Classic GTO part of hot car show this weekend
The story of my 1964 Pontiac GTO starts in 1973, when Norm Corridor moved next door to my parents’ house on West 17th Avenue in Vancouver.
I was your typical car crazy 14-year-old boy who thought he knew cars — but then I saw my first ’64 “Goat” next door. Norm showed me the neat features of the Goat like the 389-cubic-inch engine, the tri-power carburetors and the four-speed transmission.
I knew then that I would have to own this car.
Over the next year or so, if I heard Norm fire the GTO up, I would run out to see if I could tag along for a ride, no matter where he was going.
I even started washing the car for him just to get any GTO time I could. Norm would come out on his porch and yell, “What are you doing,” and I would respond, “I’m washing the car you are going to sell me one day!”
In 1975, Norm sold me the GTO for $1,500. I spent the next few years driving my GTO and having a blast. But after breaking something on the car for the umpteenth time, I parked it until I could afford to fix it.
Time sped by, and along came marriage, kids, mortgages and business. All the time, the Goat sat forlorn in storage.
In 2001, I started to do a full frame-off restoration. The work progressed slowly, as I did what I could when I could do it.
The 389, four-speed and 3:55 posi rear end were all rebuilt. The body and paint were done in the original white with red interior.
In 2015, my daughter, Monique, and her fiancé decided to get married in June 2016. She told me her wish was to be driven to and from her wedding in my GTO, the car she had known her whole life, but never ridden in.
This was enough to renew my enthusiasm, and so I got wrenching. With the help of friends and fellow Torque Masters Car Club members, we were able to iron out the last of the bugs and got the GTO roadworthy the very morning of Monique’s wedding.
Almost exactly 40 years from the date that I parked my GTO, I headed to my insurance office and asked to renew the insurance.
The insurance agent, quite amused by the handwritten insurance papers from 40 years earlier, typed the information into the computer. There was no sign of my car in the system, and the agent had to call ICBC and have them look into their archives. The file had been purged from their system back in 1980, just four years after I last insured the car. A new registration was issued, and ICBC found proof that I was still the registered owner of the vehicle.
Three hours after I walked into the office, with the help and skill of the agent, the GTO was reinsured and Monique got her wish.
My GTO was supposed to be in the 2016 Rock and Roll for Little Souls Show, a few days before Monique’s wedding, but sadly it was not ready.
I am happy to say, however, that it will be in this year’s charity car show from today through Sunday at G.R. Pearkes Fieldhouse.
Entry into the show is by donation, with all proceeds going to support children’s health on Vancouver Island.
For more information on the show, go to rockforlittlesouls.com.