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Car
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For July 2000 |
Charles "Poncho" Kneefe's 1967 GTO |
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Charles “PONCHO” NEEFE’S 1967 GTO When I was about six years old my Dad told me stories about his 1967 GTO that he had after a tour of duty in Vietnam. He told me of it's power and how much fun he had driving and racing his Tiger Gold GTO. It was then that I decided I wanted to own a GTO. I began to read about Pontiacs, especially GTOs, in the muscle car books and magazines my Dad had at home. I learned a lot about GTOs, I talked about them all the time to anyone that would listen and I asked my Dad to take me to car shows where I could look at the the GTOs. I especially liked the ‘67 GTO, like the one my Dad once owned. Man, how I wanted a ‘67 GTO of my very own someday. In October 1992, when I was nine years old, my Dad was told about an old run down GTO located near Fallon. My Dad and I went to take a look. The car was a ‘67 GTO equipped with automatic transmission with a his and hers Hurst floor shifter, 400 cubic inch HO engine, air conditioning, power steering, power brakes, 3:23 posi rear end, 8-track tape deck, and many other options. The GTO needed lots of work and was in very bad shape. It was not the Ram Air four speed model my dad once owned, but I thought this might be my only chance to ever have a ‘67 GTO of my very own. I told my Dad I would like to have the car and we could restore it together. He bought the car for me at a good price and I was really happy and excited. When we pulled the GTO home, my Mom came out to see my GTO, she shook her head and then looked at both of us like we were crazy. She told us that she wanted that rusty hunk of junk and boxes of parts out of her yard and we were not to bring it back until it was finished. I thought we were in real big trouble. So, we moved the car to a friend's barn. We rebuilt the engine and transmission. While the engine was out of the car, we painted the frame and reworked the front end, installed heavy duty springs and shocks, disc brakes, a rear sway bar, and a larger front sway bar. In July 1994, after we installed the engine and transmission, we completed the body work and moved the car to the paint shop. My Dad wanted to paint the GTO bright red and I wanted a shade of yellow, very similar to the 1994 Mustang gold color with the addition of a tiny bit of silver pearl in-the clear coat I called this color Poncho Yellow. I won out and on July 29, 1994, we painted my car Poncho Yellow. We worked day and night to put the bumpers and trim on the car so we could make it to the last two days of Hot August Nights. My Mom and Sister helped with the detail painting of the wheels and cleaned the windows and inside of the car. My Mom helped us out a lot working hard to get my car ready. We finally got the GTO about eighty five percent complete. The interior still needed some work, but the exterior looked good and the loud rumble from the tail pipes said "GO FOR IT!" I call my ‘67 GTO “PONCHO” and it has license plates to match. It became the Biggest Little GTO in the World when we cruised under the arch on Virginia Street in downtown Reno for the first time at Hot August Nights in 1994. I remember one guy from the crowd yelling out “Look at that cool yellow GOAT!” I was proud of all the time and hard work my family and I had put into PONCHO. That was real PONTIAC EXCITEMENT! I will never forget that night and I will keep PONCHO forever, so my son can some day own a real GTO and share the feelings of Pontiac Excitement with me. I have taken my car to Hot August Nights for the past 6 years and have entered her in many shows and events. But nothing excited me like last year during the parade down Virginia Street to end Hot August Nights. For the first time, I was driving PONCHO when we cruised under the arch in downtown Reno. What a great feeling that was for me! ! ! I Real PONTIAC EXCITEMENT! Mom now allows me to keep PONCHO at home in the garage space where she used to park her car. I am now 16 years old and I have restored four other GTOs, including my ‘69 Red Judge, that we call REDGOAT (with matching license plates), a couple of Mustangs, and a ‘68 Buick GS 2-door post that is now my daily driver for school. I forgot we are also restoring a ‘67 Firebird for my MOM. Then she can join in the fun of PONTIAC EXCITEMENT. I got my ‘69 Judge 5 years' ago. “REDGOAT” needed a lot of work. We painted it Porsche Indian Red, restriped it, re-did the entire interior, tweaked the turbo 400 tranny, installed a Hurst ratchet shifter and rebuilt the engine. We ported and polished the 48 heads, installed a 1965 tri-power setup, and an Auburn 3.91 posi rear end. REDGOAT turned out great with one exception, the price of racing gas to keep it going is killing me!
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