You can't talk about the classic American muscle cars of the 1960s and 1970s without mentioning Pontiac and its legendary GTO model. To be honest, the extreme customization of early GTO models is often credited with starting the muscle car craze. That's why these cars are frequently ranked among the most powerful and iconic vehicles of that time, and let's be honest, they were pretty stylish too.
One thing that even huge fans of the classic Pontiac may not be aware of is what those three little letters in its name actually mean.
In the world of cars, letter designations aren't hard to find, and even those who aren't big fans of American muscle cars know that GT usually stands for Grand Touring or Grand Turismo. The Italian interpretation that GT means Grand Turismo is also correct for Pontiac's GTO. The "O" in GTO, like Turismo, comes from the Italian word Omolgato. You might wonder why one of America's favorite muscle cars uses a name that's Italian, and it's because Pontiac's GTO was possibly inspired by a legendary Italian racing car.
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Ferrari was the first automaker to use the GTO designation.
If you're familiar with Italian racing cars from the 1960s, it's probably not hard to guess that the vehicle Pontiac got the GTO designation from was actually Ferrari's 250 GTO racer. Ferrari's founder Enzo Ferrari came up with the GTO name in the early '60s when he and his design team were looking to create a line of road-capable vehicles that were also eligible for use in certain racing events, so they included the word "omologato" which means "approved" in English.
Obviously, in the US market, the term "homologated" is actually what's used to describe road-ready racers. When Ferrari's 250 GTO started dominating European roads and racing courses, it quickly became one of the most highly coveted vehicles in the world. But Ferrari didn't plan to mass-produce the vehicle. In reality, they only built 36 250 GTO models between 1962 and 1964, and those sold for around $18,500 in the 1960s, which is equivalent to about $189,000 today.
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