DansYellow66

This is a weird one I pulled off of another forum. Obviously a Chevrolet produced video but not a regular commercial spot. Curious if anyone knows anything about it and what type of advertising Chevrolet may have targeted this to. A real oddity - but some good drag racing in it. The GTO is strong out of the hole but the 396/360 Chevelle comes on strong on in the mid-range. And the Fairlane GT - well it doesn't come on so strong.

MikeM

I posted that video the other day on another forum.

My comment there was I've never seen a GTO with OEM tires beat any car off the line.

How'd you like the plug for Mopars in the first 25 seconds or so?

68hemi

It is obviously too long for a commercial. My guy would be it was a dealer new car introduction or sales training film.

karkrafter

I've owned [and still do] all kinds of GTO's and all kinds of Chevelles.

EVERY Chevelle was faster, by a lot. And EVERY GTO was a superior driving smoother, quieter,'better' car.

rayvaflav

Whoa ! A 1957 Desoto Convertible !

Kerrmudgeon

That was hilarious, thanks for posting it. Love the dancer!

And most of my favourite mid sixties cars. GTO, 442 (F85), Chevelle, and Skylark.

MikeM

True fact it is.

DansYellow66

I liked very much both the 66 Pontiac GTO and the 66 Chevelle SS - but as a 15 year old student driver in 1966 what I really lusted after the most was the 66 GTO tri-power 4 speed.

hope2

GTO tri power had vacuum linkage. 442 tri power had mechanical. No contest.

biggd

That Go Go girl was a full figured women just like the cars in those days, LOL!

colo63sw

That was entertaining and funny. It was the ‘real thing’ before the ‘real thing’ came along.

Thanks for posting!

GTOguy

Funny... I never, ever, lost to a Chevelle with my GTO's. Not once. Had real fun waxing a '70 LS6 with my old '66 GTO with a junkyard 400 and tripower. That was hilarious. Raced a BUNCH of garden-variety '66-'72 SS's, and always came out the winner. The closest race I got into was a guy with a '69 Z-28 with a little 302 and a cross-ram. I beat him by about a car length. That car flat ran. The Fords were always 1. Well built, and 2. Slower than anything else on the road. I guessed I got really lucky, ran into bad drivers, or raced only the lemons. I had a schoolmate who swapped a 396 into his Firebird. I raced him with my '67 GTO when it had a burnt exhaust valve and 170,000 miles on it. The GTO won by 20-30 car lengths in a one mile run. In the video, you can see the '66 GTO has the lead out of the hole easily, and then lets off a bit. I'll bet if it were real, the '66 GTO would be the winner here.

GTOguy

Not true. The GTO only had vacuum linkage on its stick cars in 1964. After 1965, stick cars all had mechanical linkage. I own one. A '66 442 with tripower is a formidable machine, in any case!

cv67

the ponitacs made decent low end torque and ran pretty good with a tall gear
had a friend with an old tempest (which were heavy could have been a catalina?), 326 2bbl tuned it very very well;Bone stock down to the air cleaner and muffler!

Ran my 67 rs 4 spd against him many times it was always a dead heat once in awhile he would edge me out...i had 11:1 Trws 462s a 280 cam torker + holley 600 it was embarrasing on my end. car was fun but a pig

The 396 were pretty lame until you got to the higher hp versions

DansYellow66

I owned a GTO and a Trans Am Firebird in college and shortly after but I don't ever remember mixing it up with another GTO on the street. I did like the 400/350 motor in my GTO as it ran out well and was smooth doing it. For some reason, I used to run into 396 Chevelles a lot in KC and my old 383 Plymouth (prior to GTO) seemed to handle nearly all of them pretty well - but I'm sure they were mostly or all stock 325 horse, loaded cars except for my friends 66 396/360. His 4.10 gears helped him put the hurt on me with that one. Also there was the built & geared 327 65 Malibu SS that nearly sucked my doors off one afternoon.

Frankie the Fink

Nice that at least somebody is honest about their losses.

I'd get some loaner off Dad's used car lot for the weekend. And maybe I had tweaked it the prior week but most often not. I raced a lot, lost a bunch and spent a lot of Monday's fixing the aftermath.

One Sat night I launched fast enough in a traded in 65 GTO tri-power. convertible 4 speed against a Nova SS that I left the magnetically attached dealer's tag in the street. Won the race but the cops brought the tag to Dad Monday morning with the whole story from witnesses.

I got to drive a lot of Corvairs and Renaults after that.

RJ1

GTO only has vacuum linkage in 64. Was mechanical in 65 and 66!

GTOguy

The thing that Pontiac Stato-Streak engines had going for them (and still have) is unreal torque all through the power band. This allowed many garden-variety Pontiacs to do well on the street, even when being driven by novices, where torque usually wins the race. My closest race was against a high winding short geared small block, driven by an experienced driver who knew how to keep it in the power band and how to shift a 4 speed. As for the '68 Camaro I saw one night that pulled a wheelie and then wanted to race me, I didn't dare go up against him. One way of winning races is to be selective and not race against cars you know will clean your clock!! My buddy had a nice '67 GTO with a 2.93 gear that was the highway star in our area, but we lost twice: once to a Shelby GT500KR and again to a Plymouth Superbird with a 440 six pac, both on the highway. We were spanked handily in both cases.

BADBIRDCAGE

In 1966 Car and Driver did a muscle car comparison. Dodge and Plymouth refused to participate as they said it would be a cheaters competition.

It featured a GTO, 442, 396 Chevelle, Buick Gran Sport, Ford Fairlane GT and Mercury Cyclone GT.

The Buick had the best brakes.

The Ford arrived on a Holman-Moody transport and was the fastest car in the standing 1/4 mile. It set an unofficial NHRA pure stock drag record.

The Mercury arrived on a Woods Brothers transport and out handled all the other vehicles on a road course.

The Chrysler boys were correct.

MikeM

When I met my wife, she had just finished dusting off a 442 Olds with her '65 GTO. I pushed through the crowd at the drive in and told her I was going to marry her. I eventually did a year later.

I never rode her in my "New" car. '65 Nova SS. Just rode her around in my '57 6 cyl. Chevy 150 but I always told her (and laughed about it) you don't want to race me as I'll half track you and yer Goat.

The night before the wedding we were on our way to pick up her stuff from her parents house. Her in her car and me in my Nova. We stopped on the I-64 bridge across the Ohio River and cut them loose. The river is about a half mile wide there. I was going off the other end and she was halfway across.

When we got to her parents house she got out and I laughed at her. She got mad and called the wedding off!

Took a little talking but we got married the next day. 50 Years ago next month.