Firsts: First Car

Steve's 1967 Pontiac GTO parked at Donna's house.

Another exciting first for me was my first car, a 1967 GTO aka a "GOAT," which my parents bought for me for $1500 in 1972 (a princely sum back then). Wow did I love that car! It was signet gold with a black vinyl roof. It had hood scoops (fake ones) upon which I added black vinyl "GTO" stickers on each side in case someone didn't notice it was a GTO (see the photo below). Under the hood it had a 400 cubic inch, 335 HP engine with a 4 barrel Quadra-Jet carburetor, and a turbo-hydramatic three-speed automatic transmission that could be operated manually through a Hurst "dual-gate" shifter when you really wanted to show off. It had 15 inch mag wheels, white letter tires and the rear end was jacked up a mile high with air shocks. It had dual Thrush mufflers that really made it purr and growl. Inside it had a state-of-the art 8-track tape player, black authentic-vinyl bucket seats and a tiny custom wood and metal steering wheel that made you feel like you were driving a dragster. In today's parlance the car would definitely be classified as a redneck mobile; but back then it was nothing but pure coolness.


Steve and Donna washing the "Goat" - notice the classy stickers I put on the hood.
Oh...and the ultra-cool railroad conductor hat I wore every day my senior year
of high school for some unknown reason.

I have so many great memories of that car. I remember riding around with Donna seated beside me while Leslie West and Mountain blared "Mississippi Queen" out of the car's ample speakers. I remember washing the car at least 2-3 times a week (as pictured above), and I remember rumbling up to school and claiming "my" parking spot. It was just the coolest ride ever.



Dad bought the GTO from a fellow Lakeshore Lancer, Howard Johnson. That was pretty cool too. I looked up to "Ho Jo" as we called him, so it was nice to get a car that was already well-appreciated at our school. I also recall this car was the only one I've ever owned that I even remotely wanted to work on - and I did. The car was "old school" in the sense that you could open the hood and tell what things were: radiator, alternator, starter, air filter, carburetor, heads, plugs, etc... Can you picture me going to an auto parts store? Well I did - it was always fun to add a new gadget or part to such a piece of art.

One of the saddest days of my early driving years was the day my Dad "borrowed" my car for some reason and was involved in a fender bender. The whole thing was the other guy's fault, but I remember being crushed that "my" car was in an accident. Dad and I were talking about that incident just today and he told me that the police officer handling the accident couldn't believe Dad was the operator of the hot rod. Dad said he kept asking him, "Now tell me again, who was driving the gold car?" Looking back that accident today it all seems petty, especially since my parents bought the car to begin with - but molehills can easily be turned into moutains when you're a hormone-possessed teenager in love with an automobile.

To this day sometimes I look over at Donna when we're driving down the road and I remember those amazing days - the windows rolled down, the wind blowing through our long hair, 8-track blaring, mufflers roaring, people staring, and small animals and children scrambling as their parents tried to get them indoors to safety. It was the greatest!