The General Motors-owned Pontiac marque is now extinct but it is still remembered for the Pontiac GTO, the big daddy of them all. This is the car that kickstarted the muscle car era and arrived just a little ahead of the Ford Mustang, which was more pony than muscle but sold in droves.
It's not even as if the Pontiac GTO was a “new” car, it was more a streamlining of the existing Pontiac Tempest LeMans into pure street performance, considering GM had banned many of its divisions from the racing performance. This is the reason why the GTO was first just a trim of the Tempest, with GTO standing for Grand Tempest Option. Later on, it became big enough to diverge into its nameplate.
While it’s a car pined after by many, Justin Timberlake of the N-Sync boyband fame owns 1967 one, and this is what we know about it.
A Brief History Of The Pontiac GTO
Pontiac was born in 1906 and after more than 100 years of making cars like the GTO, Firebird, TransAm, and even the Fiero; it was sacrificed by GM in favor of keeping Chevy afloat during a financial crisis. So after more than a century of making performance cars, Pontiac became defunct in 2009.
Initially known for cars like the Chieftain and Bonneville, Pontiac entered its first muscle car into the market in 1964. The Pontiac GTO survived for a decade before the oil embargo and stringent emission policies killed it with dwindling sales in 1974. It was brought back in 2004 but somehow could not capture its original charm and retired again in 2006, this time for good.
For GTO-enthusiasts, it’s always been the first generation classic that still holds ground. It was an S-type muscle car, powered by a crazy 7.4-liter V8, also known as the Oldsmobile V8 that let the GTO whiz at top speeds of 120mph. It remains one of the fastest and most well-respected cars by Pontiac.
The 1967 GTO came powered with a standard 6.4-liter engine that jetted 335 horses, and a higher output one that made 360 horses. There were also some ahead-of-their-time safety features in the car, like an energy-absorbing steering wheel, emergency flashing lights, and a padded instrument panel. More than 81,000 Pontiac GTO's sold in 1967, with over 65,000 being hardtops.
The Time Justin Timberlake Fell In Love
No, not with Jessica Biel, though their combined fortunes could and probably does help them support a hefty car garage.
This time around, we are talking about the time Justin Timberlake was filming with for the 2012 movie, Trouble With The Curve, starring Clint Eastwood and Amy Adams. In the movie, Timberlake’s character drives a 1967 Pontiac GTO, and Timberlake was so besotted with the car, he had to get one for himself.
The movie was not about cars and rather about baseball with both Eastwood and Timberlake playing scouts. Timberlake also plays the love interest of Amy Adams, who in turn essayed the role of Eastwood's daughter. It may not be a riveting watch but Trouble With The Curve is a well-rounded human drama with shades of romance in it.
Timberlake fell in love with the Pontiac GTO on the sets and once the movie wrapped up, he missed that crazy V8 power.
The Actual 1967 Pontiac GTO Timberlake Owns
Since Timberlake could not stop thinking about the car, he began to look for it high and low and was lucky enough to come across someone who had just finished restoring a GTO, and barely put any miles on it. So think of it as nearly new.
The car belonged to a Mason, the owner of the Dallas-based HCC Performance. He did a restoration of a 1967 Pontiac GTO, ending with a black muscle car wonder with bright red interiors and redline tires to match. Hundreds of man-hours went into doing this car right, but the owner who commissioned this project put it up for sale soon after, probably wanting to make a quick buck.
According to Dallas News, just hours after the listing went up, Timberlake made his offer, and today, this celebrity is the proud owner of an equally renowned car, the Pontiac GTO, restored to factory level distinctions.
The seller and the restorer of the car did not reveal much about the price, though normally, most resto-mods go for far less than they cost to rebuild, both in terms of money and manhours involved. As a general figure, a Pontiac GTO in a great if not mint condition can go for more than $50,000 on the classic car bazaar. But this one may have gone a lot higher.
But Timberlake is keeping mum and the beautiful car with those cool bucket seats speaks for itself. Especially with Jessica Biel sitting in it.
Sources: Dallas News, Driving Line, IMDb, Pop Sugar