Thursday, March 5, 2026

1967 Pontiac GTO


Although it still shared the body of the Tempest, 1967 marked the second year that Pontiac cataloged the GTO as an entirely separate model line. It was also the last model year for the first generation of the "Goat".

In addition to the minor cosmetic changes that differentiated each model year in Detroit back in those days, there were some important mechanical upgrades.

The most significant was that Pontiac's small journal V-8 was bored out another .06", bringing displacement to 400 cubic inches, which was the maximum displacement GM corporate management allowed in midsize cars. The base 400 V-8 in the '67 GTO had a four-barrel carb and a 10.75:1 compression ratio, making 335 gross horsepower on high-test. For people who didn't want to pay to put a tiger in their tank at every fill-up, there was an optional two-barrel 400 with an 8.6:1 compression, but it was only rated at 255 horsepower.

If you wanted to slather extra performance on your performance car, there was the Quadra-Power 400, with a hotter cam making 360 ponies, and finally the top of the line Ram Air 400, which turned the decorative hood scoop into a functional cold air intake and a slightly different cam. It, too, was rated at 360 horses, but power peaked at 5400 RPM, rather than the 5100 of the Quadra-Power.

The Quadra-Power name, incidentally, was a bit of sad misdirection. Whereas previous GTOs were known for their optional Tri-Power 389 motors, with three two-throat carbs, General Motors banned multiple carburetor setups on non-Corvettes for 1967, so "Quadra-Power" was just marketing hype.

There were two varieties of three-speed manual on the menu, both standard and heavy-duty, as well as wide- and close-ratio four-speed manuals. If you opted for the Turbo Hydra-Matic, the shifter had a dual-gate quadrant; slide the lever over into the right hand gate and ratchet the shifter through the gears manually, one at a time.

You could get your Goat as a ragtop, a pillared Sport Coupe or, like this Tyrol Blue car with Rally wheels, a hardtop coupe.

It was photographed with a Leica D-LUX 3 in April of 2017. 

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1967 Pontiac GTO

Although it still shared the body of the Tempest , 1967 marked the second year that Pontiac cataloged the GTO as an entirely separate model ...