68-69 gto help

[brady_381need72c10]

is there any differences b/w the 68 and a 69 gto and if so what are they?

[MrPbody]

The list is fairly long...

Visually, the front grill is a bit different. The rear bumper and tail lights are completely different. There's a "wind wing" on '68s. None on '69s.

The dash in the '68 is more similar to the earlier GTOs. The dash in the '69 is much more modern in appearance. The front seats are also different. Console is different. Automatic cars in '68 got the Hurst "His and Hers" shifter. '69s got the new factory "ratchet" shifter.

Front disc brakes were an option on both. The '68 used the "4 piston" calipers, and the '69 got the "new" Delco Morraine "single piston" caliper design (requires a booster).

Ram Air cars emerged as a potent force in '69. Very rare in '68. No "Judge" model in '68.

'68 won Motor Trend "Car of The Year" mainly due to the new "Endura" front bumper. '69 is accepted as among the best quality cars made during the era. That's true of most GM offerings in '69.

There's probably more, but that's all I can think of at the moment.

Jim

[69goatfarmer]

Rear Side marker lights on '68 were Pontiac arrowheads, '69 used the GTO Crest

Front side marker for '68 was a wrap around in front valance, '69 had a small circular "bullet" marker. Front turn signals were in front valance and had a "bomb site" cross hair in them.

'68 front grill didn't have a center horizontal bar like the '69

Rear bumper for '68 had tail lights in bumper, '69 had them above the bumper

Trunk lid was different because of tail lights

Hoods and Endura were the same but the '68 had the Pontiac arrowhead on the endura '69 did not.

'68 had the Endura Delete option for GTO to get a chrome front bumper ala the LeMans. Very few of these left the factory but I did see one that was documented at a GTOAA show.

Rally I wheels went away as an option for '69

Exteriors were very similar but beyond that there are many differences. '68 to '69 saw a number of safety changes which is why the dashboard changed. '69 also saw the introduction of the collapsible steering column.

Did you ever see the TV Ad for the '68 GTO with the line of guys in lab coats taking turns whacking the front of a '68 GTO with a crow bar? Very funny!

[Flierbird]

dash padding in 1969.
Seat head rests mandatory in 1969, but not 68

[Flierbird]

http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/...2_0310_pontiac

Pontiac GTO: Motor Trend's 1968 Car of The Year

Announcing Motor Trend's 1968 Car of the Year.
(From the Motor Trend archives, originally published February 1968)

GetDiggUrl( location.href );
The inertial force that started the supercar trend - Pontiac GTO - holds a distinctive position in the automotive world for 1968. Not only does it continue to establish the class standard in the fifth year of its existence, but it also represents a unique and revolutionary engineering/styling function. Its salient innovation is the integration of a rubber bumper with the body design, rendered in a manner that provides a direction and impetus for the entire industry. Never before has an automobile been so successful in confirming the correlation between safety, styling and performance as the 1968 GTO. With the new combinations of aesthetic unity, unbroken styling lines, decreased body vulnerability, increased impact absorption, and responsive power, handling and controllability, it convincingly proves that optimum design/function criteria for nearly all automotive purposes, can be achieved in one unit.

Pontiac people eat well. Prime rib an inch and a half thick, choice veal with a grapefruit and cheese condiment, filets, grapefruit in V.S.O.P. brandy for dessert ... all in the company cafeterias. Maybe that's where they developed their technique.



They're all epicureans. . . sophisticated . . . they know that the best way to assess the competence of the chef is by his omelette. Turning a proper omelette takes guts and time and some pretty crafty legerdemain, but once it's done you'll stand two heads higher than the next man.

At 4 mph - more than twice the impact speed other bumpers can take - GTO registers no damage whatever.

With most people, their eggs shall always be chickens. Never Benedicted. Not even a mediocre liver omelette. Just chickens. They're members of The Establishment, so they let things develop in their own conventional, natural, inferior way without any attempt to buck the tide with improvements. Then they all disappear in anonymity.



But lots of people are different. John DeLorean, for instance, is Pontiac's general manager and only 42 years old; Jack Humbert, chief stylist, is 40; Josh Madden, plastics expert, appears to be less than that; and they're all just too far removed from that inglorious moment of being dropped into the dregs of oblivion known as corporate retirement programs, to let it dull their acumen.




article continues at the link.........

[maxwedge]

Gentlemen this thread is way too old to continue, please note the the dates before replying, if interested start a new thread, thanks.