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Car
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For January 2000 |
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THE SAGA of the 1966 'BEST YEAR' GTO by JIM & JEANNIE LENT
I would like to tell you that this story begins with a GTO leaving molten pools of rubber on the asphalt in the early 60s. But that just ain't the way it happened. I learned to drive in a '59 Rambler American that had a three-speed stick on the column with overdrive. It sure wasn't fast, but I did beat my girlfriend's (now wife) '60 Plymouth one time. I then proceeded to buy, what is in my opinion, one of the ugliest modern-day cars, a '58 Chevy Biscayne. This was about all a 17-year-old working at MacDonald's in 1965 could afford. Fast forward a couple of years and I find myself with a real job and proceed to buy a '65 Impala SS with a 4-speed, bench seat, and a 327 engine. This car took Jeannie and me through courting and marriage. Shortly after marriage and the prospect of a new baby and $100 gasoline bills (remember this was when Custom Supreme was less than 30 cents a gallon), we sold the car. A series of mundane 'growing family' and soccer mom'n'dad cars followed over the next 20+ years. A brand new smog-dogged '77 Impala even made its way in there. As our daughter approached graduation from college, we decided that it was time for some fun. So, you think, now we can finally get to the GTO part. Nope, not quite yet. We bought a fire-engine red '65 Buick Skylark convertible. We got on the road a couple thousand dollars later, having put in a new GM Goodwrench 350 engine and Turbo 350 tranny. We took this car to Hot August Nights for two years before we came to the conclusion that cooking like a couple of french fries in that black interior while being blown by the wind was just not the way we wanted to travel. Jeannie remembered dragging the main in an early GTO and has a '67 Tempest still in the family. I mainly had memories of tail lights, fading tail lights. So, in early '92 the search for the perfect GTO, for us, began. We wanted an automatic air car. Our goal was to be able to make it a long-distance cruiser. After following many fruitless leads, I found the car in Shingle Springs near Placerville. The car had a nice Fontaine Blue paint job and a fair interior. All A/C equipment from the firewall forward was missing. Searches through junk yards and Hemmings Motor news helped us find the missing parts. My son, Mike, was the mechanic of the day. He installed the A/C parts and also switched the front brakes from drum to discs. This is without a doubt one of the best improvements to this car. Driving a 4000 pound car with drum brakes can be a real experience. When hot, you never know when you are gonna stop! With Mike the mechanic we also added PST front and rear sway bars, a three-speed transmission, water pumps and radiators. Overheating in hot weather seemed to be the order of the day, even after the engine was rebuilt. The car now has a Griffin aluminum radiator and electric fans. Many thanks to Wayne Barnes, of ON TRACK AUTOMOTIVE, in helping me to tame the heat in the beast. My son and his friend also installed a great stereo system in the car. The Kenwood head unit is mounted below the dash in a matching color enclosure. Mids & tweets are mounted in the doors with two 10-inch bass speakers, in a custom-made box residing in the trunk. Separate Kenwood amps for the bass and mids & tweets are mounted on this box, along with the 12-disc CD changer. Hot tunes from the '60s are the order of the day when we drive this GTO! This comes in handy to mask the sounds of the Flowmaster exhaust system with 3-inch chrome exhaust tips exiting under the rear bumper. New interior has been added over the years. We have a Carrera steering wheel and the fifteen-inch rims are from Boyd with BFG radials that have had red lines installed. My son also supplied CNC discs for the wheels and steering wheel. These have been engraved with the GTO insignia and polished. Power to the ground is supplied by a completely rebuilt original '66 Safe T Track rear end supplied by California Differentials and installed by Wayne Barnes. Additional tweaking by Wayne over the last year has helped eliminate some squeaks and groans from the GTO as well as unleashed some of the hidden horsepower from the engine. The car is not fast, by any means, but it is a consistent cruiser and has taken us in air-conditioned comfort to L.A., Reno, Fresno, Monterey and many other places. Our Vice President Tom Gormley has said in the past, "You can't go back." Well, Jeannie and I have news for him. Not only have we gone back to the sixties, but we are having more fun, have a better stereo, and definitely have more money this time! On Oct. 5, 1996 the Golden Gate Goats met for the first time. I volunteered to be the newsletter editor. A challenge was made in an early issue of the Goat Connection, to get member contributions for the newsletter. I made the proclamation that 1966 was the BEST YEAR! The article simply pointed out that 1966 saw the first separate body for the GTO, not just upgrades on another model. It also stated the absolute fact that no GTO model year before or since has ever sold as many cars! Just like in record sales, computer sales, or most anything else: those that sell the best are at the top! The challenge to readers then and now, is that if you don't agree then send something in. If you don't, then you must agree! For three years now the debate has continued. Remember there is only one all-time sales leader!! (P.S. Don't tell anyone, but the Best Year is the one you are driving!) Driving this car has been the ultimate blast. The members of the Golden Gate Goats who we have met and made friends with are truly a great bunch of people. Although the cars are great, it is the people who drive them who truly make it a fantastic experience. Good music, great cars and super people. Our grandest dream would be to have all of our 200 members and their cars make it out for our events. Won't you please help this happen? Jeannie and I hope to see all of you real soon!
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