Great Cars: GTO

John Delorean and a group of rebellious young engineers ignored the corporate edicts about building fast cars and secretly created the Pontiac GTO. They raced against kids at night and took what they learned back to their offices the next day. The result --- the GTO – gave America’s young people a car that really looked good and went fast. It was more than that. The GTO was the culmination of Pontiac's decade long drive to remake its image. After years of sagging sales Pontiac had to perform a miraculous turnaround or GM would drop the division. Its new leadership was animated by one thought -- "You can sell an old man a young man's car but you can't sell a young man an old man's car." The GTO was the clean break from the old and stodgy. It was action, power, beauty and youth -- the perfect vehicle to set young hearts racing.

EP 303