1970 GTO pilot car - The Humbler
 

http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...0&d=1572179264

The Palladium Silver 1970 RAIV GTO pilot car, also The Humbler in the famous TV commercial, will be at the MCACN show Nov 23-24, 2019. The car needs a full restoration. It was painted Atoll Blue way back in the 1970's, partially disassembled, and today wears mostly red primer. So just a heads up, if you're at the show, look for a primered 1970 GTO Hardtop with a dark blue nose, not the Palladium Silver car as shown in the original promotional photo above. The owner will be there with the car.

The full story of the 1970 RAIV GTO pilot car will be in the November 2019 edition of POCI's 'Smoke Signals'.

Mike

That would be an interesting GTO to see.

Had to look up where the MCACN show is being held: Donald E. Stephens Convention Center 5555 N. River Road, Rosemont, Illinois 60018

https://www.mcacn.com/

Too cool Mike! I can't wait to read it!

Dennis

That is cool. Sure did not sound like ra4 in commercial.

Truly an incredible find. The car has 4 invoices; factory company car, engineering, Pittsburgh Zone tagged as a Display car, then sold to a dealership in Pennsylvania.

Body # 001, built in May 1969. All the components are dated pre-May 1969. RAIV engine and trans do not have VINS. Also has VOE (not on the invoice). The car was updated to 1970 MVSS specs when it was shipped to the Pittsburgh Zone Office. Pontiac built five 1970 A-body pilot cars, one of which was this Palladium Silver RAIV GTO. The pilot car can also be seen in the factory 1970 Pontiac high performance brochure, and was road tested in the Sept 1969 edition of Motor Trend.

Cool stuff, and amazing how the owner stumbled upon this significant piece of GTO history.

Mike

Is it true the car will be at MCACN in a few weeks?

So, this means Pontiac sold its pilot cars as is without vin on engines and trans, etc.?

1970 Pontiac Performance Cars brochure:

http://www.gt-37.org/gallery/index.php?/category/79

Yes, the car and owner will be at the 2019 MCACN show.

It's one of those cases where the car should not have been sold, but when it was updated to the 1970 MVSS standards, Pontiac must have felt it was ok to sell. It had a deep 30% discount applied BEFORE the 1970 model year because it had already been used extensively for promotional use (and press showings) during the Summer of 1969.

Mike

Very cool find!!

I thought the same thing when I saw this on Facebook.

D A M N :eek:

Can't wait to hear the full story.


1970 Convertible Body #003 GTO is also still alive and well.
No body build date at all on cowl tag.
It was also possibly a Pilot Car.

In fact - it also had an odd twist with a Non-VIN 455HO engine/M21 with 12 bolt rear.
And the 455 option supposedly wasn't on the Invoices ... (aka 400 WT -M20 -10 Bolt)
Was a flukky deal at the time, he wouldn't ever post any Invoices

couldn't make heads or tails out of the car - or the owner

cool!

This makes me glad I recently renewed my POCI membership with the print subscription to Smoke Signals!
(I debated on letting it lapse because "international" fee is quite frightening compared to just a couple years ago)

Just get the copy to view online and save your money for parts.

But Mike is doing some really neat stuff on SS. I keep on telling him he should get one of them in MCR for the rest of the muscle car world to see.

If I am anything, I am a stick in the mud.
And as you can see, I have no issue admitting to it.

I prefer having tangible printed magazines over looking at another computer screen any day of the week.
My day job has me infront of a computer, so maybe that has something to do with it, but I prefer to flip through a magazine.

Being that I live across a border north of the 49th parallel (as opposed to some Americans who live north of the 49th) I am international, and a couple years ago 'Smoke Signals' went from a reasonable $40usd to nearly double ($74usd) last year.
I was told something along the lines of the 'International' rate was basically adjusted to ensure that POCI wasn't losing money on Australian subscriptions;
Australian and Canadian subscriptions are both lumped into the same lot of "international".

Wow, and it is a VOE car!

Got my Smoke Signals and read the story yesterday.
Wow - what a great car / history! Thanks, Mike, for bringing the story to us.
Hope I can make it to MCACN this year to see the car, too.

PHS availability has been such a multi-dimensional blessing to Pontiacs and us enthusiasts.
Beyond the born-with pedigree being carved in stone for us -
we would never have had a clue about hardly any of these cars ever having any type of early PMD significance, without the Invoice trails.

All the various Company/Executive , Engineering , Marketing , Promo , Pilot , Proto-type and Test cars that have turned up - only after the fact of owners getting Invoices - has just been incredible ... and fascinating .. to me.

All the other brands likely had all the same scenarios too, but no archives to help document or discover such cars.
So we get all that, on top of the best looking cars, its wild.

Since I recieved my October SS last week, I'm guessing I have another three weeks to wait... lol

Same Here !!

Ha-ha!!

Mike, Excellent article on the 1st GTO! What an amazing find and I am looking forward to seeing it this weekend.

Did the VOE ever show up on any of the PHS's? Or was it simply added for the commercial and never invoiced?

Dennis

611 on PHS
DR CONT EXH
(driver controlled exhaust)


212 coupes, 21 convertibles made
(not sure if this would include the pilot cars?)

:)

Is anyone able to post all 4 invoices for our viewing pleasure ?

Thanks Johnta1...I thought it said deck lid control (haha).

Dennis

Thanks for the feedback on the article!

If you watch the original Humbler TV commercial, when the guy goes to pull the Exhaust knob, there's a noticeable change in lighting and the Ram Air knob practically disappears. I believe that was intentional because VOE was not available with Ram Air, so Pontiac didn't want to mislead customers into thinking they could order VOE with Ram Air.

After the MCACN show I can post all 4 invoices. I just prefer not to do so until after the show this weekend. The car will be restored by Level One. They will have a large display of photos showing all the details of the car, plus photos I had provided to the owner from the GM Archives, brochures, road test, and promotional pics.

The invoice shows the car had the rear monitoring lamp options, but there is no evidence of that ever being installed. The car was built in May 1969, and I believe the code existed in the order bank, but not yet available for installation.

The strangest item on the invoice are the tires. Because it was built in May 1969, the invoice shows TPT G70X14 Redline Fiberglass tires. These tires weren't available on a 1970 GTO (it's a 1969 code). Pontiac had discontinued redlines for the 1970 model year, but not before another promotional car, a Cardinal Red 1970 GTO hardtop, was photographed extensively wearing redline tires. The Cardinal Red GTO had a one-piece fiberglass nose as the 1970 Endura bumpers had not yet been produced.

Mike

Neat! - I had NOT noticed that!

GTO Humbler tv spot

Interesting Mike; The commercial shows the Humbler sporting Firestone Wide Ovals.

Hope it gets lots of attention this weekend.

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...5&d=1574115037


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JNj9sEdPF0

Yes, the wheels and tires were swapped out. Redlines were no longer going to be promoted for 1970 models, so notice in the road tests and promotional photos this GTO was wearing 14x7 Rally II's (not available on the 1970 GTO). The new for 1970 Firestone Wide Oval white letters were an option they definitely wanted to promote, so I believe they simply swapped in a set of 14x7's with new white letters from a Firebird. It's funny how people don't seem to notice those 14x7's wheels in the promo photos.

I agree and they look so much better. I cant imagine why they didn't put them on them even in 69

I, for one, would have been mislead by the ad.

Do you have pictures or know the colors of the Car and Driver Road Test car (GM 2027, hardtop, 455/4 speed) or SuperCar (16M 558, convertible, 455)?

We saw the Pilot car yesterday MCACN .Really interesting car and owner, it leaves Chicago tomorrow to Level One for a restoration, ready for MCACN 2020

I dont now why they didnt offer the 7". I put 14x7 's on my 70 gto back in the 80's cause they look so much better. Wonder what happened to the guy driving the car in the commercial? Probably would be in his 70's now. Get him to drive the car again.

I saw the car this weekend at the MCACN show. Very cool car! Silver with a blue interior will look great when its restored. There sure were a lot of 69 parts on this car.

That is awesome , held up pretty well for a salt-belt beater.
Thanks for the picture pggto :)

The drivers side has damage to the door, fender, and endura.

Trim tag

50 Years since she made her debut on The Super Bowl in '70?

https://jalopnik.com/50-years-ago-po...all-1841412384

The reviews on that look like a bunch of young kids who have no clue on what it was like back then.


:D

Holy hell, most people in that comment section are light in the loafers.