GTO Stockers

[mopar68]

For the longest time I thought 1969 GTO Judges only came in orange. The ones I seen on the street back in the day (early-1970s) were only this color.

[oldskool]

Looks like some of the pics that were on this thread are gone.

Here are 9 GTO Stocker pics, from years gone by, 1 from each year, '66 thru '74.

[oldskool]

When lookin back at old GTO Stocker pics, it seems that the '66's, especially Tri-Power models & the '69's, especially Judge models, were the most popular.

[oldskool]

I think the Knafel '70 GTO is interesting. It apparently ran only in AHRA. I suppose their rules allow for different carbs, for different classes. Maybe 2-barrel, 4-barrel, & multiple carbs ?

Anyhow, it seems that this Goat did real good that year, setting records & winning races. Norm Tanner was the driver.

While on the subject of '70 Goats, the one that Todd Kuhn drives is the only one I know of, that has been active in recent years. It runs the high compression 455 engine.

[oldskool]

'72 was sort of a unique year for the GTO.

(1) It was the last year of the '70-'72 body style, which all had similar rear tail lights. Was also the last year before the drastic, & unpopular, body style change in '73.

(2) The Judge option had been dropped. And the GTO was just an option on a Lemans.

(3) The '72 T-41 front cap was a little different than the '71. The grills were a bit different & there were fender vents, behind the wheel well openings.

(4) It was the last year of the round port 455HO engine.

The most well known '72 GTO drag car is probably the Sonny Ray SS car. Sonny set records & won nat events with it. And David Rampy won his 1st nat event with it, at the '83 Cajun Nats. But, this thread is for GTO Stockers.

I've already posted a pic of an Axemaker '72 GTO. But, I've read there were 2 of 'em. This pic I have shows a solid brown color. I suppose it could be the same car. Not sure.

Gary Wood ran one. I think he & his wife Charlene both drove it.

Todd Hoven ran one for a while. Won a nat event & won class at Indy. I think Troy Vogel has it now.

There were probably quite a few '72 Lemans Stockers, thru the years. Since they can run the same engines as a '72 GTO, I'll include them, here. The one I'm most familiar with belonged to Larry Maxwell. It's now driven by Stephanie Pike.

[oldskool]

Gotta say a little more about the last Pontiac powered GTO. They were very competitive, from when they 1st came out, and continued to be competitive Stockers until they took such a big hp hit from NHRA.

Bill Rink has taken credit for that, & switched his GTO over to Super Stock. But, before that, there were lots of '74 GTO record holders & class winners, thru the years.

Since the Ventura could run the same engine as the GTO, some guys ran a Ventura & some ran 'em with GTO trim. I suppose the main differences were the GTO shaker hood & lights in the grills.

I've noticed that the quickest '74 GTO Stocker, ever, now runs a flat Ventura hood, on a GTO body. So, NHRA obviously don't care which hood you run.

Several of these cars pictured were record holders. I noticed on the Duttweiler car that it was a record holder 5 years in a row, back in the early '90's.

Bill Rink's GTO was often near the top of the Q-list. He's posted here that this level of performance, on a "Western Swing" resulted in a big NHRA hp hit. He made the show at Indy several times. In '05, he was #21 & got the J/SA class win.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...r2005#indextop

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...r2005#indextop

The last hp hit, up to 277hp came in Nov of '05.

http://www.classracerinfo.com/Engine...8&MAKE=Pontiac

This is probably the performance that triggered the big hit. #1 @ 1.289 under, on 9/29/05.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...r2005#indextop

Brad Koivisto has run some really low 11's & has even dipped into the high 10's. I have a copy of a Q-list from South GA Motorsports Park, from a race called the "Southern Sportsman Showdown", held in March of this year, showing that Brad ran a 10.821 ! Therefore I assume his '74 GTO is the quickest '74 GTO Stocker, ever, by a good margin.

[mopar68]