1964 Pontiac GTO - TKO GTO

For Pontiac, 1964 was the year of the GTO. As the story goes, John DeLorean and company installed the 389 engine from a fullsize Pontiac Catalina into a midsize Tempest LeMans, thus starting the musclecar era. Almost instantly, automotive magazines began proclaiming the GTO as the hottest muscle on America's modern roads. It was attractive, alluring, and affordable. The base price for a hardtop was $2,852, allowing anybody to buy one for monthly payments of $90 or so, drive it off the showroom floor and straight onto the dragstrip.

Forty-three years have passed, and the GTO is once again the hottest selling, albeit a classic, Pontiac in America. If you want one, be ready to beat out every other bidder in line (and online) for one of the few examples that aren't fixed in private collections. What was originally a $295 option on a Tempest LeMans has become the pricey icon for all things Pontiac.

Our example is a Tri-Power, four-speed, two-time Concours Restored Silver-awarded, numbers-matching (except the trans), hardtop GTO. Ilan Vilensky of Spring Valley, New York, is the owner and he views his GTO as "the return of an old teenage friend." You see, like many people, Ilan decided to collect the musclecars he owned 40 years ago when they were new and he was young.

He first learned of GTOs in 1965 when he was an 18-year-old hitchhiker. Ilan was going through Nebraska and a Good Samaritan gave him a ride in a '65 GTO. To show off, its owner punched the gas, twisted the body sideways, reeled it back in, and then floored it until the car pegged the speedometer. Ilan was hooked.

The in-dash tach features a set-your-own redline indicator, flushed over a green-for-go rpm band.

Though this GTO came equipped with a push-button AM radio, it's hardly ever used. The owner prefers to listen to the wail of the factory Tri-Power setup.

To a Pontiac owner, this resembles opening a box of chocolates and finding all the best flavors. This Concours Restored Silver Tri-Power 389 shows beautiful attention to the original factory firewall markings, correct engine enamel paint, choke tube and thermostatic choke setup, factory ribbed heater hose, and original-style reproduction radiator coolant warning notice in light cardboard.

Soon thereafter, he bought a '65 GTO of his own. It had a Tri-Power and a four-speed, and it was bathed in beautiful Nightwatch Blue with Parchment interior. He regretted ever letting go of it some 40 years ago, which is why his current concours-restored '64 hardtop is a keeper for the rest of his lifetime.

"It was love at first sight," Ilan says. "I always wanted to recapture the memories of my first GTO with another '65 or a '64 model. So when I became successful, I had to replace the car I had as a youth." He ultimately chose a '64 GTO because that year started the musclecar era.

Because he owns a carpeting store, Ilan knew he wouldn't have the time to restore a GTO when the search began. So he sought out one that was already finished. An online auction offered a body-off restored GTO in Grenadier Red (code V), with a black Morrokide-clad interior (code 214). Though its four-speed trans was not original, it was still a step up from the standard three-speed.

Documented by its original buildsheet, this GTO is a factory Tri-Power manual-trans car. Check out the '64 World's Fair plate.

Posted photos showed incredible details of the GTO's four-year meticulous restoration, so Ilan e-mailed the auction's seller for the full story. The bids jumped to $20,000 on its first day with six days remaining. Ilan wasn't willing to take a last-minute chance so he offered $30,000 on the spot and the seller agreed.

Only 32,450 '64 GTOs were produced. Of those, 8,245 were optioned with the "go faster" Tri-Power setup. Even fewer manual-shift, Tri-Power GTOs were built, making Ilan's combination the rarer and more popular one to buy in today's collector market.

The original buildsheet reveals the standard and optional items with which this GTO was assembled at the Pontiac, Michigan, plant. And it shows that April 7, 1964, was its birthday. Coincidentally, IBM introduced its very first micro-circuit chip on this date. The computer world would be forever changed, and the automobile industry would soon follow suit.