Ferrari GTO? Pontiac copied? Damn right they did!

And when Pontiac copied it there was a great furor sent up by the sports car set as if the name was sancrosanct or something. A few years later the only GTO that the average guy knew was from Pontiac. In the great unwashed United States, we didn't care what it meant, where it came from, or any printer's error. Matter of fact, we didn't even use GTO.....it became the "Goat."

"Geeziz man, did you see Zudo's Goat? He put in a new Crane roller.....Wait'll ya' hear that fucker!"

And the Goat became the force that led to the real muscle car era that filled our lives and roads with ground pounding, roaring, unrefined, Detroit Iron..........Big Rats, Hemis, Bosses, 440 6-packs, 455-SHO's, the 396 thrashing machine..........Engines that created huge amounts of power and drank gas in monstrrous gulps. They passed everything else on the road but gas stations.   They were found coupled to solid transmissions that coped with the power and transferred it thru Posi and Detroit Locker rear ends. Much of the factory equipment was better than aftermarket and often even more bulletproof.

For a car guy, it was a high point of the creation and never matched before or since. Most certainly the cars today are more refined, handle better, are far more fuel efficient, and extremely reliable but not a one, not even the most powerful, will give you the same thrill and heart pounding pleasure that the Muscle Cars did.

Ferrari GTO? We didn't care. We had the Goat and it was America......not just American made. It was America......and we loved it.


Spaw