20. Pontiac GTO
In the early ’60s, Pontiac had great 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. Pontiac wanted to capitalize on its success. But they were reluctant to invest in a sports car they would have to build from scratch since all their production models were big, heavy vehicles. But then, a young engineer named John Z. DeLorean thought of a genius idea. He wanted to install the big, powerful 396 V8 into a light, intermediate Tempest two-door body. It was an easy and affordable way to create 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 would 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 delivered a convincing performance. Interestingly, in 1964 it was one of the quickest American cars on the market. Even the Corvette owners weren’t safe from the Tempest GTOs lurking at stoplights across the country. The Pontiac sales manager wasn’t particularly fond of the model. He thought the GTO package didn’t have any perspective. However, the official sales figures of over 32,000 drastically surpassed his estimate of a maximum of 5,000 examples per year. It was clear the GTO was a hit among younger buyers and that a star was born.