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1965 Pontiac Tempest GTO
The Pontiac GTO was slightly improved for 1965 with several cosmetic and mechanical changes. From the outside, the car was a little bit bigger, but it retained the same wheelbase. They updated the front fascia and mounted the lights vertically instead of horizontally. Also, the grille was different with the “GTO” badge on the driver’s side.
The even improved the 389 engine, adding high-performance heads and pistons. And they upgraded the base model power to 335 HP. The Tri-Power version produced 360 HP, which affected the performance. Also, the standard 1965 Pontiac GTO could accelerate to 60 mph in just 5.8 seconds.
As a result, the sales more than doubled with the sale of over 75,000 examples. And the enormous success of the GTO inspired other American car companies to introduce similar models. Thanks to the GTO, the muscle car era had officially begun.