The Owen family's 1957 Plymouth station wagon -- that seemed to be so appropriate in their former Cleveland, Ohio neighborhood -- was soon replaced when the family moved to California.
Brin Owen's father adopted the California lifestyle, which included a GTO convertible. Young Owen, then approaching kindergarten age, remembers accompanying his father in late 1966 to select the car his father wanted. The order was placed and that 3,910-pound 1967 Pontiac GTO convertible rolled off the Fremont, Calif., assembly line the last day of January 1967. The base price was $3,276.
Owen's father was provided a company car for daily use, so the Pontiac was assigned to family chauffeuring chores.
"Unfortunately," Owen says, "my mom disliked the car from day one when she and my dad went down to the local school parking lot to teach my mom how to shift and park the shining new bundle of muscle." Yet the GTO served as the family car through the rest of the 1960s, 1970s and into the 1980s.
Owen recalls his mother saying, "Imagine driving four kids around a hilly rural community in a 3,700-pound, four-speed with manual brakes." She was not amused, he says. Owen learned to drive on the manual transmission in the Pontiac, as did his three sisters.
Soon after the Pontiac was purchased the Owens reported it stolen out of a mall parking lot. The good news was that it was recovered unscathed a week later. The bad news was that the transmission was missing. Other than that one incident Owen says the Pontiac has had a very mundane existence once the Hurst shifter was replaced in the center console.
The 400-cubic-inch V-8 engine was originally capped by a Rochester Quadrajet four-barrel carburetor. Other goodies on the Pontiac include such well thought out features as the four seat belts for the five passengers. The center console, covered with faux wood trim, between the front bucket seats also houses a glove compartment.
The Pontiac was a familiar sight on the streets of Palos Verde until the odometer had recorded about 120,000 miles and the four children had left home, and then it was placed in long-term storage.
"Throughout the 1980s and 1990s my dad was repeatedly approached by passersby who offered to buy the old Pontiac in the garage," Owen says. "Fortunately," he says, "My dad's response was always, `No, it's promised to my son'."
As the years rolled by, Owen and his father planned to begin restoring the family convertible. Unfortunately, time ran out in 2004 when Owen's father died.
"My mom informed me that the car was mine," Owen says. In February 2005 the Pontiac was loaded on a trailer and hauled off to a restoration shop.
A little more than a year later the Signet Gold GTO emerged from the shop looking like new. Besides the fresh paint both chrome bumpers were replated. Both front fenders had been dented, but no evidence of that remains after the restoration.
"My instructions to the restorer," Owen says, "were to keep everything stock."
As the restoration progressed that originality desire had to be tempered with one of practicality. Owen did not want a show car that he couldn't drive, so adjustments such as front wheel power disc brakes, electronic ignition and a Holly carburetor to replace the temperamental Quadrajet to make the car more drivable were approved.
The 400-cubic-inch V-8 engine is set up to develop 335 horsepower. The Pontiac was ordered with power steering.
Owen has replaced the original 14-inch red line wide oval bias-ply tires with similar radials on Rally I wheels that support the 115-inch wheelbase.
"On Father's Day 2006 I took delivery of the fully restored car," Owen says. Since then he has driven the family heirloom about 4,000 miles. -- Vern Parker, Motor Matters
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Copyright, Motor Matters, 2009
