Even before their test of a 1967 Ram Air GTO appeared in print, the editors of Car Life had gotten their hands on the redesigned 1968 Pontiac GTO. Their road test in March 1968 found it a great all-around performer, “one of America’s most desirable cars.”
The caption above the photo at the bottom of the above page reads, “HARD CORNERING found GTO to be strongly understeering, with cornering power relatively low and limited by front tire adhesion. Despite low limits, handling was completely predictable and stable; plain fun driving.”
Car Life had been very fond of the 1967 Ram Air GTO they’d tested previously, enough that they had felt obliged to emphasize that it was “a limited-purpose automobile”: It went, handled, and stopped well, but its performance had come at significant sacrifice in tractability and manners in normal driving. Would the ’68 GTO do better? The editors began with a qualifier:
The slick, strong GTO Ram Air Supercar is a gutty quarter-miler, but it’s much, much more. Given a rear axle ratio more suited to normal driving, CAR LIFE’s brilliant red test car would have been a superb high-performance road car.
Their complaint about the axle ratio bears particular attention because their test car — undoubtedly an early-production example provided from the Pontiac press fleet — had a 3.90 axle, which the text subsequently says was “the only one catalogued for the Ram Air package.” While that might have been true at the time of writing (which was likely before the 1968 cars actually went on sale), as it turned out, the only catalogued ratio with the Ram Air option was the even deeper 4.33 axle that the CL editors had found such a hassle with their 1967 test car. Last-minute changes like these were not uncommon, and meant that magazine testers sometimes ended up driving unusual option combinations not ultimately offered to the general public.
The 1968 GTO was 200.7 inches long on a 112-inch wheelbase / AutoHunter
The editors were very impressed with the new styling:
On first glance, the 1968 Pontiac GTO looks like a revamped Firebird. GTO styling is such that the car looks much smaller than it actually is. Perched on the 112-in. wheelbase common to all GM two-door intermediates, the GTO looks more Ponycar than Supercar. The long-hood/short-deck-look is there, in the extreme. Overall contours are smooth and rounded, with no definite separation between upper cockpit and lower body.
Personally, I’m not so taken with the 1968 GM intermediates: The greater damage was done to the four-doors, whose proportions seemed to be at war with their curvaceous detailing, but the two-door versions, like most big fastbacks, looked okay from some angles and decidedly ungainly from others. (I happen to think Oldsmobile pulled it off best in 1968–1969.) The lack of separation between the greenhouse and lower body tended to make these cars look bulbous, especially from the rear, and the popularity of the $94.79 “Cordova” vinyl top — which serves to visually separate the roof from the body — suggests to me that at least some contemporary buyers felt similarly.
Concealed headlamps were a $52.66 option, but did much to enhance the appearance of the front end / AutoHunter
I’m probably biased because I think the 1966–1967 GM A-bodies were among the decade’s handsomest cars (with the commendable virtue of looking good even in fairly basic trim), which would have been a hard act to follow in any case.
Unlike their rivals at Motor Trend, the editors of Car Life didn’t waste space in this road test extolling the virtues of the GTO’s novel Endura nose (which I think they had discussed elsewhere), a flexible urethane foam bumper over a steel frame. Its great claim to fame, often demonstrated in contemporary Pontiac advertising, was that it could be struck with a crowbar or a sledge hammer only to return quickly to its original shape without a trip to the body shop. Unfortunately, fit and finish were often disappointing, and the polymer surface could eventually crack due to heat-warping, especially in hotter, sunnier climates.
With Endura nose and concealed headlights … / AutoHunter
As with the concealed headlights, the Endura nose wasn’t compulsory — there was an Endura-delete credit option — but the GTO didn’t look right without it.
… or with exposed headlights and a chrome bumper / Barn Finds
Car Life remained pleased with the GTO’s cabin:
INTERIOR OF GTO should set an industry standard. Panel design pleases the eye and the car comes with a full set of usable gauges. Hurst gear linkage is part of four-speed option, worked flawlessly.
Getting the “full set of usable gauges” required paying extra for the Rally Gauge Cluster. This cost $84.26 if you put the tachometer in the dash where it belonged.
The yellow car actually has automatic — here’s a different ’68 GTO with four speed / AutoHunter
The CL test car combined the Rally Gauge Cluster with a clock in the right-hand dashboard binnacle and a hood-mounted tach, a combination listing for $103.22. These hood-mounted tachometers are now very popular with modern collectors, but they’ve always struck me as one of Pontiac’s silliest gimmicks, and another expression of Detroit’s frustrating tendency to treat tachometers as a piece of costume jewelry rather than a useful instrument the driver might like to actually be able to read.
If you didn’t mind your tachometer being susceptible to theft, vandalism, and fogging up in humid weather, you could mount it on the hood for $63.19 as a standalone option or $103.22 with the Rally Gauge Cluster / AutoHunter
Setting aside the matter of its “incorrect” axle ratio, the Car Life test car’s Ram Air package was the early-production version — known retroactively as Ram Air I, although it wasn’t called that at the time — which had a high-performance camshaft and valve springs, four-bolt main bearing caps, and low-restriction exhaust manifolds, but with D-shaped exhaust ports. With this package, the hood scoops were opened and a pan with a foam rubber lip was installed around the carburetor, forcing it to breathe through the scoops. Despite the name, as Car Life noted, “Any actual ram effect, due to forward velocity, is so small as to be negligible at any speed the car can attain,” since the design and placement of the scoops only allowed them to pick up sluggish boundary layer air. However, boundary layer air was still cooler and denser than under-hood air, which CL estimated was good for up to 5 percent more power, as well as a reduced risk of vapor lock in hot conditions or repeated drag strip runs.
The Ram Air I option went into only 808 cars (650 of them with the close-ratio four-speed) before production switched in May 1968 to the even rarer Ram Air II engine. This had a still hotter camshaft and round exhaust ports, good for an unspecified further bump in the output of this suspiciously underrated engine; Car Life presumed the 360 hp gross rating was “intended to entice insurance agents and dragstrip classifiers.”
They reported a best quarter mile time of 14.53 seconds with a trap speed of 99.7 mph. Like most CL figures, this was recorded with two testers and their equipment aboard. With just the driver, they achieved a best time of 14.42 seconds at 101.01 mph, remarking:
This puts the Ram Air GTO behind the Plymouth Hemi (CL, Feb. ’68), but a whisker ahead of the standard Plymouth GTX 440 (with 3.23:1 axle ratio). Obviously, specially prepared examples of these cars may juggle the order slightly. But the point is clear: the GTO is among a very small group of very top quarter-mile racers.
As with their 1967 Ram Air car, this performance came with some significant tradeoffs:
The high-performance camshaft had a noticeable effect on the Ram Air GTO’s driveability. Torque at low engine speeds, while not so weak as to be bothersome, was substantially less than others in the 400-cid and larger bracket. The Plymouth/Dodge 440-cid engine, for example, is a real stump-puller, delivering its best performance in the 2000-4500 rpm range. The Ram Air GTO delivers plenty of push, but likes to run between 3000 and 6000 rpm. Below 3000, the GTO ran flat and a bit rough. Part-throttle driving at 2000 around town was difficult and very unpleasant. Frequent use of the gearbox was necessary in slow traffic, though the smoothness and relative quiet of the GTO’s engine at higher speeds made the task of keeping engine speed up reasonably easy.
They also recorded a test average of only 9.9 mpg, on super-premium fuel.
All of the editors’ complaints about the 3.90 axle ratio on their test car, which was short enough to make freeway cruising “anything but pleasant” and easily provoke minor skids on wet roads, would certainly have been magnified with the 4.33 axle fitted to production Ram Air cars. On the other hand, with the 3.23 or 3.36 axle ratio they suggested, the Ram Air engine would have felt even more lethargic below 3,000 rpm, and acceleration with the close-ratio four-speed would have suffered. At that point, an owner would probably have been better off simply installing the Ram Air hood scoop kit on a standard H.O. engine with Turbo Hydra-Matic or a wide-ratio four-speed (which of course many GTO owners have done over the years). The Ram Air package was a drag strip special, optimized for lower ETs; if you were more interested in street driving, you were better off either ordering a different powertrain combination or installing an aftermarket overdrive kit.
This yellow GTO is not an authentic Ram Air I car (which as you might expect are thin enough on the ground to make decent photos hard to find), but it DOES have authentic Rally II wheels and redline tires (albeit modern radial reproductions) / AutoHunter
Gearing notwithstanding, Car Life found the GTO fun to drive within its limits, which were modest even with the optional heavy-duty ride & handling package fitted to their test car:
GTO handling was very good when driven with vigor, and fair when motored sedately around town. Low-speed. gentle cornering gave an impression of excessive understeer and exaggerated nose-heaviness. At higher speeds, cornering nearer the limits of adhesion, this gross understeer disappeared, replaced by a feeling of prevailing, but manageable understeer which could easily be countered with power oversteer. Inadequate shock absorber control and a large amount of suspension system compliance decreased handling precision, but fundamental stability and good balance were still evident. Soft bushings used for compliance and noise isolation in the GTO’s suspension system, particularly at the rear, permitted some wheel hop on hard takeoffs and quick gear changes. GTO cornering limits are not high, front wheel traction preventing exceptional cornering speeds. But, predictability and maneuverability are very good, making the GTO an easy car to go reasonably fast through the turns, without requiring the talents of [prominent Kiwi Formula One driver] Denis Hulme.
The test car had front discs, which provided commendable stopping power and excellent fade resistance. “High performance cars need excellent brakes, and the GTO had them, at least with the power disc/drum option,” the editors remarked.
This cheerful yellow color is Mayfair Maize; the black vinyl top helps to mitigate the bulbousness of the semi-fastback shape / AutoHunter
The editors also offered some useful observations about what the GTO was like to live with:
The test car had all black upholstery, with various textures and embossed designs breaking up the fairly plain surfaces. Front bucket seats appear thin and hard, but are comfortable, with a modicum of side support and acceptable back rake. Rear seat passengers suffer from minimal head room and, with front seats full rearward, knee room is scant. The center rear seat passenger also will be made aware of the proximity of the floorpan drive shaft tunnel at the first big bump.
Big bumps also cause front seat passengers some concern since the GTO’s shock absorbers were too weak to control bottoming or vehicle oscillations after a bump. Spring rates seemed high, giving a ride that was firm without being harsh. Overall ride comfort was judged good, better than high-performance cars from Chrysler and Ford, and road noise transmission was low. Exhaust noise was not low, a booming resonant droning intruding into the otherwise quiet car at low speeds. From outside, exhaust noise was pleasing and powerful sounding. More attention to exhaust system mounting and perhaps additional sound deadening in trunk and passenger compartments should reduce interior boom.
The prominent exhaust note might well have been intentional: This was a Supercar, not an LTD, and a prominent exhaust note was part of the trip, even if the weak-kneed shock damping was not.
From the rear, the 1968 GTO wasn’t easy to distinguish from the cheaper Le Mans / AutoHunter
Car Life summed up:
We liked the GTO, but would opt for a lower ratio rear axle, an engine with a slightly milder camshaft and stronger shock absorbers. All of these, except for the shocks, are available from Pontiac. By choosing options carefully, an owner can tailor a GTO to suit his type of driving, from quarter-miles to high-speed touring. And, he’ll have a truly fine car, one of the best currently available. Acceleration, braking and handling are outstanding, and the car looks exciting. That’s a tough combination to beat.
That was an accurate assessment: The only areas where the GTO was commercially vulnerable at this stage were in selling price (a weakness Plymouth would exploit with the Road Runner) and insurance rates (for which there was ultimately no cure). Pontiac sold 87,684 GTOs for 1968, a strong total in a specialized market segment. Most (73.7 percent) had the standard engine, but the 1,054 Ram Air and Ram Air II cars added luster to the brand and helped owners of the milder versions feel that they too were kings of the road, if only by association.
Related Reading
Vintage Car Life Review: 1967 Pontiac GTO Ram Air – “King Of The Supercars” (by me)
Curbside Classic: 1968 Pontiac GTO – Redpop! (by Joseph Dennis)
Curbside Finds: 1971 Dodge Coronet and 1968 Pontiac GTO – Stuck In The Early ’70s (by Rich Baron)
Curbside Classic: 1969 Pontiac GTO Convertible – Hi-ho Silver! (by J P Cavanaugh)
Curbside Classic: 1969 Pontiac GTO The Judge: Here Come Da Judge! (by J P Cavanaugh)
In Motion Classic: 1969 Pontiac GTO Convertible – Fresh Air (by Joseph Dennis)
Hood tachs on Pontiacs and Autronic Eyes on Cadillacs are two options that collectors seem to add to cars. Better than fender skirts and A-pillar spotlights, but I wish people would resist the urge to mark their new-to-them cars.
Its their money and they can do whatever they want with their cars.
The really rare option for the 1968-69 GTO are Cornering Lamps, RPO 651, $33.70, something typically seen on upscale luxury cars (and not musclecars).
The lamps would require unique front fenders with stamped openings. I have no idea how many were so equipped from the factory, but the numbers are surely no more than low double-digits.
That’s a fascinating thing I never knew until now. The only cars I can think of that fit the sporty/muscle category’s that used cornering lights were C4 Corvettes and Thunderbird Turbo/SuperCoupes from the 80s-90s. The GTO of all models having that option all the way back in 68 is pretty mind blowing. You can tell it’s rare too, I naturally googled them and the same handful of cars pop up in an image search!
It also makes some sense in a way, where the GTO in terms of its midsize body/fullsize engine defines the muscle car formula, the way it was trimmed and adorned was essentially a junior Grand Prix, so having an option like that which I’m sure the GP had isn’t totally left field.
Glad to see the disc brakes…just as important to stop this beast!!
I think the styling on these is very good, except the rear bumper/tail lights. The 67 with the separate bars is a real standout. This just feels like an afterthought, they shove it all together, ran out of styling at the end. That’s my only real complaint about any of the 68-9 A bodies, although I think the Chevy does it better
I think ranking the 68-72 A body posteriors the 68 GTO has to be the worst, even from the dented from the factory Skylarks, the GTO has different lenses from the regular Lemans but who can tell with that bulbous wall of chrome dwarfing them. 69 was an improvement, then 70-72 went retrograde.
I’ve felt this way about 68-72 A bodies since I collected diecast cars as a kid; I don’t think I ever displayed one on a shelf where the back ends are visible lol
I’d put the rear of the Pontiac intermediates slightly above the factory-dented rear bumper of the Skylark, with the 1969 Chevelle and Cutlass tied for first place.
Everything seemed to even-out for 1970-72, with the choice boiling down to division preference.
1971 was the most interesing year with both Chrysler and Ford copying GM’s intermediate coupe rear window styling.
Chrysler and Ford was lucky then GM delayed their intermediate line-up to the 1973 model year. Imagine what if GM launched them originaly for the the 1972 model year? How Chrysler,Ford and to a latter extent AMC, would have reacted?
The Pontiac is worse because the rest of the car is basically a knockout, that rear end is just a complete letdown. The Buick rear has that weird concave bend but it’s fairly consistent with the rest of the hohum 68-69 body, even the front end has that dented look so it’s at least consistent.
I never really cared for 70-72 Pontiac rear end either but adding the body color valance below to break up the mass of chrome did help. I think Oldsmobile through and through had the best looking rear ends in the 68-72 range, I’d probably say Cutlass>Chevelle>Skylark>Lemans for 70-72, which is about the same as my 68-69 ranking
Bodywork tailored with sheetmetal creases, was still popular in the 1960’s.
For fun, I wanted to see the bodywork on this GTO, without the lower body creases. Many ’70’s styling efforts, shed this look. A quick Photoshop, without the bodyside creasing, almost creates an early 1970’s Dodge Charger-like appearance.
I also pinched the rocker panel upwards, to create a look similar to the 1987 Chrysler LeBaron Coupe and convertible.
It somewhat lends a slightly more modern styling appearance to this GTO.
Pinched rocker panel, on the 1987 Chrysler LeBaron coupe.
Barracuda Formula SX concept.
Fascinating! I’ve not seen that concept before. Thanks for sharing.
There’s also a b&w image from Chrysler, but this is the first I’ve seen it in color. I think it’s a full-size clay, but they used some tricks to make the body appear as painted sheetmetal. Whatever, there were aspects of the design which prohibited poduction, with an obvious one being impossibly slim A-pillars.
What’s fascinating is the creation of the SX was in October, 1964, and eventual entry on the showcar circuit in early 1967. Supposedly, when GM got sight of it, due to the remarkable similarity to the upcoming 1968 Pontiac intermediate coupe, they requested it be removed. But it appears that Chrysler didn’t agree and kept it out there almost to the end of 1967, well after the 1968 Pontiacs were out.
A strange situation since, at first, it seems like Chrysler copied Pontiac when, given the apparent timing, it may have been the other way around.
I remember from a Collectable Automobile story- There were 4 different concepts created, originally all finished in silver Di-noc, and I think a blue stripe down the top center of the car.
The SX was styled by 22 year old John Herlitz, who had served an internship at GM while still a student before starting at Chrysler, so who knows what he saw when he was there.
The A pillars look like the full size GM ones of the early 70s
I really found the aft end of these to be too hump backed for me. Same with the Olds Cutlass that year. The taillights were too squinty eyed as well, and the nose was too pinched.
Tack on the hood……Grandpa
I spent some time in the back seat of one of these after Mrs. Bordner next door bought one to replace her 66 GTO. Hers was certainly not a Ram Air car, but did have a 4 speed. It was Verdoro Green with a black vinyl roof and black interior.
I am another who has always preferred the 66-67 GTO to the 68+. But then I have that preference in almost every flavor of GM A body.
One other mystery is why Pontiac so cheapened the dash of the 69 model. The interior of this 68 looked quite good for its era.
I too much prefer the 65-67 GTO with the stacked headlights. Something about the rear bumper/tail lights is kinda lacking on the 68-69.
As for the cheaper interior, that was GM corporate bean counters. Cadillac interiors were so cheesy starting for the 1970 model year,
Yeah, I agree — it’s like the Pontiac studio ran out of ideas somewhere aft of the rear wheelhouses.