SEPTEMBER 2019 23“When those
two-barrels kick in, it
has great low-end grunt”
Goat, the Tripps had to sell it off. Warren can’t recall which model
of plain-Jane, four-door Chevy sedan filled in for it. But he never
forgot the GTO.
“We had a lot of good memories in that car.” (Except for the
time Carol accidentally sheared the driver’s door off its hinges
when backing out of the garage—but that’s another story.)
All of which brings us to the Goat of a different color. A few
years ago he spotted a Sunfire Red GTO crossing the block at an
auction in Reno. Although the color is unusual, and Warren had
never seen any other GTO in this shade, he liked it right off. Andso did wife Carol, who encouraged him to buy a car similar to the
one they so loved as a young couple.
After the gavel dropped on his bid, he drove it home, but the
years seemed to have taken their toll. It didn’t quite have the same
zip and smooth shifting that he recalled from his first GTO. Turns
out there wasn’t anything mechanically wrong, it just needed to
blow out the pipes after sitting still for a time. Warren didn’t need
any encouragement to stomp the loud pedal, considering he has
a half-dozen or so muscle cars, Corvettes, and hot rods in his col-
lection, including a late-model Dodge Demon.
When asked how the two muscle cars compare, he admits that
even though the Demon’s blown 840hp Hemi delivers a quantum
leap in power, he still has an abiding affection for his old Goat.
Equipped with the M20 wide-ratio four-speed and 3.23 Safe-T-
Track diff, the GTO still satisfies after all these years. “When those
two-barrels kick in, it has great low-end grunt.”