Getting GM’s Goat: GTO fans sound off on ‘sucked caramel’ styling of 2004 Monaro-based model
AutoWeek
By BOB GRITZINGER
3-19-03
GTO fans displeased with the Monaro-based 2004 GTO will find Ford's Mustang featured on ultimateGTO.com
FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE GOING online in 1996, a pretty Pontiac GTO photo isn’t the Picture of the Week on the Ultimate Pontiac GTO Picture Site (
www.ultimateGTO.com).
In a protest sparked by what the website owner describes as an overwhelmingly negative response to the exterior styling of the 2004 Pontiac GTO, the enthusiast site is featuring several shots of the Mustang GT concept (from March 23 to March 29) that debuted at the Detroit and Los Angeles auto shows in January.
General Motors, under the guidance of product vice chairman Bob Lutz, decided last year to bring back the fabled GTO badge on a performance coupe based on the Holden Monaro, built by GM’s Australian subsidiary. The car’s pedigree is impressive: a modified 5.7-liter LS1 V8 engine producing 340 hp at 5200 rpm and 360 lb-ft of torque at 4000 rpm, sport-tuned suspension and an optional six-speed manual tranny. But for GTO purists flocking to ultimateGTO.com, the latest rendition due late this year may have all the performance of a GTO, but it misses the mark because it lacks signature elements like hood scoops, prominent GTO badging and tough styling.
“We feel GM has just hijacked the GTO name to sell some other car,” says site owner Sean Mattingly.
Or, as one GTO fan posted: “GTO needs to look like it’s breaking the law parked at the curb. The styling for this machine is just another bubble car.” Or this: “You give us this? An Australian sucked caramel?”
Hogwash, says Lutz, who waded into the website bulletin board fray back in mid-January, posting a personal response to assaults on his GTO from Down Under. Lutz noted that “dyed-in-the-wool old-line GTO [fans] are disappointed it’s a non-retro-themed car with few throwback GTO cues,” but he argued that wasn’t what GM set out to do with the car.
“We wanted a modern interpretation, with a really slick chassis to go along with a big engine,” Lutz wrote. “We really would like to draw new customers, rather than traditionalists.”
Lutz assured the car “will more than live up to the GTO heritage in terms of driving excitement and performance”—but in a nod to traditionalists he promised hood scoops for 2005.
Fair enough, but most of Lutz’s comments only served to inflame the GTO masses who fired back with more vitriol, Mattingly says. In response, Mattingly felt the site had to make a statement on behalf of the beleaguered Goat fans—and posting the Mustang GT seemed like a logical choice.
“The Mustang was the real star of the auto shows,” notes Mattingly. GM spokesman Tom Kowaleski says the company respects the website’s right to free speech. But he urges GTO fans to withhold judgment on the new car.
“Once they get in the car, I guarantee 90 percent of them will come out all smiles,” he says.
But it’s the crew down the road in Dearborn with the big smiles—at least for now.
“We understand why the website chose Mustang, because it’s the only classic pony car still standing today,” says Ford’s Special Vehicle Team chief John Coletti. “This new GTO is like a Cavalier on a Camaro chassis.”
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