Where is pontiac gto made

The old two-speed automatic transmission was also replaced with a three-speed TH The big news in was the addition of the "The Judge," a special edition of the GTO that featured unique striping, a rear spoiler and other goodies to set it apart from the standard issue car.

In terms of engines, the top-of-the-line Ram Air IV was rated at horsepower — although, that figure is said to be significantly underrated compared to its actual output.

For , the GTO saw significant styling changes with quad headlamps and more aggressive body lines. The Judge option continued, and the big change was the availability of a cubic-inch engine that produced a staggering foot-pounds of torque.

By the model year, the muscle car era had peaked due to increasing pressure from both insurance companies and environmental agencies. New styling included dual hood scoops directly over the front grilles, marking the final year of the Judge option.

Cosmetically, a '72 GTO does not differ much from a '71; but this year, there were even more signs of a fading popularity of the muscle car. The GTO went back to being an option package rather than a standalone model, and the Judge was discontinued, as was the GTO convertible. A was standard with an optional still available, but both compression ratios and horsepower ratings had dropped significantly compared to a few years earlier.

The and were no more, with a horsepower cubic-inch V8 being the sole engine option. The car had become a shell of its former self, marking the end for the GTO's year run as well as the end of the first muscle car era.

The Pontiac GTO made a reappearance in , albeit as a concept car that was more design study, heavy on retro styling, than a preview of an actual production vehicle. Nonetheless, it got people thinking about a possible revival of the iconic vehicle. It packed independent rear suspension, a horsepower LS1 V8 and a standard six-speed manual transmission.

Reaction to the car was mixed. Every two hours the cluster's LCD flashes a "rest reminder" with a pixilated image of a tree perhaps Australian eucalyptus? How exotic. The elegant detailing—including the red-face GTO dials with silver bezels and chrome pointer hubs, the red stitching on the leather-wrapped wheel and shifter boot, the polished metal door handles, and the aluminum-colored ring around the center dashboard stack—is also a welcome departure from GM's typical Tupperware interiors.

We only wish Holden would find some space for a dead pedal left of the clutch. The corn-stalk shifter provides the leverage to easily shove the heavy forks around the Tremec T six-speed. The detents are mushy and the gates somewhat sloppy, and the Corvette's hated one-to-four skip shift is there for fuel economy, but the stick knows its way and rarely hangs up.

For a muscle car, the GTO's clutch is soft, slipping enough during shifts to cushion and flatten out small rpm differentials. If you want necks snapped, row hard and keep the gas pedal flat. The GTO charges headlights ablaze out of a toxic cloud of tire smoke to turn 5.

The pops and thuds of backfires on the overrun sound positively illegal, like you'd pulled the cans and were heading for Paradise Road. They scrub off 70 mph in a longish feet, some 20 feet more than the lighter-weight Asians. The brake pedal also feels squishy at bottom, as if it were swinging against seat foam. Aftermarket tire retailers are standing by. Lows: Iffy build quality, tiny trunk, styling that makes you say, "So what?

The GTO glides above the pavement on struts in the front and semi-trailing arms in the rear with an adjustable toe-in link. Australia is a land of rough roads, so the control arms are stout welded steel and forged iron, and the crossmembers to which they attach are beefy stampings and tubes.

It all contributes to the GTO's pound curb weight, a plus-pound hike above a base Corvette coupe. Elevating the fuel tank into the trunk pushed the GTO's center of gravity in the wrong direction, too. Subsequently, don't expect the GTO to two-step like a Corvette. There's more sponge in the steering, more roll in the tires, more lean and bob in the body. Yet the GTO pulled 0.

In corners the front end bites hard and the rear tracks dutifully, the understeer staying mostly in the shadows. Hanging the tail out is a challenge, even with all the power on tap; the Pontiac prefers to scrub its excess speed through the front tires. This is a car for getting where you're going, not putting on a stunt show.

Along the way, expect a supple ride over expansion joints and cold-patch cracks, until the tires hit something big. The bump stops are rigid, a compromise to permit the tires and inch alloy wheels to fit into the small wheelhouses without constant rubbing.

At least the GTO's stiff, rattle-free body soaks up shakes that would've had the old Camaro and Firebird shedding parts. Speaking of which, the GTO did shed one or two of its own, including its battery tie-down and the wing-mounted center stop lamp, which fell off when one of its plastic screws sheared.

GM will say that our GTO was an early pilot car. The GTO is widely considered to have started this trend with the domestic automakers, offering a variety of models that can compete with differing car production companies.

The GTO model was revived from to , after a year hiatus in production, being used as a captive important for Pontiac, meaning that it was foreign-built and sold under the name of an importer. The GTO was used as a left-hand drive version of the Holden Monaro, a rear-wheeled drive coupe produced by the Australian brand of GM Holden from and Since the model marked the end of the GTO production, maybe you should just check out restored old Pontiac GTOs for your next car instead. Keep reading to see how the ranks in terms of the Pontiac GTO model year , and why it has obtained that specific number.

Let's dive a little deeper into the specs and details of the Pontiac GTO - and why no one bought it For the model , two more colors were added to the GTO lineup, featuring bright red and orange metallic, while blue metallic and yellow were dropped from production.

Other changes included blacked-out tail lamps, light-up wheel radio controls, improved power seat motors, and an interior power lock switch.

The reasoning behind this decision was the failure to meet the new safety requirements for their airbags in the model.