The 1949–1950 1950 Oldsmobile 88 is considered by many to be the first muscle car. Revell’s all-new 1/25th-scale assembly kit is offered in two versions (stock or custom); this is the mild custom version.
The 1953 Studebaker Starliner proved the appeal of a car designed for eye-pleasing proportions and style rather than more practical considerations. AMT’s Trophy Series kit is shown here assembled in 100 percent showroom stock form. (Builder/Photographer: Rick Hanmore)
AMT (left) and Revell (right) were the first to offer full-detail Tri-Five Chevy assembly kits. These are built both showroom stock from the kits, except for the more contemporary wheel/tire fitment.
This AMT-Ertl 1962 Bel Air BubbleTop hardtop with 409 V-8 power was built box-stock except for the contemporary American five-spokes and wide boots.
Here AMT’s 1963 Impala SS annual kit has been converted to a Z-11 drag racer with the engine from AMT-Ertl’s 1962 Bel Air Super Stock kits. Note the diorama backdrop and hand-painted figures. (Builder: Bill Coulter)
Mid-year Code LL-1 Limelight paint distinguishes this Chrysler 300 Sport two-door hardtop built from JoHan’s USA Oldies series kit of the mid-1970s. (Builder: Dean Milano)
This 1963 Chrysler 300J was built from a restored JoHan annual kit; adding a lowered suspension and 1970s era mag wheels, it takes on an entirely different look than the showroom stock appearance.
CHAPTER
4
THE SUPERCAR IS BORN, PART 1
Pontiac, Oldsmobile, and Buick
Here are several kits of the Buick-Olds-Pontiac (BOP) compacts that preceded the intermediate-sized replacements that wore the same names for the 1964 model year (all: Wave 1/**). AMT offered kits of the Tempest in sedan (1961 not shown) and hardtop and convertible forms (1962 and 1963). AMT also produced Buick Special wagon kits for 1961 and 1962, while JoHan offered the Olds F-85 in 1961 wagon and 1962 Cutlass hardtop/convertible forms (the JoHan kits shown are 1970s USA Oldies reissues).
If you define the core of the American muscle car phenomenon to be the 1960s intermediate-sized supercar, then the story of the muscle car is largely the story of the Pontiac GTO.
General Motors entered the new intermediate-sized class starting with the 1964 model year. General Motors was already two years behind, as the intermediate market segment really began in the 1962 model year with the introduction of Ford Motor Company’s Ford Fairlane and Mercury Meteor models. Some might suggest that the new-for-1962 downsized Dodge Dart and Plymouth Fury were also intermediates, but they were notably larger in several key dimensions than the Fairlane and Meteor, and they were marketed against the full-sized Galaxie and Impala, not as new intermediates.
Over the course of the early 1960s, the automotive market in the United States was evolving quickly, with emerging trends including highly styled two-doors, hardtops, and convertibles with bucket seats, consoles, and more powerful V-8s. Therefore, while the Ford Fairlane was an immediate success that required a market response from rival Chevrolet, what makes the GM entries of special interest is the way in which response was delivered. In the two years following the introductions of the Ford intermediates, General Motors was able to more effectively develop and “tune” its new intermediate-sized products to capitalize on these evolving trends. In doing so, General Motors enjoyed not only immediate market success for the 1964 model year, but also set the pattern for how intermediate-sized cars evolved during the following decades.
GM’s response took two approaches. First was an all-new nameplate for Chevrolet, the Chevelle, chosen in part to continue the use of Chevy product names starting with the letter “c.” The Chevelle was a notably more stylish car than the first Fairlanes, and the marketing very successfully capitalized on the top range Malibu and Malibu SS two-door hardtop and convertible models. For the B-O-P offerings, General Motors chose to drop its previous compact-sized Tempest, F-85, and Special models and reapply these now-established nameplates to the newly sized intermediate products. These three products also launched the format for the supercar segment starting with the Pontiac GTO, quickly followed by the 4-4-2 and Gran Sport models from the sister divisions.
GM’s 1964 entry into the intermediate-sized car market was one of the most important automotive events of the 1960s. Within five years, GM’s intermediates had become the style and performance leaders among GM’s family cars, with the same trend starting to evolve at Ford and Chrysler. By the mid-1970s the intermediate segment entries had evolved into some of the best-selling cars in the marketplace (led at that time by the Oldsmobile Cutlass). This trend continued into subsequent decades with the Ford Taurus and Fusion, the Honda Accord, and the Toyota Camry. Intermediate-sized cars are still the best-selling passenger cars in the American market today.
But now returning to the 1964 model year, I’ll bet everyone reading this book has his or her own GTO story to tell. Right now, I’m specifically talking about a “first time the GTO registered on your car guy or gal radar screen” story. This is mine.
I grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Despite our location less than 60 miles west of Detroit, Ann Arbor back then was not a car town (it is even less so today). As an enthusiastic pre-teen car enthusiast, I was far more likely to see a Volvo or a Saab than a GTO during the mid-1960s, reflecting the heavy local influence of the University of Michigan and the intellectual approach to car ownership of the faculty of this respected institution of higher learning.
So, imagine then one sunny fall 1964 afternoon, as our otherwise unassuming Abbot Elementary School Chorus teacher drove down Center Street into the school parking lot in her brand new 1965 Iris Mist Metallic GTO convertible. Not just that, but it was a close-ratio 4-speed manual, and Mrs. K. was not beyond driving down the street in a low gear holding the tach around 3,000 rpm or so. Oh man! If the GTO hadn’t bumped into my consciousness before, it sure did that sunny afternoon in the fall of 1964! The memory still gets to me well more than 50 years later.
This was also just about the time I graduated from being an occasional model car builder to a frequent kit purchaser. Soon, I saw the new tiger-striped box with the AMT Trophy Series logo and the 1965 Goat on the end panel at the Hobby Store in Arborland, our nearby outdoor regional shopping center. I bet many of you remember that very box top yourself. That’s my cue to segue into the topic of this chapter: GM’s first intermediate supercars: the GTO, 442, and Gran Sport.
Pontiac GTO: The Supercar Legend
The story of the GTO’s development is well known and there is no need to repeat it here. What does bear repeating is that not only was the GTO largely a groundbreaking product, it was brilliantly marketed almost from the very beginning. The combination of these two developments gave the GTO a head start in the supercar market that was not fully challenged until Plymouth’s Road Runner delivered an equal dose of product uniqueness and marketing savvy five model years later. Not too surprisingly, the GTO also quickly established a leadership position in the hobby kit market that it held for years to come. The story begins in fall 1963.