The Ultimate Pontiac GTO Picture Site
by Sean Mattingly. 2005 GTOAA International Convention coverage
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The 2005 GTOAA Convention was held in Saint Louis Missouri at the Westport Holiday Inn. It was hosted by the Gateway GTO Club June 28th through July 3rd. I could not attend, but site helper, Jeff Klein, and his family attended and represented the site. GTOs from all years were present at the show. There were some Tempests, LeManss, and GT-37s there too. Besides looking at all the cars, GTOAA members could catch a whole host of technical and historical seminars, join the cruise-ins to local restaurants, drag racing and the first ever autocross event (both at the nearby Gateway International Raceway). Did you attend and take any interesting pictures that you would like to share? Use our upload page to have them considered for publishing on these pages. CLICK->
Around the back of the hotel was the swap meet. There was an UltimateGTO.com tent were we sold stuff. Here is Jeff Klein and his two kids Jessica and Jonathan. They sold Rally wall clocks, GTO option mugs, wooden GTO and Judge nameplates, tiger striped fuzzy dice, tiger striped purses, tiger stuffed animals, and fans. It was hot! Wednesday it was 103 degrees out. Many UltimateGTO.com website visitors stopped by to say, "HI". CLICK->
What would a GTO show be without a tiger? This one could be seen shaking hands, posing in cars, and even sat inside the engine compartment of a 65 GTO. Anyone got pictures of that? Jeff Klein lost about 50 pictures from the show including this one. CLICK->
A set of special GTOs where placed in the main Banquet hall during the 2005 GTOAA Convention. This is Arnie "The Farmer" Beswick's original, "The Judge" race car that he ran in the early 70's. You may remember seeing a diecast scale replica of this car elsewhere. CLICK->
Arnie's THE JUDGE still wears it's wild 70's graphics on the hood and trunk lid. CLICK->
I bet I know how this was painted. I bet they put down some 1/4 inch tape, air brushed the tape lines with black paint, then removed the tape to leave the Carousel Red paint in the middle. The spoiler is even painted to match. CLICK->
There's a Ram Air engine under the hood. CLICK->
Another of the special GTOs inside the Banquet Hall. This is the 1970 Knafel Pontiac Tin Indian GTO. CLICK->
Right rear view of the blue and white 1970 Knafel Pontiac Tin Indian GTO hardtop. CLICK->
Here's what's under the hood of the 1970 Knafel Pontiac Tin Indian GTO. CLICK->
This is another of the special GTOs where placed in the main Banquet hall during the 2005 GTOAA Convention. Jim Wangers called this car one of the five most important GTOs built. This is the Tiger Gold 1965 Hurst "GeeTO Tiger". The following was written on a sign near the car, "In 1965, marketing guru Jim Wangers ('Godfather of the GTO'), along with Pontiac, George Hurst, and Peterson Publishing, put together a special contest to promote the elatively new Pontiac GTO and Hurst Performace Products. The contest was based on a special album recorded by 'The Tigers', on the Colpix label, entitled 'GeeTO Tiger'. The flip side was the 'Big Sounds of the GeeTO TIger', which was recorded at speed on the GM test track, including wide-open acceleration, high-speed cornering, brake testing, and the like. The Grand Prize for the contest was, obviously, a 1965 GTO, named the 'GeeTO Tiger'. Specially equippped with over 28 factory options plus special gold Hurst mag wheels, a special Hurst Gold paint job, and a gold plated Hurst Shifter, it was the Ultimate 65 GTO - and the ultimate promotional vehicle for all involved. Jim Wangers recalled the car in an interview in 1983. 'The top prize... was this very special GTO, (the) GeeTO Tiger, which was built by Hurst, they actually sponsored the promotion with a lot of cooperation from Pontiac. It was done in a very special paint - what they called Hurst Gold in those days - which we renamed Tiger Gold. It was a 65 hardtop, tri-power, 4-speed with all the good stuff - Safe-T-Track, close ratio 4-speed, and suspension package. It was a Tiger Gold car with a black vinyl top - which in those days was very 'in' - it had a very special set of gold Hurst wheels and it had redline tires - and this was used as a dual promotion to promote not only the record, but obviously the GTO - obviously Hurst, which was a very important part of Pontiac promotion as we were the first car to ever put a Hurst shifter in right from the factory. (This car) was also designed to promote the GeeTO Tiger show which was going on at the drag strip. The car was never raced, it was a brand new car especially prepared for the contest. It had a lot of luxury options - it was not a race car perse, it was a nice total street machine, you know, it had power steering, power brakes, because it was supposed to be the nicest GTO you could put your hands on. It was a special car put together just for that program. It came through as a regular car and it was promoted as being a Royal Bobcat. The Hurst conversion was done locally - Hurst had a big shop here. It was never driven, it was a brand new car when it was awarded. (They) did put a gold shifter in it. Hurst Gold - actually, a derivative of Hurst Gold in '65 - became a regular production option in 1966, it was a big seller in '66 - it was called Tiger Gold by Pontiac both for the GTO and LeMans. In fact, we introduced the '67 Firebird in that color.' The 'GeeTO Tiger' was heavily promoted in every automotive magazine for months in 1965 with full page ads and lots of editorial coverage. Both Hurst and Pontiac advertised the car. Pontiac featured the record in many of their ads, and in total, over 450,000 'GeeTO Tiger' albums were distributed. To win the contest, you had to listen to the song entitled 'GeeTO Tiger' and count the number of times the word 'tiger' was sung. You were then instructed to submit this number along with a 25 word or less paragraph entitled 'Why I'd like to win the original GeeTO Tiger', along with your name and address. The deadline was July 31st, 1965. On July 27th, 1965, after seeing an ad for the contest in Hot Rod Magazine, Alex Lampone, a 19 year old from West Allis, Wisconsin, sat down and neatly typed his entry. It read, 'Dear Sirs: The word Tiger is sung 42 times in the record entitled GeeTO Tiger. Below is my entry as to why I would like to win the original GeeTO Tiger: Prowling around in a custom Tiger like the GeeTO, I'd be as sure as a Hurst shift to make a hit with all the cats'. Lampone's entry, amazingly enough, made it from West Allis, Wisconsin, to Hurst headquarters in Pennsylvania before the deadline four days later. He had counted the correct number of times the word 'tiger' was sung, and the judges (including George Hurst, Dick Day (Car Craft Magazine), and Wally Parks (of the NHRA)) liked his reason for wanting the car the most of all. Within weeks, young Alex Lampone was the personal guest of George Hurst at the NHRA National Drags in Indianapolis. The keys to the 'GeeTO Tiger' were formally presented by George Hurst at dinner, along with Jack 'Doc' Watson and Miss Gold Shifter Pat Flannery. Hot Rod Magazine was on hand to document the occasion. The next day, Alex Lampone was introduced by George Hurst to the Nationals crowd at the races. Alex Lampone treasured the car and drove it sparingly for a few years. He then sold it to another young man from West Allis, Pete Yeko. Pete drag raced the car at Great Lakes Drag-a-way in Union Grove, Wisconsin, in the stock classes, winning nearly every time as he recalls. Yeko also strived to keep the car in perfect condition. In 1975, Yeko sold the car to GTO collector Jim Urban, of Appleton, Wisconsin. At this time, the car had 50,000 miles and was still in exceptional shape. Urban rebuilt the original engine and advertised the car for sale. Jerry Treleven of Appleton, Wisconsin saw the car advertised, and, at the urging of his friends, paid the asking price of $4,200, pretty steep for a 65 GTO in 1975! Knowing only that he liked the car and that Urban told him the car was 'very special'. Treleven drove the car only occasionally. It was not until a chance encounter with Jim Wangers that Treleven knew exactly what he had. Treleven had the car repainted in approximately 1982, with the exception of this paint job and the engine rebuild, the car is completely original and unrestored. It currently has 59,000 miles. The 'GeeTO Tiger' has been written about in The Big Little GTO Book, Jim Wangers' Glory Days, Classic Sixties magazine, Car Collector magazine, Dennis Kirban's Hurst Wheel and Memorabilia book, and many others. Jim Mattison of Pontiac Historic Services considers the 'GeeTO Tiger' to be perhaps the most significant GTO of all time. Certainly no other GTO has as many ties to GTO history as the 'GeeTO Tiger', being a real Royal Bobcat car, hand assembled by Pontiac Engineering and Hurst Performance Products, being sung about on a record with a distribution of over 450,000, as well as having hundreds of thousands of (1965) dollars spent on promotion plus being the centerpiece of the 1965 NHRA National Event with George Hurst and Wally Parks as it chaparone. After nearly thirty years in Jerry Treleven's car, Jerry sold the Hurst 'GeeTO Tiger' to GTO collector Colin Corner. The 'GeeTO Tiger' has now been reunited with the 1965 Hurst / Motor Trend Magazine Riverside 500 GTO Pace Car." 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This special Tiger Gold 1965 GTO sports a set of original gold Hurst wheels. The original 1965 GeeTo Tiger contest car sold at auction in October of 2007 for an amazing $400,000. Jim Wangers drove it onto the podium. See 7 photos of the car with the gold Hurst wheels, also see a video on the history of the car at these websites: Mecum Auctions the GeeTo Tiger and an article in
The Daily Herald CLICK->
Here is a close-up of those special gold Hurst Wheels. CLICK->
The interior is white. There is that gold plated Hurst shifter! CLICK->
And... a Tri-Power under the hood.
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