dkGTO19
10-30-2003, 09:22 AM
Well I got my new motor trend newsletter today, and they have 3 different archived articles in there. One of them is the first official test done by Motor Trend on a GTO back in January of 1964. Here is an excert from that article, this was done with a convertible model to btw....
"Our performance testing at Riverside only confirmed our first impression. Weighing in at over 3700 pounds and with two Motor Trend staff members and our equipment on board, our first acceleration run left our photographer standing in a huge cloud of blue rubber smoke, looking at a long, black strip on the pavement. Second-gear starts weren't much different -- the car just had more brute power than traction even with the low-profile tires.
Our best run netted zero to 30, 45, and 60 mph in a wheelspinning, rubber-burning 3.7, 5.6, and 7.7 seconds respectively, while the hot Tempest turned the quarter-mile in 15.8 seconds, hitting a high 93 mph as it crossed the marker. Keeping our foot on the floorboard sent the optimistic speedometer past the 120-mph mark into the never-never area on the round, easy-to-read dial. Our fifth-wheel Weston electric speedometer gave us a more realistic reading of an honest 115 mph. We feel it would've gone even higher if we'd had more room. We used 5500 rpm as our red line, since the engine flattened out considerably at 5800.
Our test car had the standard 3.23 rear axle without Positraction. Some mild mental gyrations suggest that a similar car, equipped with butyl rubber tires (for the street) or racing slicks would lower our acceleration times quite a bit.
Royal Pontiac, a dealer in Michigan, has one of the few Tri-Powered G.T.O. coupes in the country set up for the drags. With a new Goodyear Super/Stock tire (soon to be released) on the rear wheels, the Tri-Power G.T.O. turned 107 mph in the quarter with an ET of 13.29. Zero to 60 mph averaged 5.7 seconds on this car, so it does have lots of potential for the performance-minded Tempest fan.
There's more to performance than just brute horsepower. Our test car, the one with the stiffer suspension, had a just about-right feeling under most driving conditions. Cornering felt stable without excessive body lean or understeer, the G.T.O.'s power steering gave us a good road feel, yet was fairly quick and light in action; and the car didn't nose-dive or squat to any great extent during hard acceleration or braking. Really hard cornering caused the carburetor to flood, with a subsequent loss of power, but this happened only during extremely fast cornering. The car had good balance and that tremendous amount of reserve power that would blast it out of any turn in good order. Cautious cornering was necessary, however, because a quick punch at the accelerator in any gear except fourth would break the rear wheels loose and send the back end of the car into a drift."
Thats just an excert, but a great article. Yeah those performance numbers stick out to me and show me two things. 1 that those old bias ply, wasn't that what they were?, 14" tires and wheels suck and really hold the car back in performance straight line and handling, but its mph in the 1/4 was AMAZINGLY high for those times!!, and 2 w/just those old drag tires and tri power on it, it made a HUGE difference. More than 2 seconds off of its 1/4 miles time, and two seconds off of its 0-60 time, UNBELIEVABLE. I can only imagine how much of a difference it makes if say you get rid of those 14's and put on modern 15 or 16" Z rated tires or modern drag tires....Amazing also on how close the original GTO numbers and the new GTO numbers are...atleast the old GTO with those goodyear tires on it. All the things in the article just kept reminding me of the new GTO, weighs a good amount, performance and luxery, and great handling... :)
"Our performance testing at Riverside only confirmed our first impression. Weighing in at over 3700 pounds and with two Motor Trend staff members and our equipment on board, our first acceleration run left our photographer standing in a huge cloud of blue rubber smoke, looking at a long, black strip on the pavement. Second-gear starts weren't much different -- the car just had more brute power than traction even with the low-profile tires.
Our best run netted zero to 30, 45, and 60 mph in a wheelspinning, rubber-burning 3.7, 5.6, and 7.7 seconds respectively, while the hot Tempest turned the quarter-mile in 15.8 seconds, hitting a high 93 mph as it crossed the marker. Keeping our foot on the floorboard sent the optimistic speedometer past the 120-mph mark into the never-never area on the round, easy-to-read dial. Our fifth-wheel Weston electric speedometer gave us a more realistic reading of an honest 115 mph. We feel it would've gone even higher if we'd had more room. We used 5500 rpm as our red line, since the engine flattened out considerably at 5800.
Our test car had the standard 3.23 rear axle without Positraction. Some mild mental gyrations suggest that a similar car, equipped with butyl rubber tires (for the street) or racing slicks would lower our acceleration times quite a bit.
Royal Pontiac, a dealer in Michigan, has one of the few Tri-Powered G.T.O. coupes in the country set up for the drags. With a new Goodyear Super/Stock tire (soon to be released) on the rear wheels, the Tri-Power G.T.O. turned 107 mph in the quarter with an ET of 13.29. Zero to 60 mph averaged 5.7 seconds on this car, so it does have lots of potential for the performance-minded Tempest fan.
There's more to performance than just brute horsepower. Our test car, the one with the stiffer suspension, had a just about-right feeling under most driving conditions. Cornering felt stable without excessive body lean or understeer, the G.T.O.'s power steering gave us a good road feel, yet was fairly quick and light in action; and the car didn't nose-dive or squat to any great extent during hard acceleration or braking. Really hard cornering caused the carburetor to flood, with a subsequent loss of power, but this happened only during extremely fast cornering. The car had good balance and that tremendous amount of reserve power that would blast it out of any turn in good order. Cautious cornering was necessary, however, because a quick punch at the accelerator in any gear except fourth would break the rear wheels loose and send the back end of the car into a drift."
Thats just an excert, but a great article. Yeah those performance numbers stick out to me and show me two things. 1 that those old bias ply, wasn't that what they were?, 14" tires and wheels suck and really hold the car back in performance straight line and handling, but its mph in the 1/4 was AMAZINGLY high for those times!!, and 2 w/just those old drag tires and tri power on it, it made a HUGE difference. More than 2 seconds off of its 1/4 miles time, and two seconds off of its 0-60 time, UNBELIEVABLE. I can only imagine how much of a difference it makes if say you get rid of those 14's and put on modern 15 or 16" Z rated tires or modern drag tires....Amazing also on how close the original GTO numbers and the new GTO numbers are...atleast the old GTO with those goodyear tires on it. All the things in the article just kept reminding me of the new GTO, weighs a good amount, performance and luxery, and great handling... :)