The Horsepower Ho has her cake and eats it too!
 

Woohoo! Tomorrow afternoon we'll be picking up our brand-new 2004 Pontiac GTO -- Phantom Black w/ black leather, 6-speed manual trans, LS-1 drivetrain -- AND Roxy (my 8) gets to keep her spot in the garage!

Backstory: I was thinking about trading in the wrecked-and-repaired Roxy on another car, and the GTO was at the top of my list. Unfortunately, lousy trade-in value on Roxy nixed the deal -- but John, my boyfriend, fell hard for the GTO when we test-drove it, so HE's buying the Pontiac. Upshot is, I get to keep Roxy, drive the GTO, and keep John around too! Happy Valentine's Day indeed. :D :D

We got a great deal on the GTO. Between a $5000 GM-to-dealer incentive, a $1250 GM credit card points allowance, and a major discount off of invoice, we're getting this car for thousands off of MSRP out the door -- and that's including the customarily outrageous California state sales taxes and license fees. We'd considered going for the 2005 GTO (LS-2 Corvette motor w/ 400 HP), but we couldn't pass up the price on this '04. Knowing John, he'll have this one tweaked into peak performance pretty quickly.

So Doc... wanna race? ;)

Grats, the best of both worlds :)

Doc started modding, I think you're screwed :p I'll race you.... in the rain :D

Great news, congrats Aratinga. Best of both worlds.

Congrats!

WOO My friend and I are gonna go test drive one of them(for him not me)...God I can't wait to command 400hp :)

Congrats...

You know, I keep seeing this blue GTO around my house and it looks ALOT smaller than it does in pictures. I wish it weighed 3400 and handled like the 8...then, you would have a HECK of a car!!!

I have done some work on LS-1 motors. I can give you some hints to get that GTO to over 450 hp. My bro and I (more so him :) )are currently involved in a project with an S-10 that we are projecting 425+hp to the wheels from a '99 LS1 motor. I am sure it will be no chore to get that newer LS1 to ~500 :)

Congrats! Those are some BAD cars!

Congratulations, Aratinga! :D

Congrats. The more i see of the GTO the more i like it (particularly in blue or black). At first I thought it was kind of plain looking, but now I dunno, looks pretty good. Of course, I used to think the evo was ugly but now it looks ok too :p . If only the GTO was a couple hundred pounds lighter.

btw, the STS turbo guys got 404rwhp at 4.5lbs boost + intercooler, and 11.88 in the 1/4 (for about $4500). However an all motor LS1 is and sounds sweet, but $$$$.

Funny thing I just saw about the GTO, the automatic transmission is standard and the manual is like a 700 dollar option...BUT...the auto comes with a 1300 gas guzzler tax, so it ends up being cheaper to get the stick

Yep... the manual gets by the gas guzzler tax by having a skip-shift that, under certain conditions, forces the gearshift to go directly from first to fourth gear. There are already ways to disable that annoying function, though. ;)

And if there are any Edward Albee fans out there who can appreciate this, the GTO's name will be "Sylvia". :D

good shyt!....the gto is a fun car...it sounds good...i would never buy one but it's very cool..

Nice choice - I was actually planning on getting a black 6 speed GTO (for about $23,000) until we called the insuarnce company and found out that my insurance would DOUBLE if we got it...Turns out, the RX is suiting me just fine. :)

What's up with naming cars? I guess my car's name is WOW-SEXY-TEMPTRESS...lol

I was pleasantly surprised on the insurance; I'd called USAA to see what the premium would be and it's only about $12 more per year than the RX-8. I doubt that would be the case for a 2005 with the extra 50 horses, though.

hmm, i just did a quote for the heck of it on a 2005 GTO, and my insurance would drop $100 per year :confused: :confused: :confused:

double the horsepower, 1/4 the number of airbags, almost 5 times bigger engine, 2 doors. i don't get it.

Nice Cavalier you got there. :D

Congratulations, let's line 'em up.....at the track of course.

Pictures?

:)

When I went to NYC a few years ago to visit mom, she had tickets to go see "The GOAT". Unfortunately, well maybe not since I did get to see family members I hadn't seen in over 10 years, it conflicted with dinner plans my aunt made and we missed the performance. Gave the tickets to her neighbors and they loved it. Mercedes Ruhle (sp?) was the lead actress at that time and I have been a fan of hers ever since her role in Lost In Yonkers. Heard Sally Fields replaced Mercedes later on, but I probably wouldn't have gotten tickets to see her in the same play.

BTW, congrats on the goat.... hope yer BF isn't too protective of Sylvia and lets you "drive it like you stole it" ;)

We're pampering her now (break-in period, y'know) but I've already driven her enough to see that buckets of torque and horsepower can become an addiction. Comparing the 8 to the Goat is like comparing a scalpel to a sledgehammer.

And John has to let me drive her -- I took the day off from work yesterday and gave her a complete Zaino spa treatment. She'll get a couple more coats tonight, and then I'll take some pics. The "Phantom black" paint reminds me of Nordic green; Kind of a smoky black with sparkles.

I checked out gtoforum.com (I'm "Sylvia Holden" on that one) -- all I can say is, we need abbid and flatso over there! :D