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In 1969 Pontiac created a car called the GTO Judge, and in my humble opinion, this was the pinnacle of their muscle cars; yes they did have the Trans AM, but it didn’t have quite the reputation of the Judge, this was a very special car for the Pontiac motor company, the Judge could instill fear in most people who would want to race it.

Now the whole reason for any motor company to create a muscle car, was simply this, they wanted to instill excitement in the younger car buyers, as they had started to lose sales to that sector of people, enter the GTO Judge, this car was built to excite, and that is just what it did, with it’s 400 CID engine, with the ram air III or IV option, if the owner wanted a bit more, ground pounding excitement they could step up from the Ram Air III to the barley Ram Air IV it would upgrade you to forged pistons, round port cylinder heads and 1.65:1 rocker arms.

The Ram Air III was rated at 366 HP, but you know how bad the factory underrated the hp on the muscle cars, so they could keep them insured while on their car lots, all Judges got the Ram Air III version, unless the owner upgraded, the upgrade to Ram Air IV included a $-Speed manual transmission, and all Judges were endowed with an aluminum intake manifold, 4 bolt main caps, and of course oval port heads with 67 cc chambers, at that time only 34 people ordered the ram air IV option for their GTO’s.

The standard Ram Air IV came with, a heavy duty cooling system, the standard gear ration was 3.90:1, and a Safe-Track limited slip differential. If this gearing just wasn’t quite enough, you could order a set of 4.33:1 rear gears. The Judge also came with heavy duty suspension, which would stiffen up the suspension on the car, by adding heavier springs and heavy duty shocks, drum brakes were standard, but the front disc setup could be had for an extra $62.45, a very good buy for the money.

The Judge had a paint scheme that was designed to stand out from the rest of the pack of muscle cars, it was bight orange, well at least the one that I seen, and had a factory stripe running down each side from under the rear quarter window to the end of the front fender, and a graphic sticker at the very front of the front fender, about midway up the fender that simply said “The Judge”, as I said before the car was rated at 366 HP @ 5400 rpm and 445 lbft of torque @ 3600 rpm.

The transmission that GM selected for this car was the Muncie M-21 four speed manual transmission, the Judge cam with a distinctive hood mounted tach that registered 8,000 rpm, a compression ratio of 10.75:1 in the Ram Air IV version, GM Rochester 4 barrel carburetor, the Judge was designed to thrill, and it could give a healthy man a heart attack, this car was extreme for most people, but it could certainly cause an afternoon of fun.

The GTO Judge was my second favorite car from Pontiac after the Trans Am, it was honestly a more powerful car then the Trans AM, but the T/A afforded another kind of fun.

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I’ve been in the automotive business for about 20 or 25 years, I have worked in all facets of the industry, from parts to restoration, all different makes and models, I just want to keep people interested in the old cars because it’s where my heart is.

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The 1970 Buick GS was one of the wildest of all Buicks on paper. Its 455 cubic inch mill was derived from the earlier 430 cid V8 and produced around 350 HP @ 4600 rpm. The torque output was a very strong 510 ft-lb @ 2800 rpm. It featured a 10:1 compression ratio and a Rochester 4-barrell carburetor; this engine could push the 3800 pound car down the

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The prefect camaro, in 1969 Chevrolet would have a grand idea, spawned by the creation of the sYc or Super Yenko Camaro, this car would be called the ZL1 Camaro, and would be the meanest camaro ever built, this car was not for the weak of heart, if you didn’t know what it was capable of it could hurt you very badly.

Only 69 of these cars were ever built, as far as I know, this number may not be right on the money, it can get a bit hard to find these numbers, if you search on the web you’ll find all kinds of different ideas about the production numbers on these cars, the one thing I do know is this, Chevrolet wanted to build a car to campaign at the NHRA, and this car was built specially to do their bidding on the race track

The sanctioning body of the NHRA had some rules about what they would or would not allow to race under their rules, the main rule was this, to be allowed to race the car had to be a regular production model, and this meant that Chevrolet had to produce at the least 50 of these cars to qualify them to race at the drag strip.

These car would go on to prove themselves beyond Chevrolet’s wildest dreams, they came form the factory with an all aluminum 427 CID big block monster engine, that was rated at 430 HP from the factory, which was a severe underrating of the actual power that the car had, but the all aluminum engine in effect made that car weigh about the same as if it had a small block, so you can imagine what would happen.

The car would be sold for what at this time was an outrageous price of $7,200.00, in 1969 Fred Gibbs Chevrolet ordered one of these Camano’s to go and race with, it was a special order car known as the ZL1 Camaro or COPO 9560 “Central Office Production Order” Dick Herrel was to drive the car for Fred Gibbs Chevrolet, and he would set a record for a street driven car during his run as a driver for Fred Gibbs.

The ZL1 Camaro would prove to be an amazing race car, not to mention, it was still a street car also, in street dress Dick Herrel would achieve 1/4 mile times of 11.05 and in full race mode, with the headers uncorked and slicks added he would achieve a 10.35 1/4 mile time on his first run.

Then he would reach a real high for a street driven car, mind you this in as bought from the factory with slicks added and headers uncorked or in full race mode he would achieve an all time high 1/4 mile time of 10.05, now how many cars do you know of from the factory that will pull that feat off.

I live in Salt Lake City, Utah, and have been in the automotive business for about 25 years, and during that time I have worked in all facets of the industry, plus owned my own shops, like I do now.

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