The Goat. North Hills, PA
1967 Pontiac GTO
Considering the excitement surrounding the Pontiac GTO, it is tough to believe that it wasn’t the fastest or most powerful muscle car back when it was launched. However, it still ranks at the top of the muscle car list because it was the first car that gave birth and popularized the genre. Muscle cars were essentially an invention of marketing, rather than technology, and the GTO offered this aspect for the first time to baby boomers.
This car was introduced in 1964, as the optional GTO performance package for the Pontiac Tempest. It gained traction and emerged as a popular supercar, which was later termed as “muscle car”. GTO is often known as The Legend or The Great One, and has also been referred to as The Grandfather of Muscle Cars. However, the name of “The Goat” is what defined its reign, and remains common when it comes to classic GTOs.
John DeLorean is the person who took the acronym of GTO from the Ferrari 250 GTO. The abbreviation stands for Gran Turismo Omolgato, which means a versatile car that can be used for racing in multiple events. As per Edmunds, “the Ferraristi were up in arms about an American carmaker giving a midsize coupe with no pedigree the same name as their legendary sports car.” Despite a lot of protests, the name Pontiac remained, and perhaps it can be attributed to sheer arrogance!
Americans tend to reduce car names to a world comprising a single syllable as it is easier to pronounce and remember. Thus a Corvette becomes ‘vette, while Mustang is shortened to ‘stang and Baracuda to ‘cuda. The latter influenced Plymouth to refer to performance based models as ‘Cuda in the year 1968. Similarly, Goat became synonymous as the single syllable term for Pontiac GTO. The original source of this name is still unknown, but it caught on and remained. Some say the name is a reversal of the last two letters in GTO.
The Goat. North Hills, PA
1967 Pontiac GTO
Considering the excitement surrounding the Pontiac GTO, it is tough to believe that it wasn’t the fastest or most powerful muscle car back when it was launched. However, it still ranks at the top of the muscle car list because it was the first car that gave birth and popularized the genre. Muscle cars were essentially an invention of marketing, rather than technology, and the GTO offered this aspect for the first time to baby boomers.
This car was introduced in 1964, as the optional GTO performance package for the Pontiac Tempest. It gained traction and emerged as a popular supercar, which was later termed as “muscle car”. GTO is often known as The Legend or The Great One, and has also been referred to as The Grandfather of Muscle Cars. However, the name of “The Goat” is what defined its reign, and remains common when it comes to classic GTOs.
John DeLorean is the person who took the acronym of GTO from the Ferrari 250 GTO. The abbreviation stands for Gran Turismo Omolgato, which means a versatile car that can be used for racing in multiple events. As per Edmunds, “the Ferraristi were up in arms about an American carmaker giving a midsize coupe with no pedigree the same name as their legendary sports car.” Despite a lot of protests, the name Pontiac remained, and perhaps it can be attributed to sheer arrogance!
Americans tend to reduce car names to a world comprising a single syllable as it is easier to pronounce and remember. Thus a Corvette becomes ‘vette, while Mustang is shortened to ‘stang and Baracuda to ‘cuda. The latter influenced Plymouth to refer to performance based models as ‘Cuda in the year 1968. Similarly, Goat became synonymous as the single syllable term for Pontiac GTO. The original source of this name is still unknown, but it caught on and remained. Some say the name is a reversal of the last two letters in GTO.