The first thing that suprised me about the new GTO is how small it actually is. As far as the ride and the handling, I find the ride to be somewhat firm, but well controlled. I think it could really make use of a set of Bilsteins, but so far, none are available. The car corners very well, as you'd expect it to with four wheel independent suspension. I've still got a 1970 El Camino in my gararge, so it is not a major problem for me to compare the new and the old. The GTO brakes are smaller than the ones you can by down under, but they are far, far superior to anything the early cars had. My 68 GTO had the fixed four piston calipers, which were replaced by single piston floating calipers on the 1969's. Now, it seems the more pistons the better, with some of the Porsches running six piston calipers. I still needed a tow vehicle, so since you've been a Ford person, you'll probably understand the 2003 Lightning that's also in my garage. A few mods like a ported blower, 6 lb pulley, single blade throttle body and CAI make them run very well. They were priced a bit less than the GTO and as you know, heavily modded ones run in the 9's. For a leaf spring 4900 pound truck to run in the mid 12's with minor mods is, uh, impressive. I thought I'd own it for a long time, but since I got the GTO, you'll find it listed for sale on F-150 online. If you're looking for a quick low mile truck, impressive dyno sheets are available. I love the blower whine and the straight line acceleration of the Lightning, but the GTO makes me grin more. Back to the old stuff......I had a 1966 Catalina 2+2, which was about the same size as your Executive and came with the 421. Every time I see a late sixties "big" car, I am astounded by the size of the quarter panels. They must be 11 feet long. It seemed perfectly normal at the time since those were the big cars and the Tempest/GTO series were the "small" cars. I still have the window sticker for the 2+2 and it continues to amaze me that it didn't come with power brakes! As far as 0-60 and 1320 times for new vs. old, you have to factor in how much tires have changed. If you put a set of PolyGlas F70-14's on your new GTO, you'd be stunned at what it did not do. A 68 GTO in stock trim was good for about 13.9 to 14 flat in street trim. If you'd have tried to get a 2600 stall converter in 68, you'd have had a very interesting search! I remember in 1971 when they dropped the compression and added cat converters. We swore they'd never make cars like the RA IV GTOs again. I knew they were wrong the first time I drove a 455 HO Trans Am. The 2006 GTO only reinforces that position. It also gets mileage that we'd never heard of in the 60's. Do you remember how much gas your 66 held? Everybody was concerned with range, not mileage. 28 Gallon tanks were common. Anything "built" commonly got less than 10 mpg. I remember buying Chevron "White Pump" for 32 cents a gallon! To me, times have gotten better, not worse. I don't miss "the good old days" at all.
arty:
