The Thom McAn Pontiac GTO

Before writing our March 31st post about the 1964 Pontiac Banshee prototype for sale on eBay, we spoke with the owner, Len Napoli of Napoli Motors, about the car. We also told him how much we, and our readers, love old cars with great stories – like the Banshee. From that, Len suggested we look at another car he had for sale, the 1967 Thom McAn GTO….and we did.

In 1966, General Motors dictated that they wanted no more racing cars or loud engines in their car advertising - nothing that communicated it was a high performance car. The target market for the Pontiac GTO at the time was young males, and young males were looking for high performance cars, quite a dilemma for Pontiac’s idea man, Jim Wangers.

We found an interview on High Performance Pontiac’s website with Jim Wangers, and in it he explains how he got Pontiac's message out about the high powered GTO, without directly violating GM's rules?

“In those days, one of the most significant things that reached the young people was Top 40 radio, which was based on the list of the sales of popular records as published in Billboard magazine. It was in the early days of rock and there were several radio stations that played Top 40 tunes. I was looking for advertisers who were most often represented on those kinds of radio stations because that was the market that we were looking to reach with our GTO.

The Thom McAn shoe was a brand owned by the Melville Shoe Company. At that time, it was the Reebok or the Nike of the young male shoe market and was the number one advertiser on those Top 40 radio stations. So, with their (Thom McAn) promotion people, we worked out a really beautiful tie-in promotion where they brought into the market a shoe that was designed to appeal to young males.”

It was promoted as “Thom McAn is giving away a $4100.00 dollar car just to get you to look at $10.99 pair of shoes.” One car in each state would be awarded. The cars were to be painted Tiger Gold with black vinyl tops, and the winner was given a choice of a four-barrel or Tri-Power engine with either a four-speed stick or an automatic transmission. They were all to be equipped with power steering, power brakes, AM radio, Rally I wheels, and a choice of a black or pearl white interior. However, the '66 model year had expired by the end of the contest, so instead, the winners were presented with vouchers for the cash value of the above mentioned '66 GTO that could be applied to any new '67 Pontiac.

The contest was so successful that Thom McAn quickly arranged a second contest to give away approximately twentyt wo '67 GTOs. These second contest GTOs were identically built during the fourth week of October, 1966, and this contest ran from November 14, 1966 to December 17, 1966. The winners were notified by telephone during Christmas week of that year.

Of the seventy two contest cars, Len Napoli is selling one of the two GTO’s still known to exist. According to High Performance Pontiac magazine, Napoli’s GTO is one of the second contest prizes that was originally awarded to a Colorado woman who found the car a bit more car than she liked, and traded it in at Denver’s Porter Pontiac.

The next owner was Rito Vargas. When he home on leave from Vietnam, he saw the car pull in to the dealer and bought it on the spot. The GTO stayed with Rito until it was stolen in 1979. Although it was recovered, there was engine damage and Rito abandoned it.

Eighteen years later in 1992, it was discovered in a salvage yard by an eighteen year old, Bryan Stumbaugh. He traded his 1984 Mustang straight up and all he knew was that it was an original 400 H.O. four-speed GTO. He sent the VIN to the Pontiac Historical Services and was only informed that it was a nicely optioned Special Paint GTO.

Stumbaugh worked to restore his GTO through his college years, rebuilding the original WS-code 360 hp 400 H.O. engine, which required a sleeved cylinder, a new crank, two rods, a windage tray, and an oil pan. By 1996, Stumbaugh had the GTO running once again.

It wasn’t until 2005 that Bryan found out about the true origins of his GTO. While scanning classified car ads, Stumbaugh found a listing for the only other known surviving McAn contest car. From the papers he received from the Pontiac Historical Services, he realized that the advertised Thom McAn GTO was built on the same day as his, 50 numbers apart on the VIN, shipped to the same factory owned dealer in downtown Pontiac, Michigan. Bryan had these facts documented in a letter from Pontiac Historical Services president Jim Mattison.

Stumbaugh then began completely restoring his Thom McAn GTO. After disassembly, the nominal rust repair, bodywork and paint were handled by Stan Thoene at Chief Auto Restoration. The frame, suspension, inner fender wells and other major components were refinished and powder coated by Roadrunner Fabrication. Denver Metal Finishing handled the job of correctly refinishing various zinc-phosphate plated parts, while cadmium plating was handled by Aero Propeller. The interior received the full treatment as well: Performance Restoration refurbished the dash bezel, while seat covers and interior trim were supplied by Legendary Auto Interiors. Auto City Glass provided the correct date-coded glass and Gardner Exhaust installed the factory-correct exhaust system.

The GTO’s restoration was completed in 2007, and the car was shown for the first time that year at the GTOAA in Columbus, Ohio. Bryans attention to detail was rewarded with a Concours Gold Award. In December 2007, High Performance Pontiac magazine put the car was on the cover and made it the feature car for that issue.

We were a little surprised to find that Bryan sold the GTO at the Kissimmee High Performance Auction in January, 2008 - Len Napoli being the highest bidder at $110,250.00.

We don’t know about you, but we’re going to start spending a lot more time hanging around salvage yards.

Photo © Len Napoli