My second car was a 1965 Pontiac GTO in that color. It looked almost identical, except it was 4-door and, of course, smaller over all. It even had the black roof, and the elegant vertically stacked headlights.
I wasn’t enthusiastic about the color (pimp mobile?), but I bought it at the end of the model year, so it was that or nothing.
It had a 389 cu-in engine with a 4 bbl carburetor, a limited-slip differential, 4-on-the-floor manual tranny (no offense intended), and metallic-pad drum brakes. The differential had a ratio much more suited to drag racing than top speed or fuel economy. The handling was sloppy, as were almost all cars of that era.
I took it on several nice vacations with friends, driving from Chicago out west: once to New Mexico and Colorado, another time to Yellowstone.
In 1968 I traded it in for a brand new removable-hardtop Corvette. Even though it was again the end of the model year, the color was a more conventional bright blue. The engine was the relatively economical 327 cu-in, with a 4-speed manual, 4-wheel disc brakes (no power assist), limited-slip differential and radial tires (they weren’t ubiquitous then). For comfort, it also had air-conditioning (which was not as common as nowadays).
The acceleration was not quite as much as the GTO, but the top speed was higher, and the handling (and braking) was far, far better.
To break it in gently, I made sure to keep the speed below 105 for the first week or so. Later on, when I was out in the Utah desert on US 6, with 10 mile visibility, I got it up to what seemed to be its top speed: a power of 2. (I then thought it prudent to slow down before passing the lone car ahead of me.)
“My second car was a 1965 Pontiac GTO in that color. It looked almost identical, except it was 4-door”
4-door GTO?