line, "I'll fuck you in the ass with glazed ham, bitch!" More »
  • news

    Goat Tipping: Group Calls on Pontiac GTO Investigation

    Lutz may be trying to remind us why the GTO failed as a car in terms of sales, but the NHTSA may soon be trying to remind us why it failed in a more serious way. The Center for Auto Safety called on the NHTSA to investigate the Holden Monaro-based GTO due to 65 complaints involving tire wear caused by the cars struts scraping against rubber. At issue is the width of the tires in America. According to the CAS, the strut was redesigned in 2006 so this applies to 2004 and 2005 models. More »
  • retro: racing

    IMSA Merkurs! Yes!

    Back when Ford was preparing to launch Merkur, they decided it might raise a bit of brand awareness to campaign the XR4Ti in IMSA's GTU class. With a slight dip in displacement over the car's Pinto-based 2.3 mill, the cars, prepared and campaigned by Kent Racing. A bit later, FoMoCo shifted the XR4Ti's mission to Trans-Am and over-two-litre IMSA competition, with the Merks running under Roush's aegis. Peter Cipolla, a man from the Show-Me State we can throw our weight behind, has rescued a couple of these mighty orphan warriors from bygone days, and for that, we owe him a package of schnitzel and an ice-cold MGD. More »
  • news

    What Happened With the GTO? Lutz Speaks

    I'm at least one Jalop who thought the late-model GTO (at least the 400-hp model) was a fine and underrated car. Sure it looked like a stretched jellybean, but its handling was precise and its acceleration nicely punchy, in a way few domestics can muster these days. So what went wrong? Well, according to GM's chairman of viceness, Bob Lutz, there was a litany of mistakes. First, it was introduced at the end of a design cycle, making it seem dated despite never having been seen on these shores. It was also overpriced and poorly distributed (too many in the midwest, too few in SoCal, where the drift kids are). We're right on board with the Lutz frankness, noted during a video by Automotive News. Maybe a little honest self-examination is all GM needs to get the G8 right. More »
  • retro

    Question of the Day: What's Today's Too-Good-to-Be-True $113 GTO?

    When I was 17, one of my mom's coworkers flipped out over "that damn junk heap" that her husband had kept rusting in the driveway for years. "Hey, doesn't your kid like cars?" she asked my mom. "If he takes it today he can have it for $113!" (Bad Husband had paid $112 for it). Next thing I know, I'm handing over the cash for what I'm told is "some kind of ugly Pontiac that gets terrible mileage." More »
  • retro

    Beat on the Goat: Ad for the 1968 GTO

    Some call the late-1960s the glory days of TV advertising. Back then, they say you could almost hear the crackling of brain electricity on Mad. Ave. as Burnett tried its damndest to bitchslap the Ogilvy hotshots into submission, as Doyle Dane Bernbach wielded his fountain pen like a scythe against old-world ad constructs. We mention this on the occasion of finding an ad for the 1968 Pontiac GTO that should be in the Smithsonian. Yes, kids. Cars were once pop culture. More »