Day 2 ’65 GTO: All Still Glittering In Well-Preserved ’60s Custom

The 1965 Pontiac GTO you see here is not done up to look like a Day 2 build. It is a Day 2 build, from the incredible metallic gold paint that was laid down in 1966 to the factory Ram Air set up was dealer-installed not long after purchase.

According to the current owner, Timothy Kilkeary, the Day 2 GTO was exhibited as a show car around Southern California through the 1970s. It was purchased new in Illinois and relocated to Southern California, where the first owner customized it for the angel-hair circuit.

That paint is something you just don’t see in the modern era and remains as perfect today as it did when it was laid down during the Johnson administration. Kilkeary said the original owner was the founder of Bell Auto Parts, which eventually became Bell Helmets and Bell Safety Equipment.

The 1965 GTO was still an option package on the Tempest/Lemans, but it was truly in a league of its own. GTO mania was spreading across the United States.

The GTO started the midsize muscle car movement the year before and spawned a host of competitors for ’65, but they were like butterflies flapping their wings compared to the original. The 4-4-2 hardly moved the needle (a paltry 2,999 units in ‘64), the ‘65 Skylark Gran Sport was nice and sold decently, but few hardcore enthusiasts were shopping new Buicks. Even Chevrolet decided to rely on the hot 327/350 in the Chevelle until the limited-production SS396 arrived (201 made). It was no match in stature to ”The Great One.” Ford and Mopar? They were too busy trying to beat each other in NASCAR and sanctioned drag racing to notice what was going on in the streets.

The GTO caught everyone napping in ’64, when the option package sold 32,450 copies. That number more than doubled in ’65, to 75,352 (including the car you see here).

Of course, the biggest milestone for the GTO came in ‘66 —and that was sales. Despite finally getting some real competition from the Chevelle SS396, which sold over 72,000 copies, Pontiac churned out an insane 96,846 units, which will stand forever as the all-time best single year for a muscle car. 

24 Karat Classic

Amazingly, our feature vehicle clicked off only 27,000 original miles since new and unlike most muscle cars, retains an all-numbers-matching drivetrain, including the 389 Tri-Power mill and Hurst-shifted four-speed. Four-speed Goats used mechanical linkage to open the end carburetors in 1965, which (as the Corvette found out in ’67) worked much better than vacuum-operated end carbs. Output for the three-deuce 389 was 360 horsepower at 5,200 RPM ( up 10 from the year before) and 424 lbs-ft at 3,600/

Pontiac offered an over-the-counter Ram Air kit and this GTO’s owner purchased and installed it. You got a foam-sealed pan to surround the carbs so they could ingest cold air.

At some point, the GTO was taken off the road and put in storage for a number of years until Timothy purchased it. Though it is impossible to verify, he thinks the car has never been washed, exposed to rain or gotten wet, having been garaged since new. This would certainly account for the incredible condition of the six-decade-old custom paint, which still sparkles like it was laid-down yesterday.

It’s not often you come across an unmolested piece of show-car history, but it is always exciting when you do.