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My 1970 Pontiac GTO story starts out in February 1987 on a trip from Miami to Chicago to pick up an SD455 Trans Am. I was riding with a fellow Floridian as he drove his parents’ Cadillac with an enclosed car trailer. The drive took 29 hours each way, so we took turns driving while the other slept or rested. Arriving in St. Charles, Illinois, we discovered the Trans Am was perfect in every way, but the seller also had a basement full of NOS Oldsmobile parts and a few rare 1970 GTO parts — I picked up an NOS left hood scoop and a left taillight lens in preparation for a car I had yet to own.
Photo after Phil repainted the Goat in 1981.
I spent the next 10 years and $23,500 buying NOS parts including fenders, quarter panels, every chrome piece, rare Ram Air IV engine parts, glass, interior parts, grilles, valances, you name it. Remember, this was the 1980-90s, so parts were still affordable relative to today.
Another picture from 1981.
Fast forward to July 1997. I spotted an ad from a seller in Wilmington, Delaware, asking $9,000 for a complete, running Pepper Green Ram Air IV GTO with a factory four-speed, hood tach, rally gauges, AM/FM stereo, and 8-track. I spoke to Mark, the seller at that time, and received copies of original paperwork and photos of the car. I really wanted a GTO Judge with the RAIV, so I decided at that time to keep looking. A few months later, after not being successful, I called Mark again and, to my surprise, he still owned the GTO. Mark didn’t feel I was serious when I called him back, but I convinced him I wanted the car. Another friend of mine was off the weekend of October 30, so after convincing him to drive with me to Delaware (and a $400 bonus to whet his whistle), we left for a 17-hour journey.
The engine when Roger bought the GTO.
We exited at Marsh Road around 4 p.m. on Halloween Day. The GTO was parked in Mark’s driveway looking like a T-Rex sitting among the new plastic cars of the era. One test drive is all it took — the GTO drove beautifully. I completed the deal, which included an NOS rear trunk lid and left NOS fender. I told Mark he could keep and sell the air cleaner for another $1,000 because I had an NOS one in Miami already detailed. Final price for the GTO was $8,500. We dropped off our Hertz rental at the Philadelphia airport, then I followed my friend in the GTO. The fender and trunk lid were in the back seat.
This is what the GTO looked like when Roger picked it up.
That night, we drove the GTO to Richmond, Virginia. After eating dinner, we checked into the hotel and went to our room. I told my friend I would wake him at 5 a.m. to start the drive back to Florida. He asked me, “Where are you going?” I told him I’d be outside sleeping in the GTO — I wasn’t leaving this car outside alone! A security guard woke me at 3 a.m. and asked me what I was doing in the GTO. I told him my story, which he didn’t believe at first, but when I showed him my hotel reservation, he understood and allowed me to stay with my prized possession.
Collecting parts before owning the car paid off.
The drive back to Miami took another 24 hours nonstop due to the GTO having 3.90 gears and small 14-inch radial tires. Once we arrived, I parked my GTO and locked it up behind my fence in a covered carport. A few days later, I received a call from Mark asking if I wanted to sell the GTO back to him. At first, I thought he was joking, but he told me he had another buyer offer him $20,000 for the GTO, so we could both turn a quick profit. I told him, “Sorry!” and only spoke to him one more time about a year later once the restoration began. He didn’t want to hear about the car anymore.
The GTO today!
The real hero of this rare GTO was the third owner, Phil Lavelle, who owned the car from 1979 to 1996. Many times, Phil was asked to sell the GTO for good money but refused. He even claimed some prospective buyers offered less money and wanted to part out the GTO. Around 1996, Phil was planning to start a family and sold the GTO to Mark. When I acquired the GTO a year later, I received an email requesting information from a young man who grew up in Delaware and asked me many questions about the GTO he had seen parked at a gas station. Was this the same car? It had no Ram Air IV decals on the hood, not hinting this was a rare car, but Phil simply never reinstalled the decals after a repaint. Plus, Phil told me a few years later the GTO had a dealer-installed vacuum operated exhaust system. I was shocked when I received some of those parts from Phil.
The GTO’s restoration began in 1998 and was completed in 2004. I changed the color to Atoll Blue, which looks fantastic after 22 years and still receives wonderful compliments, though for the future, I am leaning in the direction of repainting it the correct Pepper Green — certainly it will be a lot of work, which is why I haven’t done so. For the engine, it’s been blueprinted. The block was decked 1/100 and I installed a forged crankshaft with H-beam connecting rods and Ross Racing pistons. Pretty much everything else is standard Pontiac RAIV fare with 1.65 roller rockers.
And that young man who emailed me requesting information about the GTO? Diego, the same guy who has helped me put together this article. Diego has written two books about muscle cars, both beautifully crafted and worth owning. Diego is a tremendous asset to our hobby [blushing –Ed.] and grew up as a young man knowing about my GTO before I ever saw it. On a sad note, both Phil and Mark have passed on. I know Phil was proud knowing I had restored this GTO and kept it. Each time I sit in it, I think of him.
— Roger Wydler, Miami
Postscript: Yeah, I used to see this car at a gas station on Faulk and Wilson Roads all the time. Nowhere was there any indication that it was a Ram Air IV GTO. So, when I saw Roger’s post on a Pontiac forum almost 30 years ago, I knew it was the same car because I had been familiar with all the GTOs in the area.
Around 15 years ago, I was at an event at Maple Grove Raceway and saw a gold 1970 GTO with Delaware plates. I started chatting up the owner. “You buy this from an old lady on Shipley Road?” Same car but — silly me! — I was talking to a guy I knew (Mike Hostler a friend of a friend, and a guy whose older brother Jim had a ’69 I used to see around town) but hadn’t seen in maybe 15-20 years. I told him the story about the green GTO and asked if he knew it was a Ram Air IV. He answered, “Oh, yeah, everyone knew about it!” I will chalk up my ignorance due to me being too young at the time.
— Diego
