Quote:
Originally Posted by LUST01
You ain't kidding that 1969 lime light GTO got a work out in the magazines in 1969. Here are three pages taken from the January 1969 Car & Driver road test that put 6 econo-racers from Detroit up against each other. All the cars tested had automatics and a rear axle ratio close to 3.50 except for the Cyclone that had a 3.91. The six cars tested were a Chevelle SS396 (325hp version), a Dodge Super Bee with a 383, a Ford Cobra Torino with a 428CJ, a Mercury Cyclone with the same mill but with the deeper gears, A Hemi Road Runner and our favoite 69 lime light GTO that is now wearing Judge colors. Based off the information you posted from the other magazine tests, the close ratio 4 speed and 3.91 gears were swapped out for an Turbo 400 and 3.55 rear gears for this road test. Car and Driver DNQ the Judge for several reasons: The engine identification numbers stamped on the block indicated a 1968 manual trans Ram Air engine. The engine ran cooler than 190 degrees (190 degree thromstats were standard to aid emission controls). They found a pluged vacuum hoses that contol ignition timing. The Judge wasn't happay on even the best Sunoco fuel and did not pass exhaust emission standards. Last but not least, the Judge was sporting 7" wheels and the stock 6" wheels. Car & Driver did not publish any of the times for the Judge but they did pubish the performance graph. Based off this graph, the Judge was pretty even, maybe a tic slower, than the first place Hemi Road Runner. The Hemi ran a 13.54 at 105.14 in the 1/4 mile. The other cars were right around the 14 second mark at 100 mph plus or minus a few hundreds. The SS396 was the slowest at 14.4 1/4 mile run. Car and Driver did allow the Judge to compete in driver control section where it tied for first with the Super Bee.
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I'm glad you found the article. Car and Driver republished this article amoung their "best" in a book I mentioned earlier, "Car and Drive American Road Warriors Classic Muscle Cars" published by filipacchi Publishing in 2008.
Two other must have books are: "Muscle Car Confidential, Confessions of a Muscle Car Test Driver" by Joe Oldham. Along with the old tests Joe prints many pictures and his thoughts taken from his notes about each car test. You'll find many Pontiac tests including the '69 Lime Green GTO made into a Judge in its early white stripe and an automatic 400 Ram Air. Not as a Ram Air IV.
The other book is " "Motion, Tales of A Muscle Car Builder" by Martyn L. Shorr. Martyn talks about his experinace with one of the white and black vinyl top 1967 Royal Pontiac's GTO's. How he took it back to NY. I'm not going to spoil it. But he and Joel Rosen wish they could find that car again.
Happy hunting