Feature Car for August 2025

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Month of August 2025

Greg Racic and his 1967 GTO

A Return to Form: 1967 GTO HO

Years ago, I had the pleasure of owning a 1967 Pontiac Parisienne convertible—an elegant cruiser that suited its time and mine. Then I took a long detour from the world of classic cars to focus on a different project - raising a family. The garage lights dimmed, and life shifted gears.

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Flash forward a couple of decades, with some spare time now, I felt the familiar pull of the classics. Not just any classic, though—I wanted muscle. Call it nostalgia, or perhaps the quiet ambition to finally own the kind of car that cruised the streets of my teenage years. After some searching, I found it: a 1967 Pontiac GTO HO, acquired in December 2024.

The car comes from Wisconsin, where it had clearly spent some time in quarter-mile therapy. It came equipped with all the hallmarks of track preparation—a big camshaft, 4.11 diff, high-stall torque converter, and a few other touches best described as “unapologetically aggressive.”

Forty years ago, I wouldn’t have changed a thing. Today, however, my priorities have evolved. I replaced the 4.11 gears with more road-friendly 3.36s—still quick, but now civilized enough for highway driving. The camshaft is next because the engine refuses to settle much below 1,200 RPM, which makes for too much drama at stoplights. I plan to return it to something closer to its original specs: performance with poise. Even though I love the angry growl of the exhaust, I now prefer it as punctuation, not background noise.

Since joining the MSC club about a month ago, I’ve appreciated the camaraderie, the vehicles, and the shared understanding that these machines aren’t just objects of admiration—they’re living history. A collector once told me that we aren’t truly the owners of these vehicles, but rather their custodians, preserving them until it’s time for the next pair of hands to take the wheel. That idea stuck with me. It's a humbling reminder that while the car may sit in my garage, it ultimately belongs to a longer story.

My wife, for the record, wonders why the garage now smells like gasoline and vinyl. But she’s coming around - she thinks the pivoting draft windows are charmingly clever, and perhaps that’s how it starts.

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