Car of the Week: 1964 Pontiac GTO ‘Red Car’

In the fall of 1963, Pontiac ad man Jim Wangers sold the idea of the all-new Pontiac GTO squaring off against a Ferrari GTO to David E. Davis, editor of Car and Driver magazine. The challenge was to take place in Daytona, Fla., between Christmas and New Year’s Day. Wangers supplied two Pontiac GTOs for the match-up: a blue car and the featured red car.

Pontiac needed the publicity for its all-new GTO. Sales had only been moderately successful after its fall 1963 debut, and the GTO being somewhat Wangers’ baby, he set out to boost sales with what might appear to be a preposterous match-up between American and Italian performance.

“The car didn’t really get any serious exposure until after the Car and Driver story,” Wangers admitted to author Steve Statham in his book “Pontiac GTO: The Great One.”

Unfortunately, a GTO/GTO match-up never happened, so Car and Driver’s March 1964 cover had to fictitiously pit the Pontiac against the Ferrari. The magazine’s cover artwork depicted the editors’ hypothetical racetrack result: A red Ferrari coupe leading a green Pontiac GTO by one car length through a downhill, right-hand kink. The headline read, “Tempest GTO: 0-to-100 in 11.8 sec.” Inside, the story was a bit different, but no less thrilling. The Ferrari was mentioned briefly, but neither tested nor shown in a photograph. While the Ferrari was unavailable for the comparison, Car and Driver staffers did drive a pair of Pontiac GTOs some 3,500 miles, including on a New York-to-Florida round trip. Acceleration runs of the Pontiac GTO were conducted at the Daytona speedway where the pair of Pontiacs were also flogged around the steeply banked tri-oval and the infield road course. After the dust had settled, the Car and Driver crew conceded that Ferrari’s fastest street-legal coupe might be able to beat the Pontiac on a closed circuit, but the Detroit iron would certainly prevail in a drag race.

“When the Car and Driver story broke in March of 1964, everything changed. Pontiac had created, and Car and Driver had discovered, the American musclecar,” recalled Wangers in his book “Glory Days.”

A thankful deception

One of the Pontiac GTOs in the Car and Driver story was a pilot test car painted Nocturne Blue and equipped with the optional 348-hp Tri-Power 389-cid V-8 engine, a wide-ratio four-speed and a limited-slip rear end with 3.55 gears. Known as the “Blue Car,” it was to be used for street driving, the road course and skid pad testing.

The second Pontiac GTO was known as the “Red Car” and was to be used only for acceleration runs. This is the featured car now owned by Tenny Fairchild, and it’s the car Wangers felt he had to keep quiet about for nearly four decades.

Special-ordered and prepared by Wangers, Fairchild’s Grenadier Red GTO left the factory with the Tri-Power 389, M-20 four-speed and 3.23 gears. But that’s not how it was configured when it arrived at Daytona. Instead, Wangers had it built into a “ringer.”

“What few people knew until two and a half decades later, was that the car had been tagged with ‘Memo 198,’ so instead of being delivered to its destination at Royal Pontiac in Royal Oak, the car was removed from the assembly line and furtively moved over to Pontiac Engineering,” recalled Milt Schornack in his book “Milt Schornack and the Royal Bobcat GTO’s.” (Schornack was one of the famously talented mechanics at the likewise famous Royal Pontiac dealership.) “It was there that Pontiac engineers removed the 389-cubic-inch engine, which was paired with an M20 transmission. In its place, the engineers slipped a 421 H.O. engine under the hood. A close ratio M21 four-speed replaced the M20, and a relatively safe 3.23:1 rear axle was tossed for a hyperactive set of 3.90:1 Safe-T-Track gears. From there, the car was transported to Royal Pontiac, where Bobcat specialist Charles Brumfield gave it the Royal treatment.”

While Schornack wasn’t among those to complete work on the “Red Car” at Royal Pontiac, he remembered it well for its aura of secrecy.

“When that car came in for service, Charlie Brumfield or Bud Conrad would keep the hood closed on it. Other times they would throw a blanket over the engine if they had to keep the hood opened. I knew there was something special under there, but nobody was saying much.”

The “Memo 198” production manifest (build sheet) that Schornack referenced in his book tags Wangers and states “delete all insulation.” The GTO was also built without seam sealer to further lighten it.

The drivetrain swap and lightening fooled everyone, including the editors of Car and Driver. Wangers didn’t reveal the truth to anyone until his “Glory Days” memoir was published in 1998.

“I’m here to admit, more than three decades after the fact, that yes, I did install a 421 H.O. Tri-Power engine in the red Royal Bobcat Car and Driver test car,” Wangers wrote.

“So the magazine editor and his staff wouldn’t get suspicious, he (Wangers) equipped the car with a few options including power steering, a power antenna, and the fancy hubcaps,” says Fairchild. “He wanted it to look like a regular GTO any dealer might have in stock.”

The Car and Driver editors spent most of the day making stopwatch-timed acceleration runs and recording incredibly quick times. Wangers knew the times recorded—0 to 60 in 4.6 seconds, 0 to 100 in 11.8 seconds, and a 13.1-second quarter-mile at 115 mph—were too good to be true, but he kept his mouth shut.

When it was time to head back to the Motor City, Wangers headed north with the “Red Car” flat-towed behind the “Blue Car,” driving through inclement winter weather. After arriving in Michigan, Wangers handed the red GTO over to Royal Pontiac for a fresh 421 engine installation. The Red Car became Wangers’ daily driver and his Woodward Avenue racer until the following August, when it went back to Royal Pontiac. There, it was listed for sale on its used car lot until it was sold to Royal Oak police officer Bill Sherman.

According to Fairchild, “Milt Schornack [of Royal Pontiac] put a 428 in the car for Bill Sherman circa November ’67. In his book, Milt says Bill wanted to go racing in ’88, so they put a 455 crank in the 428 and bored it out for a total of 472 cubic inches, matched the ports and went to 2.02 intakes….” 

A Doug Nash T10 and 4.33s in a 12-bolt spool were further added to the drag racing setup.

Restoring a childhood memory

By the time Joe Conte, a New Jersey Corvette collector, bought the famous GTO in 1991, it was a rusty old drag car with an incorrect 428 engine occupying the engine bay. But Conte was aware of the car’s history and stored it safely. Then Fairchild came calling.

“I e-mailed Conte in the late 1990s and continued to check in periodically,” he says. “I was finally able to buy the car in April 2005.”

Fairchild wasn’t interested in the GTO because of the impression it made on him from reading the Car and Driver magazine article. He was interested in it because of the impression it made on him when he rode in the car during the mid 1960s, and the impression he himself made on its package shelf.

“My father worked with Jim Wangers back in the ’60s, and when I was 4 years old, I had the opportunity to ride in the back seat of the GTO,” Fairchild says. “Much of my ride was spent plastered to the back glass like Garfield the Cat. I left that day knowing how incredibly fast and loud the GTO was when the gas pedal was pushed to the floor. The car was an absolute beast. My back seat ride was both terrorizing and exhilarating. Little did I know the impact that GTO had on me.

“As I got older, the thought of that ride couldn’t escape me. Years later, I told myself, ‘One day I’m going to own it.’ For most of my life, I have known about and followed its journey, and in 2004, I made the purchase of a lifetime. It’s been an honor to own it and fun to share with the muscle car community. There’s never a dull moment when this GTO is shown at a car show event. It’s surprising how many people recall reading about it back in the day when it appeared in Car and Driver magazine.”

After finally acquiring the GTO in 2005, Fairchild regularly drove it around the streets of Los Angeles for a couple of years before turning it over to Scott Tiemann at Supercar Specialties in Portland, Mich., during 2007 for a yearlong restoration. Tiemann restored the GTO back to its Car and Driver test configuration. Because it was originally built without seam sealer and sound-deadening body insulation, the GTO had hidden rust in unique places. But for a car that started and spent most of its life in the Midwest, the GTO was relatively solid. Tiemann used as many of its factory-installed original parts as possible, replacing only the floors and the driver’s side rear quarter panel.

An early date-coded 421 H.O. engine that allows the starter to be installed to the block was found and used for the engine build. The cylinder heads and intake manifold are thought to be the originals. Most of the interior is also original, including the seat covers. 

“There are still unique and special markings throughout the GTO that dates back to its originality in 1963 and how it looked when I had my first ride in it, back in 1964,” says Fairchild.

Deviations include a wood dash panel from a ’65 GTO and 4.33 gears, which Sherman installed many years ago.

According to Tieman, the GTO is regularly maintained and sent to him every couple years or so for service. He adds that Fairchild is meticulous about keeping it in pristine driving and show car condition. Preparing it for MCACN 2024 only required repairing a power steering line leak and an inside-and-out detailing.

“Tenny Fairchild drives this GTO regularly on the streets of L.A., but you wouldn’t know it by looking at the car,” Tiemann says. “He keeps it well maintained and looking show room ready even though he enjoys driving it.”

Today, Detroit metro’s Woodward Avenue is known for its annual August Dream Cruise. Back in the ’60s and ’70s, it served as a launch pad for stop light-to-stop light street racing. Not only were Detroiters paying attention to who was winning, auto manufacturers were, too, with some even participating in the action. According to legend, Wangers was never beat in the “Red Car” while racing up and down Woodward Avenue.

Today, Woodward Avenue looks much as it did in the muscle car era, except all of the classic drive-ins are gone. Interestingly, on any given summer night today, there are more cars—muscle cars (including GTOs), hot rods and Corvettes—cruising Woodward than in the 1960s and 70s.

David E. Davis once stated during an interview, “that GTO road test changed everything for Car and Driver.” But in retrospect, we could add that the GTO changed everything about the performance market by clearly establishing the muscle car.

‘Red Car’ to Reappear at MCACN

We recently had an opportunity to photograph the legendary “Red Car,” an Ace Wilson/Royal Bobcat-prepared 1964 Pontiac GTO, at the Mid-Michigan Motorplex in Stanton, Mich., following the Pure Stock Drags on Sept. 13.

Bob Ashton, managing partner for the annual Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals (MCACN), reached out to Tenny Fairchild, the GTO’s owner, with the request that it take part in a special red carpet display at the 2024 MCACN event. Fairchild was all in and had the special car transported from Los Angeles to Scott Tieman, owner of Supercar Specialties, in Portland, Mich., where it was given a thorough inspection, tuned and detailed to concours standards. Tieman has a very special connection to the GTO, having restored it to its original Car and Driver magazine road test condition. He and his team started the monumental task of restoring the car in the fall of 2007 and completed the restoration in the summer of 2008, just in time for its heralded “day view” at the Meadow Brook Concours d’Elegance. Tieman left out no detail to make the GTO nearly exact to the way it looked in late 1963, when it was secretly built by Pontiac, Ace Wilson’s Royal Bobcat garage and Jim Wangers for the express duty of appearing in a Car and Driver road test.

Given an opportunity to showcase this legendary muscle car, Bob Ashton and I implemented a detailed plan to photograph the 1964 GTO in its solo form. We would also add a spin to the photo shoot by bringing in accomplished MCACN model Adrianna Straub, who would pose with the GTO while wearing period-correct attire as though she was appearing with the car in a 1964 advertisement for it.

By the time you read this article, Bob Ashton and his graphics team will have created a one-of-a-kind MCACN poster for show goers at the Nov. 23-24 event. If you travel to MCACN by car, there’s a chance you might see one of several digital billboard signs displaying Adrianna Straub and the ’64 GTO on many of the major expressways leading into Rosemont, Ill., and the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, home of the annual MCACN event. Show goers and MCACN followers will have the opportunity to read more about the GTO in the once-a-year MCACN magazine featuring Adrianna and the red GTO on the cover.

This special GTO is actually making a return visit to MCACN. Back in 2009, the GTO appeared at MCACN when it was featured with Jim Wangers as part of the Royal Bobcat Pontiac International Display. So, history will repeat itself, although without Jim Wangers, who passed away in 2023. With the historic Pontiac muscle car turning 60 years old this year, Ashton thought it was only fitting to pay tribute to the GTO. The “Red Car” will be the forerunner for the GTO Evolution all-inclusive display at this year’s MCACN. This grouping will feature one GTO from each model year from 1964-’74 and offer attendees an opportunity to relive Pontiac GTOs from the past with a trip down memory lane. The Brothers Collection is the official sponsor of the GTO Evolution display.

MCACN attendees can seek out the Grenadier Red 1964 Royal Bobcat GTO and pick up one of the limited-edition complimentary posters featuring it and model Adrianna Straub. Be sure to have Adrianna personally autograph it. Learn more at mcacn.com.

Love GTOs? Here are a few more articles for your reading enjoyment.

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