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1965 WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR

The Mustang and the GTO were in their second model year. The Corvette finally had decent 4-wheel disc brakes and big power. And the Mopars were putting big engines in their midsize cars.

At least it was a good year for the auto industry.

After graduating from high school in June of ’64, and spending that summer exploring the country side in a friends 1948 Plymouth for “the answer”, I ended up in Salinas, CA. where I went to college for the 64/65 year. I had my ’55 Pontiac Chieftain for transportation. A good reliable car at the time but I wanted something better. Being a Pontiac guy, I wanted a ’65 GTO! How cool was that car? My first impressions of the car were: It had a real looking hood scoop. And the ignition switch was on the far-left side of the dash. I guess the logic was you could start the car with your left-hand when shifting into 1st gear with your right for a quick getaway. Plus it had that checkered flag on the speedo. How cool was that? I wanted a GTO so bad that I quit school to get a job so I could make payments. Problem was I couldn’t find a job that paid enough for me to live, let alone buy a new car. Also, Uncle Sam had other plans for young men not in school at that time. 1965 was starting to become a drag.

My GTO had to wait about twenty-five years. After a hitch in the Navy, several used cars, trucks, marriage, kid, and couple of careers taking priority, I finally found it.

October 1992. A 1965 GTO Convertible was advertised in the Farmers Market Wholesale Weekly want ads. The ad said it needs some work, $5000.00. I quickly went to Fairfield and negotiated the price down to $4000.00 cash and drove it home.

Now I have been a member of the Golden Gate Goats for 10 years. Some of you may remember the episode with the Tri-power fire. That incident was described in some detail in the December 2001 Car of the Month article. Fortunately, thanks to the guy with a fire extinguisher, the car is still running strong. From time to time, I have taken it to the drags and it was fairly consistent in the 14s. Then one day I ran across a set of used BF Goodrich “Radial Drag T/As”. I put them on the car and things started to “click”. I suddenly had some traction. On the last run it broke into the 13s. They asked me to leave. A convertible needs to have a roll bar installed when running that quick. I haven’t taken it back since.

I love tinkering with this car. Over the years its had a 455 cid engine with the stock 2 speed auto trans then a turbo-400 trans. It is now running the stock 389 engine with Tri-Power and a 2004-R 4-speed overdrive automatic transmission. Front disc brakes and posi rear. It is a real nice convertible cruiser.

1965 was a very good year. And it continues to be a very good year. We get a lot of Positive Pontiac Points when we drive the car and we hope to continue having a good year for many years to come.

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