Jim Wangers' Garage / Vista, CaliforniaIf you know Pontiacs, then Jim Wangers needs no introduction. If you don't, then Jim Wangers was present at the very beginning of the musclecar movement as a player with the advertising team of McManus, John & Adams, which was responsible for Pontiac's advertising. Because success is often found waiting at the crossroads of luck and preparation, Jim Wangers quickly became known as the "godfather of the GTO." Along the way, Jim has collected a select few cars that we were lucky enough to wrangle an invitation to view. We spent a delightful Saturday afternoon with Jim and his associate Rich Rothermel experiencing total immersion in all things Pontiac.
1. Wangers got tired of guys putting small-block Chevys in GTOs, so he had this '87 "Ponti-Carlo" built. It sports a 459ci Pontiac with nitrous and a 3.70:1-geared 12-bolt that runs mid-9s. The car has a Royal Bobcat badge on the doors, and the rocker panel proclaims this machine to have "Pontiaction."
2. Many of the cars in Wangers' current collection are reproductions of those he owned back in the day, including this '69 Grand Prix painted to look like Wangers' original Model SJ version. The massive machine has a 400 engine with Rally II wheels and 40,000 original miles. Wangers' original car became the prototype for the '70 Hurst SSJ specialty car.
3. This is a restored '65 GTO two-door sedan that has been cloned as a Royal Bobcat machine. Powered by a 3x2-barreled 389 with headers and 10.75:1 compression, the four-speed car is a stripper of sorts with no A/C. Royal Pontiac was located in Royal, Michigan, just a few scant blocks from famed Woodward Avenue. Royal offered various levels of performance tune-up packages intended mainly for GTOs.
4. This Montero Red '66 GTO convertible is a nicely restored 3x2 389 with a four-speed, bucket seats, a console, and power steering and brakes, which makes a bookend car next to its similarly hued '65 sedan cousin.
5. "This is my absolute favorite GTO of all time," Wangers says. "I had a lot to do with convincing Pontiac to do this car. This was Pontiac's answer to the Road Runner." Instead of going after the Mopar's budget approach, Wangers suggested upselling the GTO and calling it The Judge based on a character on the '60s TV comedy show Laugh-In. This car is powered by the Ram Air III 366hp 400, but it was the combination of the Pontiac Carousel Red/Chevy Hugger Orange paint and the rear spoiler that was outrageous for the time. According to Wangers, the rear spoiler actually created lift in the '69 cars. By 1970, it was redesigned to generate downforce.
6. This is a Ram Air III 335hp '69 Trans Am Firebird that is a complete, original matching-numbers car used by Pontiac in a press preview event at Riverside Raceway in late 1968. There were only 697 of these cars built in 1969, and this one has only been repainted once. It is otherwise original with only 40,000 miles.
7. This '79 is the middle child of the Wangers triplet Trans Ams. What makes this car special is that it's one of the '79 Daytona 500 pace cars, complete with a Pontiac 400, four-speed, and four-wheel disc brakes. Many Trans Ams used an Olds powerplant because GM could not certify the Pontiac engine to pass California smog standards. The car has a mere 54 original miles.
8. This '89 Firebird is a 10,000-mile Turbo Trans Am that was one of the T-top cars used as a parade vehicle at that year's Indy 500. Wangers told us that most of these cars were built with vinyl-leather interior, but this is one of only 24 with cloth.
9. Wangers, who is now an energetic 80-plus years old, liked the turbocharged Buick V-6 Trans Am Firebird so much that he latched onto an '87 Buick Grand National with T-tops and 20,000 miles to provide symmetry with the '89 Firebird.
10. The centerpiece of the Wangers collection is this 2001 re-creation of the '66 GeeTO Tiger! exhibition cars originally built by Royal Pontiac. In 1966, these GTOs were taken to dragstrips, where a lucky ticketholder could race one of them against a driver dressed in a tiger suit wheeling a second GTO in a "Beat the Tiger" promotion. This car is powered by a Butler Performance-built 467ci-stroked 400 Pontiac with Doug's headers and Hotchkis suspension parts. The complete story is in Wangers' new book, Pontiac Pizazz.