When he bought it back
in the 1980s, Stephen
Martin didn’t care for
the “orange” paint on his
1969 GTO convertible, so
he had it repainted red.
Until, that is, he learned
how rare a Carousel Red
non-Judge GTO is.SEPTEMBER 2019 29“Just four such ragtops are known to exist”
car wouldn’t stay red forever, as PHS noted
that non-Judge convertibles painted Car-
ousel Red are extremely rare. Martin says
that over the years, he has picked up that
perhaps just four such ragtops are known
to exist.
PHS also offered a host of other informa-
tion, some of it known to Martin because
of what the original owner had explained,
some of it new. Martin’s GTO was shipped
from the Arlington, Texas, assembly plant
on May 20, 1969, and used by a Southern
California Pontiac zone manager who had
presumably ordered the car to his liking.
He must have liked his cars loaded up, be-
cause Martin’s surely is. After a few months
of company use, the car was turned in and
put up for sale at Jules Myers Pontiac in
West Hollywood. The first private party
owner would be Duncan Bond, who bought
the GTO in February 1970. Bond stayed in
Southern California until 1979, when he
moved his family to Washington State. Two
years later, he sold the car to Martin.
By the early 2000s, Martin was in a posi-
tion to have the car repainted in CarouselRed, and do some other light restoration
work. He now looked at the “orange” paint
in a completely different manner. Instead
of being turned off, he understood its
uniqueness and desirability. It turns out
this vivid hue originally appeared in the fall
of 1968 as a 1969 Firebird color, and was
then picked up as the initial GTO Judge
color when that model debuted shortly
thereafter. As an aside, Chevrolet also used
the same color beginning in the fall of
1968, calling it Hugger or Monaco Orange.
Carousel Red was not a standard GTO color