There’s a Lot to Love About a Pro-Touring Pontiac GTO

There’s a Lot to Love About a Pro-Touring Pontiac GTO

 

Copyright © 2015 Bold Ride LLC.

 

Posted by Zach Doell 

 

                               

                                   

What can be said that hasn’t already been uttered about the legendary Pontiac GTO. “The goat” effectively carved out the muscle car genre in 1964, it gave then-youngsters affordable performance of epic proportions, and it remains a shining example of riding youth marketing all the way to the bank (Pontiac sold 32,450 GTOs in its first year). 

 

If Pontiac were still around, the GTO would have undoubtedly become a big player in post-bailout GM. Sadly, it isn’t, but that hasn’t stopped enthusiasts from giving their pedigreed muscle cars some modern day tech.

This ’69 Pontiac GTO, hailing from Texas, is one such beast—a pro-touring car with muscle to boot and handling to spare. It made a splash on the pages of Popular Hot Rodding in 2014, and now it’s heating things up on eBay.

The inspiration for a pro-touring Pontiac GTO? Oddly enough, a late-model Infiniti G35. Owner Russell Wells told the magazine that he picked up a G35 as a daily driver while he pondered the restoration of his GTO. As the pro-touring theme goes, what resulted was a Pontiac with handling qualities never attainable with stock suspension.

Out went the old and in came adjustable shocks at all four corners, lowered springs, new upper and lower control arms in the front, and a nimble g-link coilover setup for the 10-bolt posi-traction rear axle. The standard steering rack was also tossed for a quick-ratio box, massive Kore3 brakes were swapped for the stock chompers, and “the goat” now rides on 18-inch Bonspeed GTB wheels. Corners are to be tamed, not feared.

There’s substantial work under the hood as well. The original engine was ailing so a 1970 400ci block was used for the build, now bored and stroked out to 461ci (7.5-liters). It features high-flow aluminum heads and exhaust, and backs up to a 200-4R four-speed automatic.

The end result is a GTO that goes, turns, and stops better than a G35, and as many muscle car fans will likely point out—looks better than the now-departed G35s.

 It is however a bit more expensive than the Infiniti coupes and sedans. The car currently resides on eBay with bidding not far off its $58,000 “Buy It Now” price.