writer: Christopher R. Phillip
photographer: Randall Allen
When Jim Kaminske of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, went to look at his keepsake '72 GTO, he found out two things that were very special: this low-option post coupe GTO is ultra-rare and, according to its previous owner, it's afraid of the rain. Before you say ombrophobia should be a standard option in all classic Pontiacs, get ready to read the true story.
The SearchThis '72 Wilderness Green GTO appeared on eBay in the fall of 2004. Jim Kaminske saw it late in the auction, and although it sparked his curiosity, he felt he did not have enough time before the auction ended to research the GTO and see if it was as rare as he thought.
After six months, the very same GTO was offered for sale again, this time only 200 miles from Jim Kaminske's home. He recalls, "I followed the GTO to the end of the auction and just assumed that it had sold. Some months later, while looking at the Car Trader Online (www.traderonline.com), the GTO popped up again. Call it a blessing or a stroke of good fate, Jim felt he had seen a rainbow twice in one day. He says, "I thought about it and called and received more information from the owner. After much more research on the GTO, I decided to go and see it in person."
Without the looming deadline of an auction's final seconds counting against him, Jim had the time he needed to learn everything he could about Pontiac's post-coupe '72 GTO. In doing so, he realized that he had found one of the rarest oddball Pontiacs ever produced.
"It was a rainy weekend, so I left an auction in Tampa, Florida, early on a Sunday and made plans to see the Goat, approximately an hour due east from where I was," Jim tells HPP. "It was raining when we arrived. The owner reluctantly pulled the GTO out of a packed garage and into the driveway. It was beautiful sitting there, even in the rain. All the while, the owner kept saying, 'It's raining and this GTO has never seen rain.' I was not allowed to drive it because the owner would not condone having the rare vehicle on the street in the rain. He wanted it back in the garage as soon as possible. All I could think of was either the owner or the GTO itself had ombrophobia."
Phobia or no phobia, Jim Kaminske knew he wanted to own the GTO. "The '72 was immaculate. We left that day talking about the unbelievable condition of the Goat the entire way home. My son and I have another '72 GTO, which is his, that we had been restoring for the past two years. I promised him the year before that we would try to have his GTO ready for the POCI National Convention in July of 2005, but with the hurricanes in the previous year and a tremendous work load, that deadline was fast approaching and we were nowhere near ready. I had to think of another plan.
"The thought in the back of my mind was this GTO was rare, in very good condition, and needed very little to be ready for the show. I pursued the research and, when satisfied that this post-coupe GTO was what it was supposed to be, I called the owner and made a deal, pending a test drive and closer look in good weather," he says.
It was the find of his lifetime. Kaminske tells HPP the rare Goat was exactly what he expected, "The GTO checked out and drove great, so we came home with it on March 6, 2005."
The HistoryIn 1972, the GTO was an appearance and performance package for the Pontiac LeMans. Only RPO Code 334 could turn a LeMans into a GTO, and transform a simple family coupe into a high-brow musclecar. Included were a 400 four-barrel V-8 engine, a three-speed manual shift transmission, dual exhaust with side splitters, Endura front bumper, GTO dual scooped hood, front fender air extractors, HD springs, firm shock absorbers, front and rear stabilizer bars, G70x14 blackwall tires, GTO call-out emblems and decals and a swirl-finished aluminum dash trim plate.
Just 5,807 GTOs were produced in 1972. That's a far cry from the car line's heyday of 1966 when Pontiac sold 96,946 examples.
Opening the hood on Kaminske's 85,000-mile '72 GTO, we find that its owners always cared about the Goat's condition. Mounted within the A-body front frame rails is a 250-net-horse 400 ci engine. It is stamped with Code WS, which signifies a '72 GTO with a 400/three-speed manual combo. Within the block was a rotating assembly consisting of a Pontiac cast crank, rods, and pistons. Bolted to the block were Code 7K3 heads using 2.11/1.77 valves and 99cc combustion chambers to reduce the compression ratio to 8.2:1 for regular fuel.
The stock 067 cam featured 273/289-degrees advertised duration and 0.410/0.413-inch lift. Standard exhaust manifolds 9776922 (right) and 480602 (left) led to a factory dual exhaust. Pontiac's efficient dual plane iron intake sat on top of the long-block and was crowned with a Rochester Q-jet stamped 7042263. The distributor was code 1112121.