Initially created to be a competitor to the Plymouth Road Runner but evolved in concept to lead the charge of spoilered and striped supercars, the 1969 GTO Judge is a zeitgeist vehicle if there ever was one, a Peter-Max-on-wheels that gave the GTO strong visibility in a market that had plenty of competitors crying for attention. You can buy one of these fabulous Goats at the GAA Classic Cars Auction on Saturday, November 9, 2024.
As the GTO was the granddaddy of the performance car market, it should be no surprise that it was the best-selling performance car in the market. Would you believe almost 97,000 were sold in 1966 alone? And, among Pontiac A-bodies that year, the GTO outsold the Tempest and Tempest Custom, only being outsold by the LeMans? That’s quite a feat for a vehicle that was challenged to achieve 5,000 in sales (it beat that by over 500 percent) only two years before.
It’s good to be the King, but other suitors showed up and tried to dethrone the GTO. That actually happened in 1969 with the Plymouth Road Runner and Chevrolet Chevelle SS 396. On Plymouth’s end, the Road Runer had a two-pronged approach: it gave the performance market something more affordable, as the GTO and its copycats were all highly trimmed performance cars, and it featured a novel branding approach that was easy to love. And the Chevy? The most popular brand with the largest dealer network simply took a few years to catch up.
John DeLorean took note of this, but wasn’t too keen on the product planners’ idea to have a Road Runner-fighter that could cannibalize GTO sales. Instead, he suggested a car in the opposite direction: a pricier GTO with all the candy that was beginning to appear as options for other cars, both from the factory and the aftermarket. Perhaps the most visible at the time was the Hurst/Olds. And it seems DeLorean wasn’t the only one with the sharp eye because Mercury also was planning similar models with the Cougar Eliminator and Cyclone Spoiler.
The first 2,000 GTOs built with the Judge package were painted a Firebird color called Carousel Red. This signature color made the GTO Judge appear more common on the street than it was. After two months, Pontiac allowed any GTO color to be used with the Judge package, though none ever came close to the popularity of Carousel Red.
Aside of the color, stripes, and spoiler, the Judge was standard GTO fare, starting with the first optional engine, the 400 Ram Air (commonly known as the Ram Air III). Other features of the package included G70 x 14 blackwall tires wrapped in Rally II wheels sans trim rings, and the Ride and Handling package. Any other GTO option was available for Judge-equipped cars as long as you didn’t downgrade the engine or wheel selection.
This 1969 GTO Judge that is being auctioned at the GAA Classic Cars Auction was originally sold at Plaza Pontiac in Burlington, North Carolina. Factory options worth noting include M20 wide-ratio four-speed with console, hidden headlights, AM/FM radio, hood tachometer, clock, Custom Sport steering wheel, power steering, power brakes with discs up front, and several other items. We can infer from the equipment list (nicely validated by the PHS documentation) that the rear gears are 3.55s.
Today, the GTO Judge is among the most popular GTOs in the collector car world. In fact, it was popular at Pontiac too because the company decided to carry the package into 1970 and even 1971. Those cars are rarer, but neither of those have the punch that the original 1969 GTO Judge had. Don’t miss your opportunity to bid in person or on GAA’s website on November 9, 2024!
