Charles – Thanks for dropping by and giving us some of your insight.
Here is what he provided:
Hi, i’ve never heard of the Chevy reaction in 38 years of studying GM’s history. Pontiac was violating GM’s rule of limiting cubic inches of cars smaller than full-size to one cubic to every ten pounds of car’s weight, so cars like Pontiac’s Tempest/Le Mans, Buick’s Special/Skylark, Old’s Cutlass/F85, and Chevy’s Chevelle/Malibu were limited to 330 cubic inch displacement. Pontiac marketed the 336 as a 326, and after some time, someone in GM figured out the actual bore and stroke made 336 cid. Pontiac had to change the 336 down to the 326. Then for 1964, Pontiac (Thank You – John DeLorean) created an option for the Le Mans, the GTO option, since the standard Le Mans engine obeyed the limit rule, there was nothing in the rule saying you couldn’t offer an optional extra cost, bigger engine. Can you say 389 cid, 348 horsepower ?, OH YES, turn it on, wind it up, blow it out, GTO.
1964 LeMans GTO Convertible
Thanks for reading.
Tim
