The year was 1964 and Pontiac was hot on promoting it’s new GTO. The car now credited with officially ushering in the muscle car era was flying off of dealer lots and into the hands of hot rodders and horsepower obsessed young men across America. The hype machine would find a new gear when an issue of Car and Driver came out, pitting the Pontiac GTO against the Ferrari GTO from which it got its name. The Pontiac won.
It launched the career of a young magazine editor by the name of David E. Davis and gave the big Poncho lots of cache with people who not only wanted to drag race but also wanted to hit the road course.
As it turned out, the car involved in the test, supplied by Pontiac publicity maven Jim Wangers, was a total ringer. It was equipped with a very strong 421 that allowed it to run from 0-100 in 11 seconds and trip the clocks at the drag strip in a tick over 13 seconds. At the time, the only guys who knew that were Wangers and the guy’s who gave it the Royal Bobcat treatment.
In the early 1980’s the magazine re-ran the test using a GTO from a collector and a pristine Ferrari. This time the Ferrari won. Pontiac fans cried foul because the car used in the test was a not-so-fresh 80,000 mile original. Dan Gurney drove both cars, which is pretty cool in itself.
The battle rages on and round three will take place during the weekend of May 1, 2010 in Williamsburg, VA. The actual Pontiac used in the first magazine test will be on hand to duke it out with a Ferrari GTO to answer the question once and for all.
This has the potential to be very cool!
