The Ultimate Pontiac GTO Picture Site By Sean Mattingly. There's no bigger GTO image collection anywhere!

What's the difference between a '68 LeMans and a GTO?

• GTO has no row of holes in the rear quarter panels. Stick your head inside the trunk. You should see no bondoed holes where the "LeMans" letters used to be attached through the rear quarter panels ahead of the arrowhead marker lights.
• See the red lenses in the brake lights. LeMans had a different design. In each light there were three squares side by side. GTO has two long horizontal rectangles.
• See the trunk lid. LeMans had individual chrome letters under the keyhole spelling out "PONTIAC". There should be no holes for these letters visible. Instead, the GTO has only two holes for the "GTO" emblem in the lower right corner of the trunk lid.
• If the front bumper is chrome, it MAY be a LeMans. Some GTO's were ordered with chrome bumpers instead of the Endura nose.
• If the front grille says "PONTIAC" on the driver's side, maybe you've just bought a LeMans. Paul Zazarine's book called "GTO Recognition Guide" shows a photo and description of an Endura Delete (chrome bumper) GTO. The grille emblem says "GTO". Here is a picture of an Endura Delete car that was emailed to me.


This car had the "GTO" emblem on it. I am personally not sure, but I think the hole spacing for the two different emblems may be different as well. My old "PONTIAC" grille emblem from my '68 LeMans measures exactly 7 7/8" between the post hole centers. Although, two people have written to me whose GTO VIN numbers checked out to be GTOs, but their chrome bumper had a "PONTIAC" emblem in the grille. Both cars are so far undocumented unsolved mysteries. If your chrome bumpered GTO has the incorrect "PONTIAC" emblem on the grille, email me your VIN and data plate codes. Maybe we can figure out if particular factories were mis-applying the emblem. In response, Paul Dorton (pauldort@email.msn.com) says: "There were no absolutes when it comes to the cars of the 60s and 70s. I worked in Pontiac dealers starting in 1968 through 1980. I was a mechanic and a service writer before moving over to the Parts department. There wasn't the same rigidness and quality control on the assembly lines as we have today. Take the nameplate in the grill. The correct answer is that the car could come either way. It really did depend on the guy on the assembly line and what parts were available. A copper colored '68 GTO had LeMans grilles and a PONTIAC name plate in the grill. I remember it very distincly. What happened is that there was a LeMans bumper assembly installed on this particular GTO."Paul also adds: "I also wanted to let you know something about the '68 Endura Delete option on GTOs. Sometimes it was not an option. I distinctly remember seeing a copper colored '68 GTO with the chrome bumper that came that way because there were certain special order colors available that they couldn't make stick to the rubber bumper. In '68, body shops hated GTOs because of the problems with painting the bumper and making it stick. For the first year or so you had to buy the paint from a Pontiac dealer because none of the paint stores had it. The paint came in quart cans. Anyway, if you knew the right people, any color could be had and if the color wasn't one of the ones listed in the catalog, you got a chrome bumper."

• Does the car have a 350 in it? That's too small to be a GTO engine.
• Look for GTO emblems in the interior on the door panels.
• Read the V.I.N. plate through the windshield on top of the dashboard. According to DANDBS@concentric.net...  The number starts with "2" for Pontiac, then "42" meaning GTO, then a "67" if it was a convertible, and an "8" for 1968.

 

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