Strike delayed delivery of sweet GTO

Having just finished engineering school, a 24-year-old John Cutts was in need of some transportation. The year was 1964 and the day happened to be Halloween. Rather than going trick-or-treating, Cutts strolled into Right-Way Pontiac in his hometown of DeKalb.

There, he picked out a treat he found especially sweet.

“I had seen pictures and specs” Cutts said of the GTO, which then had been just recently released. “I was into fast cars and knew I had to have it.”

He sat down and ordered what would be his first new car, a 1965 GTO.

“I wanted it jet black and went with the biggest engine available,” the Mount Prospect resident said. The box for the 389-cubic-inch Tri-Power V-8 was ticked, along with a four-speed manual transmission. Other options, such as power steering, power brakes and air-conditioning, were purposefully left off his order sheet.

“I wanted to lighten the car up and not drag down the engine's horsepower,” Cutts said. “I wanted it to be like a ‘drag car' with plenty of oomph.”

With the request put into the factory, Cutts anxiously waited for his custom-tailored muscle machine to arrive. What should have taken a few weeks, ended up taking longer than two months. The delay was the result of a strike by factory workers at the Pontiac, Michigan, plant where Cutts' GTO was slated to be built.

The vehicle was finally built during the second and third weeks of January. Despite the postponement, Cutts' enthusiasm parade wasn't going to be rained out. It would, however, be snowed on. The night the dealer called announcing the arrival of his Pontiac, a blizzard was in full swing. Yet the icy roads couldn't extinguish the young man's enthusiasm.

“I was so excited. When they pulled it off the truck everyone in the whole place came to look at it,” Cutts said.

That falling, frozen precipitation didn't deter Cutts from putting his GTO to use that night and for years to come. The four-wheeled workhorse carried him to his first day on the new job and then became his daily driver for almost three more years. In that time, he traversed thousands of miles, averaging 20,000 annually.

His business had him traveling to northern Alberta, Canada, and all along the East Coast. Naturally, it was his GTO that carried him wherever he went.

Later, when Cutts was relocated overseas on assignment, he didn't sell the Pontiac but instead rolled it into storage. He returned several years later and went looking for “a more dependable car for winter.” A replacement was located but the Pontiac stayed in storage for several more decades, until the turn of the century.

“I noticed a high interest in survivor cars that hadn't been restored — like mine,” Cutts said. “That helped motivate me to pull it out and get back to driving it again.”

Normal maintenance was needed but otherwise the iconic vehicle remains untouched. The engine has never been out of the car and the black paint wears many nicks, scratches and road scars from its years of use. However, those minor blemishes don't bother Cutts, who shows and drives his vehicle often.

“I never thought I'd keep it this long. It's still a rush to drive, unlike anything else.”