27. Pontiac Tempest GTO
In the early ‘60s, Pontiac had much success on the drag strips all across America. Little by little, the performance aspect became a powerful marketing tool since the new generation of buyers wanted powerful, fast cars. And even though Pontiac wanted to capitalize on its success, they were reluctant to invest in a sports car they would build from scratch. And also, all their production models were big, heavy vehicles. However, a young engineer named John Z. DeLorean thought of a genius idea. He wanted to install a big, powerful 396 V8 in a light, intermediate Tempest two-door body to easily and affordably a true performance machine. The result was the Tempest GTO, as they called it, an option on the Tempest intermediate model. For just $295, buyers could get a high-performance 396 V8 with 325 HP in standard or 348 HP in the famous Tri-Power form.
A manual transmission, unique trim, GTO decals, and dual exhaust were all part of the package. Since the car was light, the Tempest GTO produced a convincing performance. In fact, in 1964, it was one of the quickest American cars on the market. Even Corvette owners weren’t safe from the Tempest GTOs lurking at the stoplights across the country. Ironically, the Pontiac sales manager wasn’t particularly fond of the model. He thought the GTO package didn’t have any perspective. However, his estimate of building a maximum of 5,000 examples per year was drastically surpassed by the official sales figures of over 32,000 copies. It was clear the GTO was a hit among younger buyers and a star was born.