Billy’s goat

Ithought my GTO would be of interest to readers given AMC’s recent content on RHD conversions. It is a 1966 model, converted by Bill Buckle Automotive back in the day and still has the Bill Buckle plate in the engine bay.

I have owned the car for 24 years and bought it off a guy who had owned it for 15 years. It was

completely original except for mag wheels added by the previous owner.

Younger readers might nd it hard to believe, but things like a passenger-side rear-vision mirror and a radio were options, at additional cost, on cars of this era.

My GTO came with two quite rare options: the custom sports steering wheel, a wood look-a-like wheel; and aluminium front brake drums, the aluminium drums were only offered in 1965-66. My car is the only one I have been able to nd in Oz that has them.

Car came with the original 389ci engine, 4bbl and two-speed auto transmission. It was highly optioned: push button radio, power antenna, selectable dual-speakers in the rear, rally pack gauges (tacho, oil pressure and temp gauge; standard is clock and idiot lights), power-steering, power brakes, map reading lights, console, door edge guards, air-conditioning, limited slip differential and power windows. When I bought the car it was two-tone: white and rust!

White is the most common colour you see on the road, so why would you have an uncommon car painted a common colour? Soooo, what colour to paint it? Red looks great but there are heaps of red Mustangs and Corvettes.

So I decided on Dakar Yellow, which is a BMW M3 colour. The car now has a 455ci Pontiac engine with quad Weber carb induction system that is homemade. As far I know, it is the only street-driven quad Webered Pontiac GTO in the world. Nobody ever made an intake manifold for Pontiac V8s that accepted Weber carbs. There

was a Weber-equipped ’68 GTO in the US that was drag raced, but I haven’t heard of, or seen, the car for a few years.

Geoff Buwalda

Sydney, NSW