That real Pontiac of yours was a whale-sized, tasteless, bad handling, gas guzzling, poor braking, zero-steering feel, boat with a nose that even an Edsel designer would be embarrassed by.
In every way, the Torrent is a better car. No kidding, if you ever see one of the mid-60's monsters in the flesh, so to speak, you will be shocked how crude a design it is.
That is all a matter of opinion.
The Torrent is a better car in many important ways, but if I had my choice of the two brand new cars, at the same price, I'd take the '68 in a heartbeat. OTOH, I'm retired and for me, long commutes are a thing of the past.
Dave
A real Pontiac is...
Hah! you could say the same thing about a 1939 cadillac, in reality they were works of art. Of course cars are better made today, technology advances make them that way, but they sure as hell are not classier. 30 years from now I bet the torrent will have little or no appeal at all simply because they have little or no appeal today except to soccer moms. But if you go back to 1968 many cars of the day had lots of appeal and many knew that they would be classics 30 or 40 years later which has been proven by the prices they bring. Sure the car handled like a boat, but it was a highway cruiser that floated down the road which is what people wanted then, open road high speed cruisers. Smooth cars that leveled all the bumps. They were very good at that. Very few cars today will float over bumps like an airplane. Now if someone offered you a Brand new Torrent or a Mint Condition 1968 Catalina which would you take? The Catalina I am sure...not only that a show room mint conditioned 68 Catalina would probably even be worth more than a brand new Torrent so its a no brainer.
"GLitwinski" wrote in message news:gB5Sf.173$ snipped-for-privacy@fe04.lga...
I'd rather be in a whale than a shrimp.
The torrent is more technology advanced. Style wise it is inferior.
>
I'd take the 1967 GTO that I once own over the new GTO any day. The styling was far and away more interesting. Ford did things right with the 2005 Mustang by bringing back some of the 1960's legacy styling.
Oh, please, there is nothing "work of art" about the '68 Bonney or Catalina. You want to talk about a 68 Goat, that's a different story, and a 69 even more so. Even the vanilla Tempest or LeMans series were good looking cars in '68. '68 was an awkward year for the big GM cars. It just happened. Before the '65 restyle they were tasteful if bland, right after the restyle for two years they were OK, but then the styling staff lost it. They went over the top. And not interesting over-the-top like the Bat-Mobile Caddy's of late '50's early '60's, but "ugh" over the top like BMW has gone under Chris Bangle recently. The big Pontiacs were the worst. Come on, look at that nose! It's hideous and stupid because it destroys any utility to the front bumper. Then go look at a '65 or '66 or '67. They backed off on the '69's and those look better. '68 is the valley.
They all drove like crap, of course, and were whales, but a lot of 'em were interesting looking. Just not the big '68's.
Right. Like to hear you say that after dealing with 8 mpg mileage and driving around looking for parking spots for the whale.
Yeah, and that new GTO would leave your old GTO for dead in: acceleration, cornering, mileage, driver comfort, road feel, and on and on and on and on...
Never saw what could be done with one of those old Goats, have you. You wouldn't make such asinine statements if you had.
I know exactly what those old Goats would do from the factory and the current GTO would utterly eat any factory Goat (even a Royal Bobcat which was not even a factory car) alive.
Now you want to talk about an old GTO that has been "breathed on", that may be a different story, but then to be fair you have to let somebody do some tricks with the new GTO and you end up where we started, anyway. You know there is a Lingenfelter upgrade available for the new GTO, for example?
You are aware that these new GTO's have a 400 horse (and I mean real horsepower not the old SAE gross hp that was advertised in the '70's and was wildly inflated as a result) LS2 Corvette engine?
We will not discuss comparative handling, as the old GTO's did not exhibit anything that would be called handling in the modern meaning of the term.
The old Goats were pretty to look at, accelerated very well for their day, sounded great and are very valuable as collectibles, but they are TOTALLY out-classed by the modern GTO (or even a Subaru Sti) in every performance category.
try 6 mpg
with a 17 yr old kid, a 1969 bonneville 4-door 428 dual exhaust V-8, and 97 LEADED PREMIUM gas (which isn't even made anymore)
summer of 1976........... and leaded premium was 75.9 cents a gallon
Actually, it is with a great fondness of sorts that I was referring to a Goat that had been "breathed on" as you so eloquently put it. You're right - to be fair it would be necessary to allow the same sort of work on a newer GTO - but that just wouldn't be quite as nostalgic.
Yeh and the new GTO is ugly as hell which is why they cant even sell them, yet back in the 60s everyody wanted one. The new GTO would outrun an old one of course with the fuel injection verses antiquated carbs, but it wouldnt leave it for dead, it would give it a real good run, then again you could easily upgrade an old GTO to blow away a new one. To upgrade a new gto expect to spend a grand to make it worth your while.
Yeh...but what would you rather be seen in an old GTO or a buzzing Subaru? Or an Ugly Monaro GTO? Anybody can stick a high tech engine in a new car, but syling is an art form that is lost today.
The new GTO beats the 0-60 time by about a second, true. (6 seconds vs.
5 seconds). Although if I had the three deuces instead of the Rochester Quadrajet, it probably would knocked a half-second off of the time and have given a respectable showing.I didn't do well in the 1/4 mile though. With the 4-11 rear, I'd redline at 105MPH and had to pull back from the throttle a good distance before I hit the end of the run. Surely I'd have hit 110- 115 in the quarter had the old Hurst Dual-Gate auto tranny had overdrive.
Still, the 67 looked better. ;-)
With gas at 30cents a gallon who cared then? Gas was cheap and not even an issue. I bet I could park it easier than all those yacht sized SUVs you see hogging the roads today.
SAE HP in many cases was underated in the muscle cars to keep insurance rates low. The Chrysler 426 hemi rated at 425hp was way underated, some say it was putting out closer to 500hp factory stock. Look it up.
performance
acceleration,
Yeh but keep in mind those old Goats had either 3 speed autos or 4 speed manuals that limit top end speed, compared to a 5 or 6 speed on a new GTO.
Yea, she was still gaining speed fast at redline (105MPH). If she only had overdrive she could have kept on going.
MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.