June 11, 2012:

Today marks the start of my 33rd year with General Motors; It was 33 years ago today I walked through the doors at Chevrolet Flint Assembly and the rest, as they say, is history (...except the stuff that hasn't happened yet. That wouldn't be history - lol).

So - I celebrated by going to the Widetrackers Dustoff yesterday. Beautiful weather and lots of nice cars.

First time in many years that it did not rain during the event. I had been waiting to do this, so it was my first opportunity to display the GTO hooked to the Grand Prix by using the old towbar. My brother in law also brought the Lemans convertible down making it the first time all the family Pontiacs had been in the same place since dad passed away.

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...6.jpg~original

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...5.jpg~original

Link to the full compliment of car show photos is here:

http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=700643

K

September 2012:

Fall means September, which is when a bunch of birthdays happen in my family including Dad's, my sister - and the GTO.

It was 48 years ago this month when Dad and I headed down to Royal to pick the car up. We've had a couple small outings, in the spirit of celebration -

My wife needed to go to the bank so (since I knew I had a captive audience) I busted the old goat out to run into town:

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...a.jpg~original

We also had a little local church car show last weekend and Eric White (gtoric) convinced me to bring one of the cars out for display. The GTO got called upon for that one, too, since it was so close by.

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...0.jpg~original

There was a guy there with a newly purchased black '73 Laguna so during the course of the conversation he convinced me that I should bring mine as well. I ran back to the house (...literally - like a mile, on foot...) and drove back in the Chevelle.

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...9.jpg~original

Some other notable Pontiacs:

Marc White - '67 GP convertible:

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...4.jpg~original

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...3.jpg~original

Eric White - '67 GTO:

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...5.jpg~original

One of the visitors said "hey, that's pretty cool that you were able to find a drawing that's just like your car...." - lol.

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...6.jpg~original

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...6.jpg~original

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...h_DSC00972.jpg

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...h_DSC00989.jpg

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...h_DSC01001.jpg

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...h_DSC01003.jpg


All in all I think there were just over 100 cars on the property. Pretty nice representation of Pontiacs, many of whom are in the Widetrackers Chapter of the POCI.

K

November 2012:

Thanks to Bill Nawrot (YNOBIL) for letting me know my GTO was in a new calendar -

This is the David Newhardt GTO calendar for 2013. There's a car from each year from '64 - '74 (two '65's - as there should be ;)) and a 2004.

In my case the photos were taken in November of 2007 and were from the same batch used in the big GTO book.

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...1.jpg~original

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...2.jpg~original

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...3.jpg~original

Crazy Story: June 2015:

I had another one of those really unusual, crazy "It's a small world" coincidences today....

My church is large enough to need a "traffic team", and we utilize help from the Oakland County Sheriff's deputies to assisting getting cars in and out of the parking lot off the main road.

Naturally, I help park (...where else could I get "paid" for standing in the road and watching cars go by?...) and was visiting with the Deputy assigned to the north lot. I had brought him his two-way radio and we were shooting the breeze when I noticed his nametag:

It said "P. Deesen".

I asked him "do you happen to know a fella named Paul Deesen?"

"Paul Deesen Sr?" he said. "I'm Paul Deesen Jr".

Unbelievable. For those of you not already familiar with Paul Deesen (Sr) - he's the guy that designed the GTO emblem. And invented the red line tire. And designed the '65 Gran Prix. Among other things.

At any rate, we had a really nice visit. Very pleasant young man and it sounds like he enjoys his father's antics as much as we do.

Hopefully, I don't get any other chance encounters with Officer Deesen while I'm out driving one of my Pontiacs.

;)

K

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...6&d=1401663722

June 2014:

Sunday was Father's day (...which I didn't realize), so that means the "Eyes on Design" concours event at the Edsel Ford estate (...which I forgot about).

JMT455 was good enough to start a thread so I tagged along and stuck my pictures over there:

http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=755163

I didn't take a car, but did get a kick of out this:

Spectators and participants get this nice, glossy print program commemorating the event.
http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...c.jpg~original

I was flipping through (..and flipping through...) and I made it all the way to the very last page before I saw this familiar nondescript black '65 GTO...

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/...3.jpg~original

This photo is from the 2010 event.

Whew! That was close! Almost made it the whole day before running across my GTO in print somewhere...

(lol)

K

GTO build sheet, rescued from on top of the fuel tank:

http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...0&d=1411039970

September 2015:

Well - it was bound to happen....

Took the GTO to the hardware store over the weekend and rolled over 5000 miles.

It was kind of a big deal (emotionally) for me. I knew it wouldn't stay under 5000 forever - I took it to church a couple weeks ago and figured that would be the day. Unfortunately it landed at 4998.8, so that gave me a couple more weeks to think about it. The trip yesterday blew that number away.

I'm over it now, though. Anything less than 10,000 is ok with me.

;)

http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...2&d=1443439580

August 2016:

The big news I suppose is that we were able to execute a photo shoot with the GTO. This took place last Sunday evening at a small local airstrip with photographer Al Rogers.

The idea is for future publication in one of the enthusiast mags in the November/December timeframe. I have already provided the accompanying text (1000 words, first person).

K

December 2016:

Here's the internet version:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/clas...NnY?li=BBnb4R5

The print version is scheduled for this month's Muscle Car Review, hitting news stands on December 9th.

K

Since I can't seem to add this to my photo album I'm going to stick it here for future reference.

It's hard to say from a black & white photo but this could be our '63 sitting behind Royal.

Some defining features:

Silver on the front header panels, surrounding the grilles
Silver paint around the body side trim
Body colored wheels
Standard (non remote) mirror
Royal sticker on the sail panel

K

http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...2&d=1509233948

http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...3&d=1509234013