For 1968 the GTO, along with the rest of its General Motors midsize A-body stablemates, got a serious redesign. While still utilizing body-on-frame construction, the body was much sleeker, with a waisted, coke-bottle look and contemporary fastback styling for the roofline.
The vertically-stacked quad headlamps went away, replaced by horizontally paired ones. A popular option on the '68 Goat was a hidden headlamp setup, with vacuum-operated doors that blended with the grille covering the headlamps when they were off. The headlamp doors on this Solar Red 1968 GTO convertible seem to be stuck in the open configuration.
One distinguishing feature of the GTO, heavily hyped in the advertising of the time, was the body-colored synthetic Endura nosecone, which would shrug off low-speed impacts without permanent deformation.
The single hood scoop on the previous GTO was replaced with a pair of nostrils atop the hood, which were purely cosmetic affectations unless you ordered the Ram Air package, in which case they were plumbed to the air cleaner housing for a functional cold air intake.
The spicier options were the 400 H.O., which came with an unsilenced air cleaner and freer-flowing dual exhaust for an output of 360 horses, and the aforementioned Ram Air 400, which offered numerous small upgrades like the aforementioned functional cold air intake and a lumpy race cam. The Ram Air package mysteriously shaved time off the quarter mile but didn't budge the brochure horsepower from the 360 advertised for the H.O. version. Insurance agents must have been amazed.
Motor Trend tested a coupe with the base motor, 3-speed slushbox, and 3.23:1 rear end and recorded a quarter mile elapsed time of 15.93 at 88mph through the traps.
The car in the photos was snapped with a Nikon D700 and 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6G zoom lens in July of 2024.
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