1967 Pontiac GTO

Gotta love Seattle, where seeing the greatest cars of all time on the street is an every day occurrence. In 1967, this car got its first 3-speed automatic transmission. This GTO also has the optional Hurst Dual-Gate shifter. Gotta love 60s car culture, when GM could say, "Look we know you're going to street race, so we'll help you out." The left side of the shifter has a normal shift pattern. For drag racing, you can bring the car to a stop, then move the shifter to the bottom of the right side. What happens next? From drivemag.com: "Placing the lever at the very back at 1 for first gear, you accelerated peal to the metal. The trick was for the driver to keep its cool up until the red line. With tires screeching, this was the moment to punch it into second gear. Usually, this meant the car tried to spin out of control and kill you. If you survived, you got to repeat the performance for third and final gear. After this, it was smooth sailing until the police caught up with you."

 

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1966 Pontiac GTO

From outwards appearances, the '66 and '67 GTO were the same. But beneath the skin, in '67:
* The old 389 c.i. V-8 was replaced with a new 400.
* A new 3-speed automatic replaced the old 2-speed.
* A new 4-barrel carb meant the end of the "tripower" intake of 3-linked 2-barrels. This car has the tripower setup. Harder to tune but more fun.
* I can see that the owner of this car has upgraded the master cylinder. In '66 master cylinders (for brake fluid) were still single-chamber but all cars went to 2-chamber in '67.
* Other interesting options on the greatest muscle car:
** You could order a GTO as either a hardtop like this one, or as a fixed-pillar coupe with full door and window frames. The coupe was less popular, but the stronger body made it a better car.
** If ordered automatic transmission, and you didn't order the optional center console between the front seats, you got a shifter on the steering column. With the console, the shifter was on the floor.

 

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