1966 Pontiac GTO - Par For The Course

There are many great aspects of running the Pavement Pounders shootout--the people, the tire smoke, the food! But perhaps the best part of the whole deal is that the attending Ponchos are usually in much better condition than their photos divulge. We have invited people down to Englishtown based on a good photo we saw, only to be knocked over when they come rolling up in a full-tilt show car that's hell-bent on burning rubber. Like I said--great aspects.

John Coursey was one of those guys. We lured the Queenstown, Md. resident up to compete in our November 2001 event, but mechanical difficulties delayed him for a few hours. The show had to go on, and he finally rolled through the gates in his 462-powered '66 GTO--or was it a '67? Whatever it was, it was worth the wait. Luckily, he was able to make a few runs before the day ended, but a bad posi unit and a cantankerous carburetor prevented him from posting the kind of times that you would expect out of the big 462. However, regardless of its mechanical shortcomings, the first words out of our mouths were, "Where did you get this thing?"

John bought his Goat in 1998 from an enthusiast in Oregon. His $8,500 purchased a classic musclecar that was in very good shape--a new 455 had been installed, the auto trans had been rebuilt and a 12-bolt posi rear with 3.55 gears was ready for action. The previous owner had also equipped the GTO with a new stock suspension and four-wheel disc brakes. His interior was original and in good shape, so Coursey had two things on his mind: perfecting the body and the driveline, and customizing the Pontiac to his taste.

"There were a few things that I wanted to do with this project," the 45-year-old building contractor explains. "I wasn't interested in making it an original restoration even though it was going to be body-off, since I wanted it to really go when I stepped down on the pedal. When I talked to Jim Taylor about my plans to cruise on pump gas, he said no problem.

"It had received a good paint job as well, but there were a few imperfections in the body that had to be taken care of, so as long as we were going to tear it apart, I was going to fix them."

In 2000 John sought out Tony of Tony's Custom Auto Body in Massey, Md., who agreed to perform the restoration over a six-month time period. The body came off, then the frame and its components were sandblasted. Once the frame was prepped, John broke with convention by applying a single-stage red polyurethane for eye-shocking contrast to the black paint. The body was stripped and sandblasted, and rust repairs were made to the left quarter, the bottom rear fenders, the corners of the doors, the tail area and the trunk floor braces. A two-stage urethane primer was applied, and then two coats of DuPont ChromaBase black hit the body, followed by three coats of clear. Finally, the layers were color sanded and buffed after the paint dried, leaving a brilliant shine.

The motor went out to Phillipsburg, N.J. in 2000, and Mark Erney of Taylor's Engine Service did the rebuild. Taylor had warned John that the original trans wouldn't hold up to the big-bore mill, so Coursey picked up a 4-speed Super T-10 to replace the stock tranny. John bolted the new drivetrain into the refurbished chassis himself, and soon after that, the like-new body was lowered onto them. Tony jumped into the parchment interior and reversed 30 years of wear, and then he installed a full set of VDO gauges so John could keep an eye on the burly big-inch Pontiac.

And after watching Coursey get rubber through three gears on a 70 degree/40 percent humidity day at E-town, he needs all of the information he can get. It takes a special kind of enthusiast to completely restore a collector car, then promptly beat it on the strip. And we're happy to say that John is one of those people--are you folks taking notes?

"I never intended to restore this and let it sit--it runs too well," he laughs. "Although it was off at E-town, Jim Taylor thinks that it should go 12.5 easy, but that's a little hard to do with a blown posi. And I love that it's streetable, too--I go cruising, I go to car shows, I even take it golfing. One of my favorite moments in the Goat was pulling up to the golf bag drop and getting my clubs out of the trunk!"

OWNER BIO
John Coursey was the proud owner of a '66 GTO back when he was 16 and he never forgot what a special car it was. When he picked up this stunner in 1998, it was only after he had completed an exhaustive search for his favorite GTO, the 1967 model. "For some reason, I just like the '67 more because of the front end and the extra chrome," he states. "I was at Carlisle one year and I found some '67 stainless side pieces and a '67 grille for basically nothing. It was just a spur of the moment thing, but I have made this '66 look in many ways like the '67. You should hear guys at car shows--sometimes I have to get in the middle of an argument and tell them what year it is." John has enjoyed building this Goat with his son Chase, who has contributed many ideas to the three-year project. And his work will be rewarded, since John has decided to eventually turn the keys over to him!