The greatest 2 page spread in automotive history was for the 1970 GTO Judge. It was a picture of a white Judge also driving down Woodward Ave. The only sales pitch text in the ad stated "After a few moments of respectful silence, you may turn the page". This text appeared above and to the left of the Judge. Above the Judge on the right side was the specs of the available engines. I have that ad framed prominately in my home office. Best ad ever. On a side note, I believe this ad was penned by David E Davis, who was to become the editor of Car & Driver and later Autombile magazine.
From 57 for several years they built 500 "C A R S" so they could say they were "stock". We got 3 of em by accident - from Grady in Newark Oh. '58, '62 and '65. Wasnt til a wedding in `91 that I learned from a Pontiac Rep. why they were so hot.
I grew up in Birmingham, MI--born in '57. I lived on Woodward and we raced and cruised all year long. Woodward (1967----75) was a race car show every Saturday night. Tom H.
Me too. I grew up near 13 and Woodward. I spent a lot of time on Woodward between the Totem Pole and Ted's. Later, I was a cop in Pontiac Michigan. We drove a number of Pontiac Motors experimental vehicles in addition to our regular Pontiacs. For a car guy I had a great life.
I waa born and raised in Detroit, 1960. In 1978 my friends and I would cruise the Woodward strip looking for Candy. Once we went to a restaurant called The Egg and I on lower Woodward where the Candy hung out. They would give us a feel job under the tables to entice us and we said we had to go out to the car to get some money and we would take off😅😅😅
I was told when I was working on a GM execs home in Birmingham that Woodward through Birmingham was where some of the scenes from the movie “American Graffiti” were filmed. That has stuck with me since I was told that. I was born on the sleepy side of the state in the same year. We did our best to wake it up though 😅
Sold Pontiacs for almost 25yrs then picked up the Buick franchise when we lost PMD in the dark days of BK. We all went into shock when we lost most of our client base. The saying "you can sell an old man a young mans car but you can't sell an young man an old mans car" is ever so true. Own a '68 GTO now, see you at Woodward this summer.
Maybe it just hit me at the wrong age in life, but I'll never forgive GM for axing the Oldsmobile and Pontiac lines. Between my cousin's '76 Cutlass and my grandparent's '77 Grand Prix SJ, i loved everything they put out. Great feature...i love the inside baseball from you!
GM could have kept both the Pontiac and Oldsmobile names, in my opinion. They just needed to have a base car with trimmed out as an option, with minor fender front ends, hood and taillights. Being all the engines are corporate. There really isn't much difference between the remaining divisions. I guarantee a Trans Am trim option would have outsold a Camaro trim option. Nothing wrong with this ad, by calling it controversial, the ad worked. People talked about it and that was the whole point, advertisers are pretty intelligent people.
Have owned 58 cars in my lifetime. THE most favorite was my 68 GTO, 4 speed , 4:33 gears, tinted glass, vinyl top, AM radio with factory 8 track, full gauges, buckets and console. Nothing else but a joy to open up that Quadrajet and be pushed back in the seat as I went through the gears.
RA/II was a rare option that year,and they were very aggressively cammed.These engines produced great power to 6500rpm.The RA/IV,the following year,utilized 1.65 rocker ratio and more aggressive valve train components to go with that extra valve lift.My RA/IV would pull its guts out all the way to 7000rpm with no sign of valve control problems.Ran a 12bolt Chevelle R/E with 4.88’s.
_Totally with you Michael, and my former 1968 Goat. (I'm probably in the same number of cars owned in my lifetime as well). My '68 GTO convertible in the Pontiac 400 (with the 6.5 Litre side badging), had all the options except hood tach. (They included power steering, power brakes, power windows, power driver seat, and Hurst dual gate shifter with console). The car was painted in the 1970 Pontiac color, orbit orange(which looked great with the hideaway headlights, and black convertible top). I bought the car from a guy in Petaluma California for $3500 (it was 1983). Today this gem would be worth at least 50 or 60 large if brought back to the original color Solar red. (I often wonder where my former baby is, as my Dad sold the car during my Naval career)._
Thanks for sharing memories of your 68. Orbit Orange was a wild 70 GTO color and I am sure it looked good on your convertible. Mine had the hideaways too and they always worked perfectly. Verdoro green, black vinyl top and interior. I was the second owner and it had 56,000 miles on it when I bought it for $1200 in spring of 1974 from the local Chevrolet dealer. Still had the factory black wheels and dog dish caps plus Protect-O- Plate and window sticker in glove box. Drove it on my honeymoon November 1974 when the national speed limit was 55mph because of the 1973 oil embargo, so it was ok with the 4:33 gears on the highway. Sold it with 66,000 miles for $1300 in late 1975 as needed down payment payment for a house. Muscle cars had faded away some by then, and it was just a 7year old Pontiac to most people even though it still still had zero rust and looked very good.
Couple friends and I used to cruise down to Woodward from Saginaw in my ‘64 GTO in 1965.It was a crazy place on weekends.A lot of heavy hitting special performance Detroit muscle on the scene.Those were great,exciting times.
I heard Arnie the Farmer Beswick tell the story that Pontiacs success in Racing put GM's overall car sales up too high and the GOV. went to GM and said they were starting to have a monopoly and were worried that Ford and Chrysler wouldn't be able to survive. Racing had a big impact on sales So Gm banned all racing after 63. Jim Wangers said that Pontiac was threatened in 1957 by GM execs with being cancelled because of poor car sales and given 5 yrs to turn the Div. around. Pontiac went and hired Bunky Knudsen to run the Div. and he used the saying, "Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday" to generate sales. He hired a bunch of young car guys and engineers who were into performance and racing and started the Super Duty program. In a few yrs Pontiac was dominating in stock car and Super Stock drag racing.
I've read a few accounts of Pontiac and Chrysler engineers cruising Woodward in the 60s in thier skunkworks performance cars with manufacturers plates after work hours looking for a little stoplight action.
Would have been a great time 😁 I'm jealous of that era. I had a boss that had a Pontiac with pretty high compression, he would occasionally buy several 5 gal cans of higher octane aviation fuel, I don't know if he was advancing the timing (to the reasonable limit) , and going drag racing, but he had his reasons
In the fall of 1968, at a Shell gas station on Woodward late one night, a Camaro ZL-1 with manufacturer's plates was filling up on premium. This was months before they went on sale. This was the proving ground for muscle car development.
There was a midnight blue ‘64 GTO around called The Shepherd cruising around there in the summer of ‘65.Rumored to be one of those 421SD factory transplants,it ran 12.20’s and I saw it beat up on the rare Chevy and Mopar racers at that time.
Lol!!! You don't really think that ever stopped, do you??? We've had some premium fun on Woodward in some vehicles with srt badges!!!🙄🙄🙄 Good times!!!😂😂😂
I spent a lot of time cruising Woodward back in the 60’s. We did a little racing but we were mainly cruising the Drive Ins looking for girls to meet. We’d start at about 10 mile rd and cruise out to 16 mile rd make a Michigan left and cruise back to 10 mile. This loop went on every Friday and Saturday night. We had no idea that Woodward would become so famous.
I was fortunate enough to be in NYC in the fall of 99 and there was an outdoor car display at Rockefeller center. Among classics like a GT40 there sat the original Silver Bullet Plymouth that the Chrysler engineers raced on Woodward in the late 60s and smoked everything. What a piece of history.
New Jersey is also replete with "jug handle" left turns. The problem is, since not every left is constructed like this, you're often not sure if you should be in the right or left lane when your left turn is approaching.
@@RareClassicCars Florida has both the "Michigan Left" and "Jersey Jughandles" in two different spots. On Florida State Road 50 between Spring Hill and Brooksville, you have a "Michigan Left" at Hernando CR 484 (West Fort Dade Road), with the addition of channelized left-turns where CR 484 used to go straight through. On Florida State Road 559 between Polk City and Auburndale, you had a "Jersey Jughandle" south of Florida Truck Route 559, but it's only a U-Turn for trucks.
I remember the Pontiac commercial introducing the Endura bumper, where the guy stands there with a crowbar, and repeatedly slams it into the front end, resulting in no damage. At the conclusion, he allows the crowbar to clatter to the floor, demonstrating it was real solid iron.
@@DocDoccus It was real, that was Chief Engineer John Delorean who did the bumper whacking. I can attest to this being authentic. The endura rubber was a very thick Urethane coating, and was super energy absorbant. I was invited to try a few swings on a buddy's "beater" Gto - way back in the 80s.
Thank you Adam. I recall this ad. I recall hearing about this and GM did not want racing mentioned or featured. It is great to hear the story and what really took place.
Fact: The '68 Pontiac GTO was designed by Tony Lapine, who later went to Porsche where he headed the design team that designed the 944 and 928. If you look at the 928 carefully, you can see some similar shapes, especially at the rear. Great video!
It’s only controversial to Prius-driving Karens and EV-pushing college professors. For guys who really like cars this ad kicks ass. John DeLorean is one of the coolest mo-fos to ever design a car. In a perfect world someone like him instead of Queen Mary would be the CEO of GM today.
It shouldn't be either I can't think of any electric or some hybrids even that does not try to push how fast they are. Not just the supers port or race models either and these not only accelerate at supercar speeds they also have extremely high top speeds. A gto wasn't going to come out of the showroom doing 200 mph but a tesla is yet no problem there. If DeLorean got as many gimme's as electrics they'd have ironed things out and we'd be driving them today.
@@cardinaloflannagancr8929 Electric appliances have no soul. They’re for tree hugging libs. I don’t care how fast they are because all electric motors have instant torque. That’s not the point. A car should make good engines sounds and smell like gas and oil. And have a manual transmission.
@@cardinaloflannagancr8929Not sure I follow. Electrics are for tree huggin libs. They’re the first giant step towards eliminating driving from humanity. They’ve got to be stopped. Forget hair style, skin tone, frivolous lawsuits and politically driven charges and vote on policy in November. If you want to keep any chance of the freedom of the American car in the future, MAGA.
@@cardinaloflannagancr8929 Yesterday, A couple of cars raced past me on Interstate 84 in CT, dueling it out. One as a new Corvette. The other was a Tesla Model 3.
They tried. The Pontiac Polaris was to be Pontiac's entry into the compact field, but the Tempest, along with the Buick Special, and Olds F-85 went to market instead.
@@61rampy65 John Delorean killed the idea. He had hired an engineer from Mercedes, which had killed a similar project due to the unstable handling of the car. Maybe if the '60 Corvair had been designed with a suspension like that of the '65 (or at least sold with standard equipment of the '64), Delorean would have been more willing to accept it.
The GM executives staked out their respective turfs and there could have been space for the Corvair concept. Easier to do Big Block horsepower, conventional powertrains and bigger profit margins. Prototypes of fuel-injected 300 hp air-cooled Corvair engines were developed and dismissed. Porsche has done reasonably well over the years, but GM would not have been satisfied with such low sales figures.
I know this is a GM video and Pontiac specifically, but I can’t help noticing the tail of that gorgeous Monteverdi HighSpeed over your shoulder! Nice video Adam and I always love the Mr. Lutz interviews. What a luminary, he is the ultimate MotorHead.
Woodward is old school hot rod heaven. The rolling car show there in August every year is the most amazing city wide epic car show you will ever see. One has to experience it to know. Living just across the river in Windsor Ontario, I've spent many a night looping up and down Woodward between 8 and 13 mile using the iconic turn around loops in my hot rods. The dream cruise used to be a yearly event for me and my dad and I'd highly recommend it to anyone who loves cars. That ad is perfect. Those executives whining about it proves the higher up in company you go, the stupider they get. cheers.
I had a '68 Vedoro Green H.O., with black vinyl top, just like the one in the original photo. It was an awesome ride. Jim Wangers was a marketing genius, no doubt.
I lived off of 9 mile... Jim Wangers had a Hot Rod Black '68 Firebird nicknamed Black Bird that was known to be a Winner on Woodward... I had a white '77 Grand Prix and a Black on Black 78 W72 T/A. Rest in peace Jim Wangers.
This is the time I became a Pontiac fan. My aunt got a new COTY in Verdoro (tan vinyl) and my mom's got LeMans in Nightshade (black vinyl) greens. Verdoro was developed when Deloren's wife saw a green ashtray, and suggested to John that it be on the GTO. Every year I plan to make the Woodward Dream Cruise. Its a new year. Interesting Woodward/GTO backstory.🏁🇺🇸👍🏾
I loved when he used to get on TV shows in the late 90s early 2000s. His toupee was something else. I tease, but he did a lot of good at Pontiac from my reading.
Great history lesson and love the channel. come check out the Woodward Dream Cruise. Bloomfield Hills , Birmingham area in MI. Always 3rd weekend in August. 1.5 million people visit over the 3 days and you will see thousands of cars driving up and down Woodward for miles. Including my families ' '54 Chevy resto, '58 Olds Super 88 convertable, '68 Bonnie convertable and ' 66 Vette convertable. You name it...its there and It's a really fun time.
I don’t believe Mr Lutz misremembered the ad copy. I think he’s talking about something different. There were billboards that apparently had the quote “To Woodward Avenue, with love”. Same ad campaign, different medium.
My first car, bought in 1984 with money I earned as a dishwasher was a 1968 Flambeau Burgundy GTO with Parchment interior! 400, 4 speed, no power steering. I paid $550 for it, I taught myself how to drive in it, and it looked exactly like the one you show in this video. I also had a 1968 muscle car magazine that had this exact ad in it that my friend gave me, with the complete article about the 68 GTO. I also had a GTO Recognition guide that was published in the 80's as well. Unfortunately, I sold the car in 1990 for $2000, I lost the magazine and the guide. But did manage to find a replacement GTO Recognition guide on ebay that I still have. I sure miss my first car! Pontiac for life! It is still my favorite car ever, I think it is a better looking car than the 69, especially from the rear view. People fight with me over this though. Great video!❤
I loved the Woodward story! I knew exactly where that photo was taken, lol... The plate on my car says Wodward . And of course it's on my Chevy Cruze, which makes it the___Woodward Cruze! 😂
When I was a tyke riding a tricylce in the late 50s an older couple up the street had a stodgy 55' Pontiac. I thought the styling fit them well being old. Our family car was a 55' Olds Rocket 88 2dr h/t. I thought our car was so much cooler looking.
Buy the economy version with the economy engine. Get economy car insurance. Then modify your economy engine to get the performance you want without the high insurance rates. I wonder how often this was done and if it worked
It worked for me with a 289 Mustang sleeper that always whipped up on GTOs. 396 Chevelles were a dime a dozen and all were faster than GTOs. Cobra Jet Mustangs and L78 Chevelles ruled the streets in my town.
In southern New Jersey the turnaround here is called a jug handle the signs say all turns from right lane Hard to imagine that all that name recognition at Pontiac was all thrown out in favor of old man car Buick
Thank you for all your great research work in all these classic car reviews you do. I LOVE Pontiacs. I have a '67 Firebird convertible I've had since 1971 when my late Dad purchased it from the local Ford dealership. Pontiac has a very rich history in building great looking cars that performed really well. GM really screwed up killing Pontiac. Should have allowed Buick to go to pasture! I sold Pontiacs at the local dealership in town from 1985 to 2003...had lots of fun selling them. Keep up your great work!!!
I loved the ad. The subtle communication among hotrodders and racers. Let me believe GM management's policy was solely based on advice from their legal department, and not on personal bias. Thank you for the work you're putting into your channel content and variety. I love the cars from the early 1960's through most of the 1970's!
My uncle drove up in his new ‘68 GOAT, having previously owned a ‘64 Goat convertible and a bright red ‘65. He hopped out of the car with a hammer in his hand and summoned me over. He then whacked car’s nose with the hammer, proudly displaying the Endura bumper’s ability to bounce the hammer. I was 10 and in awe.
Love your content Adam! What Bob was referring to was a billboard ad on Woodward at the time, not the print ad you show in the video. Probably the billboard was part of a bigger campaign around the Judge in its inaugural year in 1969. Peter DeLorenzo is an old time Advertising creative who would know.
At my Highschool in Grand Rapids MN we had a student who had a brand new Maroon 1966 GTO with wide tires on the rear and twice, he twisted the drive shaft into a spiral from dragging. The local GM dealer - Danielson's replaced the drive shaft twice on warranty and then refused to replace it after that. Fun times!
I used to be an expediter for Panther II (remember them?).. so I am very familiar with these ridiculous left turns, on 8 mile, Gratiot, Woodward, etc...
In the sixties my cousin would buy a new GTO every other year. I was jealous. When I turned sixteen my father wanted to buy one for me until he found out what the insurance rates would be.
I bought a 68 Firebird 400 in 1971 when I was a JR in high school.....my Dad told me later on that it took 3 weeks after I bought it before he found someone to insure it.
He could have snuck a Le Mans with a few extra parts or a GT-37 with the 400. It wouldn't have been "hot" but it would have been fun and not a risk for the companies like a GTO
Ah! The good ol' "Michigan "U - ie"! I can't understand how this ad could have been that controversial - Many people in high powered cars from GM, Ford, MOPAR and other manufacturers make the same left hand turns on Woodward Ave. at sane, safe speeds and people live the tale! The controversy is all in your mind and because some people decide to drive like idiots!
Way back in 1970-71 I drove a friend's '69 GTO and got to look it over real good. It was a true GTO nicely optioned but with a 2 barrel carb. I thought it was a fluke but he was told that car belonged to a district manager for Pontiac spec'd out that way. It had all the looks but a little bit of economy too.
FYI: 1) The hidden headlights were an ubiquitous option. Very rare to see a GTO without it. 2) Many of the factory engineers would try out experiments on Woodward Avenue. 3) Not really connected to the racing ban, but GM was afraid of being too successful. They had a very large share of the auto market and were worried about being split up by the government.
Great ad. Fertile historical ground here for more knowledge and discussion of over one hundred years of automobile advertising in various mediums. Great content.
Adam that black GTO with red interior, red stripe and raised white letter tires has got to be the best looking machine ever built. It makes an old guy drool! GOAT for sure!
Think '68 might be my favorite to look at. '66-'69 are my favorite years followed by '70-'74 and '64-'65. When I was a kid, my neighbor had a dark green '68 Lemans with a black vinyl top and black buckets/console interior, with a 350 and dual exhaust. I really liked that car!
Any car person out there who has never made it to the "Woodward Dream Cruise" is missing out and really should try to make it once in their life. It's all day, and most of the night of crazy and rare cars, buggies, trucks, vans, vintage fire trucks, ambulances, military vehicles, semis, and just about everything else with wheels and a motor. Cops shut areas down for cars to do burnouts, vendors selling all types of merch, the Henry Ford Museum, etc... It's an event that should be on every car guy and car girls bucket list!
The malaise era destroyed Pontiac because it was a performance oriented brand. It was like gelding a stud. Other brands were affected too but they were kept in business by their trucks and their more mundane family cars.
Right-handed left turns are the safest and reduces a massive number of wrecks. Arizona was the first State I learned of them, and fell in love with them, they save soooo much time. Anyhow, North Carolina is putting/replacing more and more lefts with the right-handed left exchanges. Just fyi.
In Melbourne Australia, where I live, we have an infamous turning style, which frequently throws visitors for a real loop. It means that in the city (downtown) signs will indicate a so called 'hook turn' which is a right turn from the left lane only. The idea is that it in general keedps the right hand lane flowing. The procedure is to keep left, and under the green light, you proceed. The traffic in the straight ahead position of the road, must wait till all hook turn vehicles have completed their turn, then they are free to move forward. The reason for this is, that although our boulavards are very wide, 2 central lanes are putatively for trams, thus limiting the lanes to two only at intersections; at which tram safety zones exist for waiting tram passengers. It actually works and typically several vehicles can perform this turn without holding up the right lane.
Yes, I like the the subtlty of the ad, it's like a double entendre. When Mr. Roche, was asking his crew about the ad, his intent was to convey sarcasm and he was expecting to be leveled with rather than given a response intended for a preschooler. Given the outcome, I understand Mr. Roache's intent was to spare Pontiac the grief of exposure to lawsuits, but puling the ad was too stringent. A potential compromise was to add a disclaimer in fine print repudiating racing at the ad's boarder.
Imagine if John DeLorean had the support of GM for racing back in the 1960s and 1970s - he would have generated so much more excitement and money in GM's coffers like Ford did with Shelby and LeMans in the 1960s.
Woodward Avenue is STILL the location for the Woodward Dream Cruise over a couple of days every August. One of the biggest in the country. Still a huge Pontiac fan!
I’m also seeing a kind of inside joke, given the location under the “North Bound” sign. If you’ve ever driven Woodward Avenue you know that Pontiac, Mich., lies at the north end of it.
I had a 68 GTO just like that one. Verdodo Grn, Hidden headlights, 400 ram air. Black int with Ivory seats. His and hers auto. Bought it in 76. A girl in ATL had bought it new, it only had 48k on it but had jumped time.(stupid nylon gears) Bought it for 450 bucks and put 100 in it replacing the timing chain and gear. I got in so much trouble in that car. :)
Regarding I-75 Sign in AD. There was a group of folks who hung out on Woodward Ave known as the "Century Club". They were a self invited group who would arrange a race and get on I-75 (early on some were on it before the highway was completed and fully open!) The "Century Club" meant these guys would pair up and ran up to from 100 mph fender to fender, then accelerate at a given point and went on to see who had the highest top end! In other words, they would pair up and stay even to reach 100 mph and then took off to see so who had the most top end! Early on there was mention of tricks like under hood superchargers, 2.56 rear gears run, etc. (in the early days before Nitrous). Not many hoods were opened for prying eyes to look! Some would follow behind and pass on the berm of the road, right or left, if they were faster than two paired up! Wangers lived for all the racing stuff out there and made some of the people at Royal Pontiac very angry because they had wives, families and other obligations evenings and weekend. Wangers never married, so he could be out there anytime he wanted. In some cases there were hired drivers to do the driving duty. All makes/brands/ manufacturers were represented on Woodward Ave. Some will admit it and and some do not. On the West side of town, Telegraph RD. and I- 696 saw similar action. Gathering spot on was The Clock Restaurant at 12 mile and Orchard Lake road ,gave quick easy access to I-696.! My name is Greg, I do Pontiacs all day, every day.
It would have been EASIER to just park a slicktop GTO at that intersection with 2 passengers in it, than to go through the trouble of airbrushing out the vinyl roof and inserting the passengers!!
I liked this video. Clever idea. I recall a pretty successful ad campaign from Dodge with southern redneck big belly Sherrif stopping a guy with a Super Bee, or a Challenger and accusing him of having a “racin’ car” on the street. That might be worth a short video. Keep up the good work.
Yeah, I remember seeing that ad for the first time, the message wasn’t lost on me, but honestly, it would have gone over the heads of most people. It was an excellent ad!
When I was a kid my Mom bought a 1968 Malibu and was our first non Stationwagon. I think they were on the same body as the Pontiac Tempest/GTO. That car lasted until 1980 and became my car and then my sister's car when we got old enough to drive. Great cars!
0:33 beautiful -- 1968 Pontiac GTO 6:59 so tragic to see the 1970 defacement. Then the 1971 equivalent of botched corrective surgery -- even worse 5:55 "I-75 sign...not part of the signage on Woodward Avenue....added by the ad agency" Might be clearer to say the ad agency apparently added a physical sign at the site, which would explain the original photo also containing it. As is, it sounds like the photo was modified with airbrushing--the 1968 equivalent of Photoshop.
You know the rest of the History! Dodge did this a Few years ago with the picture of the Hood Scoop on the Challenger! If you Know! You Know! 1968 Buick GS! 1979-1973 Trans Am!! My Dream Retirement Cars!
From Maximum Bob himself! Not being a drag racer or from Michigan I wouldn’t have known the connection, but it was clever copy that spoke to what Pontiac represented.
And to think I was one of the kids that saw this advert in a magazine at the barbershop. Then and now I thought it was a simple ad showing my favorite car in a depiction of Detroit that had green spaces located along a major street. At the time I thought nothing about drag racing, I simply saw the GTO as the kind of car girls would like. Mary's husband Peter+
Hm. The "Michigan Left" is common in New Orleans. Of course, we call it the "New Orleans Left." Didn't know of any other place that did it until seeing this video.
I love New Orleans ,you really ought to broaden your horizons. Take I 10 either directions and Drive. I promise you won’t fall off the edge of the earth.
The greatest 2 page spread in automotive history was for the 1970 GTO Judge. It was a picture of a white Judge also driving down Woodward Ave. The only sales pitch text in the ad stated "After a few moments of respectful silence, you may turn the page". This text appeared above and to the left of the Judge. Above the Judge on the right side was the specs of the available engines. I have that ad framed prominately in my home office. Best ad ever. On a side note, I believe this ad was penned by David E Davis, who was to become the editor of Car & Driver and later Autombile magazine.
GM didn't support racing, but they still built some of the most powerful and fastest cars on earth.
Actually, they did promote racing from 1957 until the ban in 1963. Mostly NASCAR and drag racing.
(“Race on Sunday- Sell on Monday”)
From 57 for several years they built 500 "C A R S" so they could say they were "stock". We got 3 of em by accident - from Grady in Newark Oh. '58, '62 and '65.
Wasnt til a wedding in `91 that I learned from a Pontiac Rep. why they were so hot.
@@blizzy6392 Horsepower sells cars; torque wins races.!! 👍
Yeah sure, Jim Hall and Roger Penske just somehow had $$$ as well as exotic Chevy parts nobody had seen before.
You know it. Specially prepared 396 and 427 big blocks would show up clandestinely in crates at Hall's garage. @@markhale8084
I grew up in Birmingham, MI--born in '57. I lived on Woodward and we raced and cruised all year long. Woodward (1967----75) was a race car show every Saturday night. Tom H.
Me too. I grew up near 13 and Woodward. I spent a lot of time on Woodward between the Totem Pole and Ted's. Later, I was a cop in Pontiac Michigan. We drove a number of Pontiac Motors experimental vehicles in addition to our regular Pontiacs. For a car guy I had a great life.
I waa born and raised in Detroit, 1960. In 1978 my friends and I would cruise the Woodward strip looking for Candy. Once we went to a restaurant called The Egg and I on lower Woodward where the Candy hung out. They would give us a feel job under the tables to entice us and we said we had to go out to the car to get some money and we would take off😅😅😅
👍😎
I was told when I was working on a GM execs home in Birmingham that Woodward through Birmingham was where some of the scenes from the movie “American Graffiti” were filmed. That has stuck with me since I was told that. I was born on the sleepy side of the state in the same year. We did our best to wake it up though 😅
Sold Pontiacs for almost 25yrs then picked up the Buick franchise when we lost PMD in the dark days of BK. We all went into shock when we lost most of our client base. The saying "you can sell an old man a young mans car but you can't sell an young man an old mans car" is ever so true. Own a '68 GTO now, see you at Woodward this summer.
“At Pontiac, we build excitement”.
A favorite ad slogan of mine.
Maybe it just hit me at the wrong age in life, but I'll never forgive GM for axing the Oldsmobile and Pontiac lines. Between my cousin's '76 Cutlass and my grandparent's '77 Grand Prix SJ, i loved everything they put out.
Great feature...i love the inside baseball from you!
Saturn was the "better built car."
GM could have kept both the Pontiac and Oldsmobile names, in my opinion.
They just needed to have a base car with trimmed out as an option, with minor fender front ends, hood and taillights.
Being all the engines are corporate. There really isn't much difference between the remaining divisions.
I guarantee a Trans Am trim option would have outsold a Camaro trim option.
Nothing wrong with this ad, by calling it controversial, the ad worked. People talked about it and that was the whole point, advertisers are pretty intelligent people.
Have owned 58 cars in my lifetime. THE most favorite was my 68 GTO, 4 speed , 4:33 gears, tinted glass, vinyl top, AM radio with factory 8 track, full gauges, buckets and console. Nothing else but a joy to open up that Quadrajet and be pushed back in the seat as I went through the gears.
4:33 rear end?! Top speed must’ve been 80mph ;)
100mph at 5 ,000rpm but it got there quickly. 60mph 3200rpm
RA/II was a rare option that year,and they were very aggressively cammed.These engines produced great power to 6500rpm.The RA/IV,the following year,utilized 1.65 rocker ratio and more aggressive valve train components to go with that extra valve lift.My RA/IV would pull its guts out all the way to 7000rpm with no sign of valve control problems.Ran a 12bolt Chevelle R/E with 4.88’s.
_Totally with you Michael, and my former 1968 Goat. (I'm probably in the same number of cars owned in my lifetime as well). My '68 GTO convertible in the Pontiac 400 (with the 6.5 Litre side badging), had all the options except hood tach. (They included power steering, power brakes, power windows, power driver seat, and Hurst dual gate shifter with console). The car was painted in the 1970 Pontiac color, orbit orange(which looked great with the hideaway headlights, and black convertible top). I bought the car from a guy in Petaluma California for $3500 (it was 1983). Today this gem would be worth at least 50 or 60 large if brought back to the original color Solar red. (I often wonder where my former baby is, as my Dad sold the car during my Naval career)._
Thanks for sharing memories of your 68. Orbit Orange was a wild 70 GTO color and I am sure it looked good on your convertible.
Mine had the hideaways too and they always worked perfectly. Verdoro green, black vinyl top and interior. I was the second owner and it had 56,000 miles on it when I bought it for $1200 in spring of 1974 from the local Chevrolet dealer. Still had the factory black wheels and dog dish caps plus Protect-O- Plate and window sticker in glove box.
Drove it on my honeymoon November 1974 when the national speed limit was 55mph because of the 1973 oil embargo, so it was ok with the 4:33 gears on the highway.
Sold it with 66,000 miles for $1300 in late 1975 as needed down payment payment for a house. Muscle cars had faded away some by then, and it was just a 7year old Pontiac to most people even though it still still had zero rust and looked very good.
Beautiful cars. Its a shame we'll never have these types of designs again
Could you imagine tho. The majority of our steel industry comes back etc and we show the world "hey yall remember this?" It would be so cool
Yes, but I enjoy driving a modern angry eyed pile of plastic. LOL. Had a 70 GTO.
We have to take care of the ones that they built already.
@@jamesrecknor6752 why are new cars so UGLY
toyota rav 4 looks like an angry guppy
All we have now is 4 door s**t boxes painted in drab colors.
Couple friends and I used to cruise down to Woodward from Saginaw in my ‘64 GTO in 1965.It was a crazy place on weekends.A lot of heavy hitting special performance Detroit muscle on the scene.Those were great,exciting times.
Pontiac is definitely by far my favorite GM division.
I've owned several Pontiacs in my lifetime
@@WhittyPics Awesome brother
And the 60's were the best era of Pontiac.
@@dustin_4501 Not only Pontiac but American cars ingeneral
Pontiac is all we drove for decades.
That no racing rule was the dumbest decision by some real "special" people at the head of GM.
I heard Arnie the Farmer Beswick tell the story that Pontiacs success in Racing put GM's overall car sales up too high and the GOV. went to GM and said they were starting to have a monopoly and were worried that Ford and Chrysler wouldn't be able to survive. Racing had a big impact on sales So Gm banned all racing after 63. Jim Wangers said that Pontiac was threatened in 1957 by GM execs with being cancelled because of poor car sales and given 5 yrs to turn the Div. around. Pontiac went and hired Bunky Knudsen to run the Div. and he used the saying, "Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday" to generate sales. He hired a bunch of young car guys and engineers who were into performance and racing and started the Super Duty program. In a few yrs Pontiac was dominating in stock car and Super Stock drag racing.
I've read a few accounts of Pontiac and Chrysler engineers cruising Woodward in the 60s in thier skunkworks performance cars with manufacturers plates after work hours looking for a little stoplight action.
Would have been a great time 😁 I'm jealous of that era. I had a boss that had a Pontiac with pretty high compression, he would occasionally buy several 5 gal cans of higher octane aviation fuel, I don't know if he was advancing the timing (to the reasonable limit) , and going drag racing, but he had his reasons
So true! GM, Chrysler, AMC and a smattering of Ford engineers all doing some after hours / undercover R&D work! LOL!
In the fall of 1968, at a Shell gas station on Woodward late one night, a Camaro ZL-1 with manufacturer's plates was filling up on premium. This was months before they went on sale. This was the proving ground for muscle car development.
There was a midnight blue ‘64 GTO around called The Shepherd cruising around there in the summer of ‘65.Rumored to be one of those 421SD factory transplants,it ran 12.20’s and I saw it beat up on the rare Chevy and Mopar racers at that time.
Lol!!! You don't really think that ever stopped, do you???
We've had some premium fun on Woodward in some vehicles with srt badges!!!🙄🙄🙄
Good times!!!😂😂😂
Adam either stepped out of time machine from 1982 or he bought someone's vintage stash of Member's Only jackets and Casio digital calculator watches.
Adam is encyclopedia of classic cars from the 50’s, 60’s , & 70’s . Adam is the absolute best! 👍
Adam is awesome but I gotta admit you just cracked me up bro.
@@judgegixxer Why thank you …thank you very much ….I will be here all week folks for your comic relief! 👍🤪
Adam is the coolest total car geek former bean counting 80s clothes wearing guy on CZcams!
@@jamesrodriquez2863 Has he stopped counting beans?
I love people who think like those guys did. Push those boundaries.
I spent a lot of time cruising Woodward back in the 60’s. We did a little racing but we were mainly cruising the Drive Ins looking for girls to meet. We’d start at about 10 mile rd and cruise out to 16 mile rd make a Michigan left and cruise back to 10 mile. This loop went on every Friday and Saturday night. We had no idea that Woodward would become so famous.
I was fortunate enough to be in NYC in the fall of 99 and there was an outdoor car display at Rockefeller center. Among classics like a GT40 there sat the original Silver Bullet Plymouth that the Chrysler engineers raced on Woodward in the late 60s and smoked everything. What a piece of history.
New Jersey is also replete with "jug handle" left turns. The problem is, since not every left is constructed like this, you're often not sure if you should be in the right or left lane when your left turn is approaching.
This is different from a jug handle left
@@RareClassicCars Oh. OK. My bad. I've never seen the kind that are in Detroit.
@@RareClassicCars Florida has both the "Michigan Left" and "Jersey Jughandles" in two different spots. On Florida State Road 50 between Spring Hill and Brooksville, you have a "Michigan Left" at Hernando CR 484 (West Fort Dade Road), with the addition of channelized left-turns where CR 484 used to go straight through. On Florida State Road 559 between Polk City and Auburndale, you had a "Jersey Jughandle" south of Florida Truck Route 559, but it's only a U-Turn for trucks.
When they started introducing them in metro Detroit around the late 70's, early 80's, they were known as "Jersey Turns"
That Endura bumper really worked well. I got bumped a few times and it did little damage.
I remember the Pontiac commercial introducing the Endura bumper, where the guy stands there with a crowbar, and repeatedly slams it into the front end, resulting in no damage. At the conclusion, he allows the crowbar to clatter to the floor, demonstrating it was real solid iron.
@@MarinCipollina "Crowbar clatter" = sound effect.
@@DocDoccus It was real, that was Chief Engineer John Delorean who did the bumper whacking. I can attest to this being authentic. The endura rubber was a very thick Urethane coating, and was super energy absorbant. I was invited to try a few swings on a buddy's "beater" Gto - way back in the 80s.
The aircraft term for this was "area rule" - it made it easier and faster to get thru transition from sub Mach 1 to supersonic flight.
The F-102 had a full fuselage, but the lesson of Area Rule was later applied to the F-106
I always liked the Pontiac GTO humbler add with the factory exhaust cutouts.
Thank you Adam. I recall this ad. I recall hearing about this and GM did not want racing mentioned or featured. It is great to hear the story and what really took place.
And don't forget to "Put a Tiger in Your Tank" . . .
The “wide track.”
My brother had a 70 GTO, I dont think he ever appreciated it as much as I did.
Fact: The '68 Pontiac GTO was designed by Tony Lapine, who later went to Porsche where he headed the design team that designed the 944 and 928. If you look at the 928 carefully, you can see some similar shapes, especially at the rear.
Great video!
Your videos are amazing ! There is no one else providing such interesting information and presented so well ! - THANK YOU !!!
It’s only controversial to Prius-driving Karens and EV-pushing college professors. For guys who really like cars this ad kicks ass.
John DeLorean is one of the coolest mo-fos to ever design a car. In a perfect world someone like him instead of Queen Mary would be the CEO of GM today.
It shouldn't be either I can't think of any electric or some hybrids even that does not try to push how fast they are. Not just the supers port or race models either and these not only accelerate at supercar speeds they also have extremely high top speeds. A gto wasn't going to come out of the showroom doing 200 mph but a tesla is yet no problem there. If DeLorean got as many gimme's as electrics they'd have ironed things out and we'd be driving them today.
@@cardinaloflannagancr8929 Electric appliances have no soul. They’re for tree hugging libs. I don’t care how fast they are because all electric motors have instant torque. That’s not the point. A car should make good engines sounds and smell like gas and oil. And have a manual transmission.
@@cardinaloflannagancr8929Not sure I follow. Electrics are for tree huggin libs. They’re the first giant step towards eliminating driving from humanity. They’ve got to be stopped. Forget hair style, skin tone, frivolous lawsuits and politically driven charges and vote on policy in November.
If you want to keep any chance of the freedom of the American car in the future, MAGA.
@@cardinaloflannagancr8929 Yesterday, A couple of cars raced past me on Interstate 84 in CT, dueling it out. One as a new Corvette. The other was a Tesla Model 3.
I love the ad! BTW currently restoring a highly optioned 70 GTO. Hoping to get it done by next year.
a Pontiac take on the Corvair would have been a really cool car
They tried. The Pontiac Polaris was to be Pontiac's entry into the compact field, but the Tempest, along with the Buick Special, and Olds F-85 went to market instead.
@@61rampy65 John Delorean killed the idea. He had hired an engineer from Mercedes, which had killed a similar project due to the unstable handling of the car. Maybe if the '60 Corvair had been designed with a suspension like that of the '65 (or at least sold with standard equipment of the '64), Delorean would have been more willing to accept it.
The GM executives staked out their respective turfs and there could have been space for the Corvair concept. Easier to do Big Block horsepower, conventional powertrains and bigger profit margins. Prototypes of fuel-injected 300 hp air-cooled Corvair engines were developed and dismissed. Porsche has done reasonably well over the years, but GM would not have been satisfied with such low sales figures.
I know this is a GM video and Pontiac specifically, but I can’t help noticing the tail of that gorgeous Monteverdi HighSpeed over your shoulder! Nice video Adam and I always love the Mr. Lutz interviews. What a luminary, he is the ultimate MotorHead.
Woodward is old school hot rod heaven. The rolling car show there in August every year is the most amazing city wide epic car show you will ever see. One has to experience it to know. Living just across the river in Windsor Ontario, I've spent many a night looping up and down Woodward between 8 and 13 mile using the iconic turn around loops in my hot rods. The dream cruise used to be a yearly event for me and my dad and I'd highly recommend it to anyone who loves cars.
That ad is perfect. Those executives whining about it proves the higher up in company you go, the stupider they get.
cheers.
1974 Grand Prix SJ with super duty 455, red, white buckets, white landau roof.
I had a '68 Vedoro Green H.O., with black vinyl top, just like the one in the original photo. It was an awesome ride. Jim Wangers was a marketing genius, no doubt.
I lived off of 9 mile... Jim Wangers had a Hot Rod Black '68 Firebird nicknamed Black Bird that was known to be a Winner on Woodward... I had a white '77 Grand Prix and a Black on Black 78 W72 T/A. Rest in peace Jim Wangers.
We have several rights to take a left here in greater Boston.
The narrator in your films are top notch. So much better than most. Super interesting video. Job well done, and thanks for posting.
Thx. The narrator is me!
This is the time I became a Pontiac fan. My aunt got a new COTY in Verdoro (tan vinyl) and my mom's got LeMans in Nightshade (black vinyl) greens. Verdoro was developed when Deloren's wife saw a green ashtray, and suggested to John that it be on the GTO. Every year I plan to make the Woodward Dream Cruise. Its a new year. Interesting Woodward/GTO backstory.🏁🇺🇸👍🏾
There were some very iconic car ads in the 1960s. It's great learning the backstory of the GTO ad. Please highlight more of these!
This is one of Jim Wanger's ads. He was Pontiacs marketing director and he was all about performance.
I loved when he used to get on TV shows in the late 90s early 2000s. His toupee was something else. I tease, but he did a lot of good at Pontiac from my reading.
I would always get distracted by his hairpiece when he did interviews in the late 90's and early 2000's about the Pontiac brand.
Don't forget Jim's '68 Firebird nicknamed "Black Bird."
I drove a new GTO Judge with a 4 speed. Not my kind of car BUT did it go. I still remember
Truly a great car.
I must have loved Pontiac. At one point I bought two. Looking back, I think Oldsmobile was my favorite. I did own 5 Buicks.
Great history lesson and love the channel. come check out the Woodward Dream Cruise. Bloomfield Hills , Birmingham area in MI. Always 3rd weekend in August. 1.5 million people visit over the 3 days and you will see thousands of cars driving up and down Woodward for miles. Including my families ' '54 Chevy resto, '58 Olds Super 88 convertable, '68 Bonnie convertable and ' 66 Vette convertable. You name it...its there and It's a really fun time.
I love stories like this. Thanks for making videos like this.
*People wanted Performance not politics! Its American to be free to think & Drive whatever u want!!*
I don’t believe Mr Lutz misremembered the ad copy. I think he’s talking about something different. There were billboards that apparently had the quote “To Woodward Avenue, with love”. Same ad campaign, different medium.
My first car, bought in 1984 with money I earned as a dishwasher was a 1968 Flambeau Burgundy GTO with Parchment interior! 400, 4 speed, no power steering. I paid $550 for it, I taught myself how to drive in it, and it looked exactly like the one you show in this video. I also had a 1968 muscle car magazine that had this exact ad in it that my friend gave me, with the complete article about the 68 GTO. I also had a GTO Recognition guide that was published in the 80's as well. Unfortunately, I sold the car in 1990 for $2000, I lost the magazine and the guide. But did manage to find a replacement GTO Recognition guide on ebay that I still have.
I sure miss my first car! Pontiac for life! It is still my favorite car ever, I think it is a better looking car than the 69, especially from the rear view. People fight with me over this though.
Great video!❤
Adam, Delorean wanted Pontiac to be the company that said "We build excitement." Hell, they even had a top 40 song. Can't get better than that!
I wonder why they airbrushed out the fall colors into a monochrome green?
I loved the Woodward story! I knew exactly where that photo was taken, lol... The plate on my car says Wodward . And of course it's on my Chevy Cruze, which makes it the___Woodward Cruze! 😂
Adam: Hopefully you have seen a mural of this ad on the west side of the Pontiac Transportation Museum!
When I was a tyke riding a tricylce in the late 50s an older couple up the street had a stodgy 55' Pontiac. I thought the styling fit them well being old. Our family car was a 55' Olds Rocket 88 2dr h/t. I thought our car was so much cooler looking.
Buy the economy version with the economy engine. Get economy car insurance. Then modify your economy engine to get the performance you want without the high insurance rates. I wonder how often this was done and if it worked
It worked for me with a 289 Mustang sleeper that always whipped up on GTOs. 396 Chevelles were a dime a dozen and all were faster than GTOs. Cobra Jet Mustangs and L78 Chevelles ruled the streets in my town.
In southern New Jersey the turnaround here is called a jug handle the signs say all turns from right lane
Hard to imagine that all that name recognition at Pontiac was all thrown out in favor of old man car Buick
34965 Woodward Ave. Peabody's. Gone but not forgotten!
Jersey has the jug-handle, gotta turn right to turn left. It's basically a single leaf of a clover leaf
1 would have thought the BIG rocket on the side of the 58 would have made it fast. It's even made of stainless steel like the Space-X BFR
Thank you for all your great research work in all these classic car reviews you do. I LOVE Pontiacs. I have a '67 Firebird convertible I've had since 1971 when my late Dad purchased it from the local Ford dealership. Pontiac has a very rich history in building great looking cars that performed really well. GM really screwed up killing Pontiac. Should have allowed Buick to go to pasture! I sold Pontiacs at the local dealership in town from 1985 to 2003...had lots of fun selling them. Keep up your great work!!!
I love all of your videos. Please continue to make more!😅
I loved the ad. The subtle communication among hotrodders and racers.
Let me believe GM management's policy was solely based on advice from their legal department, and not on personal bias.
Thank you for the work you're putting into your channel content and variety. I love the cars from the early 1960's through most of the 1970's!
My uncle drove up in his new ‘68 GOAT, having previously owned a ‘64 Goat convertible and a bright red ‘65. He hopped out of the car with a hammer in his hand and summoned me over. He then whacked car’s nose with the hammer, proudly displaying the Endura bumper’s ability to bounce the hammer. I was 10 and in awe.
Love your content Adam! What Bob was referring to was a billboard ad on Woodward at the time, not the print ad you show in the video. Probably the billboard was part of a bigger campaign around the Judge in its inaugural year in 1969. Peter DeLorenzo is an old time Advertising creative who would know.
At my Highschool in Grand Rapids MN we had a student who had a brand new Maroon 1966 GTO with wide tires on the rear and twice, he twisted the drive shaft into a spiral from dragging. The local GM dealer - Danielson's replaced the drive shaft twice on warranty and then refused to replace it after that. Fun times!
I used to be an expediter for Panther II (remember them?).. so I am very familiar with these ridiculous left turns, on 8 mile, Gratiot, Woodward, etc...
In the sixties my cousin would buy a new GTO every other year. I was jealous. When I turned sixteen my father wanted to buy one for me until he found out what the insurance rates would be.
I bought a 68 Firebird 400 in 1971 when I was a JR in high school.....my Dad told me later on that it took 3 weeks after I bought it before he found someone to insure it.
He could have snuck a Le Mans with a few extra parts or a GT-37 with the 400. It wouldn't have been "hot" but it would have been fun and not a risk for the companies like a GTO
Thanks for the upload. I always wondered where that turn around was on Woodward.
We have a few Michigan lefts up here in Maine. At least one in this town called Scarborough and a couple in our capital, Augusta
Ah! The good ol' "Michigan "U - ie"! I can't understand how this ad could have been that controversial - Many people in high powered cars from GM, Ford, MOPAR and other manufacturers make the same left hand turns on Woodward Ave. at sane, safe speeds and people live the tale! The controversy is all in your mind and because some people decide to drive like idiots!
There was also a lot of factory engineer action at that time on Gratiot on the East side.
Way back in 1970-71 I drove a friend's '69 GTO and got to look it over real good. It was a true GTO nicely optioned but with a 2 barrel carb. I thought it was a fluke but he was told that car belonged to a district manager for Pontiac spec'd out that way. It had all the looks but a little bit of economy too.
FYI:
1) The hidden headlights were an ubiquitous option. Very rare to see a GTO without it.
2) Many of the factory engineers would try out experiments on Woodward Avenue.
3) Not really connected to the racing ban, but GM was afraid of being too successful.
They had a very large share of the auto market and were worried about being split up by the government.
Even stranger was the endura delete option on the GTO.
@@rafaelfiallo4123yep.
I had a ‘72 GTO as a 19 yr old in 1990…bought it for $2k, and it was mint.
Great ad. Fertile historical ground here for more knowledge and discussion of over one hundred years of automobile advertising in various mediums. Great content.
I love watching every episode you do😊 10:39
Adam that black GTO with red interior, red stripe and raised white letter tires has got to be the best looking machine ever built. It makes an old guy drool! GOAT for sure!
My brother had a 68 GTO
Think '68 might be my favorite to look at. '66-'69 are my favorite years followed by '70-'74 and '64-'65.
When I was a kid, my neighbor had a dark green '68 Lemans with a black vinyl top and black buckets/console interior, with a 350 and dual exhaust. I really liked that car!
360 horses for the ram air. That’s probably what they told the insurance companies. It was probably more like 450.
Not probably, but absolutely. Every manufacturer of any level of performance option greatly understated actual HP output.
360hp at 3,700 RPM ;-)
Any car person out there who has never made it to the "Woodward Dream Cruise" is missing out and really should try to make it once in their life. It's all day, and most of the night of crazy and rare cars, buggies, trucks, vans, vintage fire trucks, ambulances, military vehicles, semis, and just about everything else with wheels and a motor.
Cops shut areas down for cars to do burnouts, vendors selling all types of merch, the Henry Ford Museum, etc...
It's an event that should be on every car guy and car girls bucket list!
The malaise era destroyed Pontiac because it was a performance oriented brand. It was like gelding a stud.
Other brands were affected too but they were kept in business by their trucks and their more mundane family cars.
Great video 📹. Loved the car. Still want one today
Outstanding content Adam!!
Right-handed left turns are the safest and reduces a massive number of wrecks. Arizona was the first State I learned of them, and fell in love with them, they save soooo much time. Anyhow, North Carolina is putting/replacing more and more lefts with the right-handed left exchanges. Just fyi.
In Melbourne Australia, where I live, we have an infamous turning style, which frequently throws visitors for a real loop. It means that in the city (downtown) signs will indicate a so called 'hook turn' which is a right turn from the left lane only. The idea is that it in general keedps the right hand lane flowing. The procedure is to keep left, and under the green light, you proceed. The traffic in the straight ahead position of the road, must wait till all hook turn vehicles have completed their turn, then they are free to move forward. The reason for this is, that although our boulavards are very wide, 2 central lanes are putatively for trams, thus limiting the lanes to two only at intersections; at which tram safety zones exist for waiting tram passengers. It actually works and typically several vehicles can perform this turn without holding up the right lane.
Yes, I like the the subtlty of the ad, it's like a double entendre. When Mr. Roche, was asking his crew about the ad, his intent was to convey sarcasm and he was expecting to be leveled with rather than given a response intended for a preschooler. Given the outcome, I understand Mr. Roache's intent was to spare Pontiac the grief of exposure to lawsuits, but puling the ad was too stringent. A potential compromise was to add a disclaimer in fine print repudiating racing at the ad's boarder.
Imagine if John DeLorean had the support of GM for racing back in the 1960s and 1970s - he would have generated so much more excitement and money in GM's coffers like Ford did with Shelby and LeMans in the 1960s.
Woodward Avenue is STILL the location for the Woodward Dream Cruise over a couple of days every August. One of the biggest in the country. Still a huge Pontiac fan!
I’m also seeing a kind of inside joke, given the location under the “North Bound” sign. If you’ve ever driven Woodward Avenue you know that Pontiac, Mich., lies at the north end of it.
Used to race up and down 9 Mile and Woodward Avenue in the early 70's, and Cruise the Dairy Queen (DQ). Sooooo much fun! All gone now.
I had a 68 GTO just like that one. Verdodo Grn, Hidden headlights, 400 ram air. Black int with Ivory seats. His and hers auto. Bought it in 76. A girl in ATL had bought it new, it only had 48k on it but had jumped time.(stupid nylon gears) Bought it for 450 bucks and put 100 in it replacing the timing chain and gear. I got in so much trouble in that car. :)
Very cool how you got to meet the old master in person, while sporting the Members Only jacket and the digital watch.
Regarding I-75 Sign in AD. There was a group of folks who hung out on Woodward Ave known as the "Century Club". They were a self invited group who would arrange a race and get on I-75 (early on some were on it before the highway was completed and fully open!) The "Century Club" meant these guys would pair up and ran up to from 100 mph fender to fender, then accelerate at a given point and went on to see who had the highest top end! In other words, they would pair up and stay even to reach 100 mph and then took off to see so who had the most top end! Early on there was mention of tricks like under hood superchargers, 2.56 rear gears run, etc. (in the early days before Nitrous). Not many hoods were opened for prying eyes to look! Some would follow behind and pass on the berm of the road, right or left, if they were faster than two paired up! Wangers lived for all the racing stuff out there and made some of the people at Royal Pontiac very angry because they had wives, families and other obligations evenings and weekend. Wangers never married, so he could be out there anytime he wanted. In some cases there were hired drivers to do the driving duty. All makes/brands/ manufacturers were represented on Woodward Ave. Some will admit it and and some do not. On the West side of town, Telegraph RD. and I- 696 saw similar action. Gathering spot on was The Clock Restaurant at 12 mile and Orchard Lake road ,gave quick easy access to I-696.! My name is Greg, I do Pontiacs all day, every day.
It would have been EASIER to just park a slicktop GTO at that intersection with 2 passengers in it, than to go through the trouble of airbrushing out the vinyl roof and inserting the passengers!!
I liked this video. Clever idea. I recall a pretty successful ad campaign from Dodge with southern redneck big belly Sherrif stopping a guy with a Super Bee, or a Challenger and accusing him of having a “racin’ car” on the street. That might be worth a short video. Keep up the good work.
I think the catch phrase for that was "You're in a heap o' trouble, boy!"
Dad raced Woodward, he was part of the Filthy Few car club. Miss him too much and his stories.
Yeah, I remember seeing that ad for the first time, the message wasn’t lost on me, but honestly, it would have gone over the heads of most people. It was an excellent ad!
I had a 68 Gran Prix in 1975 with 428 4-barrel, wish I still had it today...........
When I was a kid my Mom bought a 1968 Malibu and was our first non Stationwagon. I think they were on the same body as the Pontiac Tempest/GTO. That car lasted until 1980 and became my car and then my sister's car when we got old enough to drive. Great cars!
0:33 beautiful -- 1968 Pontiac GTO
6:59 so tragic to see the 1970 defacement. Then the 1971 equivalent of botched corrective surgery -- even worse
5:55 "I-75 sign...not part of the signage on Woodward Avenue....added by the ad agency"
Might be clearer to say the ad agency apparently added a physical sign at the site, which would explain the original photo also containing it. As is, it sounds like the photo was modified with airbrushing--the 1968 equivalent of Photoshop.
You know the rest of the History!
Dodge did this a Few years ago with the picture of the Hood Scoop on the Challenger!
If you Know! You Know!
1968 Buick GS! 1979-1973 Trans Am!!
My Dream Retirement Cars!
From Maximum Bob himself! Not being a drag racer or from Michigan I wouldn’t have known the connection, but it was clever copy that spoke to what Pontiac represented.
The U turn is all over Louisiana, in fact U turns are legal everywhere unless it is posted as illegal.
And to think I was one of the kids that saw this advert in a magazine at the barbershop. Then and now I thought it was a simple ad showing my favorite car in a depiction of Detroit that had green spaces located along a major street. At the time I thought nothing about drag racing, I simply saw the GTO as the kind of car girls would like. Mary's husband Peter+
Hm. The "Michigan Left" is common in New Orleans. Of course, we call it the "New Orleans Left." Didn't know of any other place that did it until seeing this video.
I love New Orleans ,you really ought to broaden your horizons. Take I 10 either directions and Drive. I promise you won’t fall off the edge of the earth.