# Number of extant 66 GTOs



## DukeB-120th (Oct 19, 2009)

John Gunnell's Standard Catalog of American Muscle Cars tells me that they made 96,946 GTOs for the 66 model year.

*How many would you guess survive today? *Apologies if this has already been answered, I tried to slog through forum search results before posting, but without any luck...

Thanks & Regards, Duke


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## geeteeohguy (Feb 2, 2008)

Maybe 10%.....around 9,0000? '66 was the year of highest production...... I saw a '67 GTO rolling down Highway 99 last week....it was the first '67 GTO I've seen on the road (other than mine) in years. And I'm in California, where you see '66 Mustangs and '57 Chevies on a daily basis!!!!


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## Eric Animal (Oct 28, 2007)

I can account for 1 66vert, and 1 66 HT that are no longer in existance...due to my youthful "handy work" arty:


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## DukeB-120th (Oct 19, 2009)

So you are really estimating that nine out of ten 66 Goats have been destroyed?


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## 66tempestGT (Nov 28, 2009)

i would go with that. i guess it depends on your definition of survive. i suspect much less than 10 still in operation.


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## geeteeohguy (Feb 2, 2008)

Interesting thought....I did some research on the web and came up with all kinds of stuff, but no answer....I found one study done in the 80's that found that the average lifespan of cars in the US was 9.9 years, and 14+ years for pickups. These were vehicles that were made in '66 and minitored thru the '70's. Seems pickups are around a lot longer due to their utility value: people keep them running. They made over 15 million Model T Fords between 1908 and 1927. About 10 percent remain. The T was a low performance, durable, high production vehicle that has had an aftermarket source for parts for over 60 years. It was hard to break and it lasted. The GTO was a low production, HIGH performance vehicle. It was easy to break. Many were wrecked immediately. Good friend of mine wrecked his '67 the first night he had it. I was in the car. Posi burnout thru a fence into a tree. I wrecked my first '66 GTO. (It did get saved and put onto a new frame and returned to service). Aftermarket parts were NOT available for these cars until recently. When I fixed mine up, it was junkyard stuff or no stuff at all. In the '70's, these were worn out, used gas-hogs. I think I had the only GTO in my city that wasn't a roach. They did not get saved, (Especially if they were a 4 speed, and 63% of all 66's were stick. The reason most of the '66's you see today are automatic is because the stick cars got thrashed to death or wrecked). So, if you compare 96,000 '66 GTO's as opposed to close to 600,000 '66 Mustangs, you can begin to understand why you never see them on the road. Thinking about it, I would guess that my first statement of 10% is optimistic. It may well be nearer to 5%. I would LOVE to know!! As a happy ending, we found a matcing-paint, A/C equipped ENTIRE front clip for the '67 GTO my friend wrecked for a total of $100 in the junkyard. Just bolted it on, recharged the AC, and we were off. Those were the days!!


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## DukeB-120th (Oct 19, 2009)

Man, that is friggin depressing.

I guess you could probably sort the cars into four tiers or groups; you have roadworthy cars, damaged/severe project cars, purely parts cars, and obliterated cars.

By destroyed, I had meant cars that had been shredded, crushed, or dismantled.

I relayed your estimate to my father, who sold his '66 4-speed HT when I was about eight (circa 1998??) for $10,100. Though the engine had to have a new block installed, and the paint was not original, the car was cherry.

I tried to tell him not to do it, but my third grade voice of reason was ignored, and now he is kicking himself in the ass.

Buying my own montero red/parchment white 66 4-speed HT remains at the center of why I care about trying to get a good paying job.

GTO fund: $3077


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## geeteeohguy (Feb 2, 2008)

Duke, you can bet that the GTO your dad sold 12 years ago is still around. People began to value these cars in the 80's, and the cars that still survived as 15-20 year old GTO's by the mid '80's had already beaten the odds and were getting fixed up. The good news is that there are so many parts available today, that you can build one from scratch if you have to. It would cost a ton, though. The excellent parts availability has allowed many formerly "lost" GTO's to be restored. I sold my Montero Red '66 4 speed HT with black interior in 1991 for $6250, which was good money at the time. It would take 30k or so to buy that same car today. Don't rush your search. Save the money, take your time, and you will find your car. It's all relative.


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## Unclesams (Jun 5, 2009)

I love it when I find one in a field rotting into the ground, and I ask the owner to sell it to me, and (even though they are 80 years old) tell me that they 'saw it on Speed channel at an auction and it is worth 70,000 dollars' and one day they are going to restore it. Those are the people who sacrifice all THEIR value so that yours will be worth more, and they don't even know it.


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## DukeB-120th (Oct 19, 2009)

Unclesams said:


> I love it when I find one in a field rotting into the ground, and I ask the owner to sell it to me, and (even though they are 80 years old) tell me that they 'saw it on Speed channel at an auction and it is worth 70,000 dollars' and one day they are going to restore it. Those are the people who sacrifice all THEIR value so that yours will be worth more, and they don't even know it.



I certainly hear you on that bro, but to me, any goat is a good goat - the best goat is a restored goat.


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## DukeB-120th (Oct 19, 2009)

geeteeohguy said:


> Duke, you can bet that the GTO your dad sold 12 years ago is still around. People began to value these cars in the 80's, and the cars that still survived as 15-20 year old GTO's by the mid '80's had already beaten the odds and were getting fixed up. The good news is that there are so many parts available today, that you can build one from scratch if you have to. It would cost a ton, though. The excellent parts availability has allowed many formerly "lost" GTO's to be restored. I sold my Montero Red '66 4 speed HT with black interior in 1991 for $6250, which was good money at the time. It would take 30k or so to buy that same car today. Don't rush your search. Save the money, take your time, and you will find your car. It's all relative.


Well, that's assuming that the teenager Pops sold it to (or any subsequent owners?? :confused) didn't thrash it into the ground or total it. I'm going to get my dad to try and dig out papers on the car, he should probably hopefully still have the VIN.

Is anyone aware of any resources that will allow you to figure out where a car is? I'm not interested in any message-in-a-bottle web sites where you post your car hoping to serendipitously find the current owner. I'm talking pay to run the VIN kind of thing. I'm in California, if that makes any difference.

I know from pictures what the original CA "black plate" license is already. I went onto the DMV website and tested out that series on a vanity plate, and it came up as available, so three outcomes possible:

1) the car is destroyed;
2) some idiot took the black plate tags off for vanity tags; :shutme
3) the existence of CA black plates with that series does not preclude one from making new vanity plates with that series... :confused


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## 1966zeige (Jun 17, 2010)

DukeB-120th said:


> I certainly hear you on that bro, but to me, any goat is a good goat - the best goat is a restored goat.


Thats where I found my 66 HT 4spd my wife calls it my cornfield cruiser it took 8 years but I have finally got to drive it for the first time about 3 weeks ago, still have some bugs to work out.


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## DukeB-120th (Oct 19, 2009)

1966zeige said:


> Thats where I found my 66 HT 4spd my wife calls it my cornfield cruiser it took 8 years but I have finally got to drive it for the first time about 3 weeks ago, still have some bugs to work out.


"Cornfield Cruiser" would be an especially apt description for a car that burns ethanol, haha.

Did you have any posts on this forum that talked through your build? I would have loved to have seen your build progress over all those years. It sounds like you are gonna be a happy man with that Goat.


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## 1966zeige (Jun 17, 2010)

Unfortuneatly I didn't find this web site until the end of my build, but I have a photo album of pic's from the day I brought it home to a couple of weeks ago. I'll see if I can figure out how to get some on here, I'm not very computin machine smart, I'm lucky I can even turn it on.


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## DukeB-120th (Oct 19, 2009)

1966zeige said:


> Unfortuneatly I didn't find this web site until the end of my build, but I have a photo album of pic's from the day I brought it home to a couple of weeks ago. I'll see if I can figure out how to get some on here, I'm not very computin machine smart, I'm lucky I can even turn it on.


Haha, best of luck gettin em uploaded!


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## likethat (Oct 5, 2007)

There area few free online photo upload sites. I use photobucket. Just sign up and upload your pic then post a link to the pics.


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## DukeB-120th (Oct 19, 2009)

Fellas, something else salient just came to mind... How many cars could you estimate are still matching numbers on the engine/transmission/both?

Roughly knowing will inform my future choice of whether or not to try and pay for a survivor and have a ready-to-go dream car or if I go down the project car road, what I should be having as a set of "must-haves."


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## 66tempestGT (Nov 28, 2009)

seven :lol:


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## geeteeohguy (Feb 2, 2008)

Out of 9 GTO's owned during the past 30+ years, exactly ONE had a numbers matching engine and trans in it. So, supposing there are 9000 '66 GTO's in existance, then perhaps 900 or so are still in "as born" condition. I'd like to think there are a LOT more, though. Who knows?


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## likethat (Oct 5, 2007)

I have owned over 30 GM Muscle cars. I still have the 3 that where/ are numbers matching engine, trans, and rear. 2 of them came from a very good friend's mother and uncle both where the original owners. So for me it was luck. The 1 that is left has had the quarters skinned and was from a 2nd owner making me a 3rd. The car had been sitting since 1982 in a garage. It is a 1967 convertible RS camaro. I would say 10% of the GTO's left at best.


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## jetstang (Nov 5, 2008)

My 70 had the original engine removed in 1980 for a 400. Guy kept the motor and I got it when I bought the car, and now I put it back in. But it's the 350, low HP engines tend to last longer than hipo stuff. And mine is a Lemans Sport.


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## DukeB-120th (Oct 19, 2009)

Thanks for the feedback. Well, maybe I'll get lucky and get a car that's got intact engine and trans, but odds are I'll be bugging you guys to help me build and stuff in a brand new 389 in a few years. :lol:

What do you think about building an engine on a stand before you've actually bought a car? Just for practice, even if its not one you would put in your car?


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## jetstang (Nov 5, 2008)

DukeB-120th said:


> What do you think about building an engine on a stand before you've actually bought a car? Just for practice, even if its not one you would put in your car?


Sure, but do a small block chevy, then you'll make sure you can stuff it in something, and it's way cheaper than doing a Pontiac. It would stink to do a Pontiac and end up with a number matching car and have the engine on a stand. SBC can go into a rod, truck, or car project. 
Also, as a project car, Pontiacs are not the easiest cars to do, parts are double the cost of Camaros, Chevelles and Mustangs, and hard to find sometimes.


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## DukeB-120th (Oct 19, 2009)

jetstang said:


> Sure, but do a small block chevy, then you'll make sure you can stuff it in something, and it's way cheaper than doing a Pontiac. It would stink to do a Pontiac and end up with a number matching car and have the engine on a stand. SBC can go into a rod, truck, or car project.
> Also, as a project car, Pontiacs are not the easiest cars to do, parts are double the cost of Camaros, Chevelles and Mustangs, and hard to find sometimes.


Haha, I could probably sell an SBC to some guy with a Camaro looking to revitalize his aging Gen III.

What about a Mopar build for my 92 Dodge Dak? It's got 199k miles, i love it to death, and it still runs strong as hell, but it might need a new engine at some point.

Harder? More expensive? Fine. My grandfather once told me that, "What is of superior worth or value require effort and dedication that is of a superior level."


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## likethat (Oct 5, 2007)

Grandpa was right


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