Back in 1986 I had no car, was a poor teen, and I walked everywhere in my small town. There was someone who had one of these Nova/GTO's and I swear, many days after dark, this car would burn out at every stop sign and just light it up. It was Red, had the auto T shifter and all the SS gauges, Cragar SS mags and it was awesome. It WAS FITTING FOR A gto BUT NOT THE SAME. When I was 17 I was able to buy a solid 66 GTO with auto and it was an animal. Long Live the GOAT. Only the GOATS had the passenger Panic handle. And that shaker hood.... straight from the earlier Trans Am's. The 66 hood scoop was fake but It looked awesome. This unit may be a 1974, but you can tell by the stripe package that it was a limited, Bicentennial Edition, American Spirit legend... Salute 07.
I knew someone that had one of these and dropped a 455 in it from a '70 Boneville. 375 HP. 525 FT/LBS torque. It flew. Factory manual car. It was the Sprint model. I found the factory hood with functional shaker and ralley gauges in the bone yard for $125.00.
I'M curious how this car would run with a good set of Edelbrock heads and a cam, and if it could handle more performance with the stock 10 bolt in there.
Great looking 74 GTO - Had one - 350 Pontiac felt a lot stronger than its advertised 200 HP - pedal to the metal and when the scoop opened up it sure helped :)
I've read numerous times that the advertised 200 HP is not the actual hp. due to insurance purposes. The 74 350 GTO was only .3 seconds slower on a 1/4 mile than the Trans Am with the 400 big block because the 400 was already EPA compliant. My mom drove a 74 GTO when I was a young kid. I still remember her squealing the tires by accident. I was born in 72.
There is no such thing as a big block Pontiac. Pontiac engine blocks were all the same physical size. Bore and stroke determined cubic inches. Large displacement yes, big block no. No Pontiac small blocks either
It was stronger than 200, what I heard was they under rated it for insurance. Had brand new one in 1974, have one now with 30,000 mi on it that I found. Also have another 74 we are redoing. Love them!
A nice mod , but the center console should be replaced with an original , or a made to fit from another year GTO . As an owner of a 65 , I think you did a real nice job . It’s cool !
A friend of mine bought one just like this new. He let me drive it, and it was the first time I drove on the street. It was before I got my license. I still love that car.
Last years of gto...i like this ventura gto...you could of got one with 350 4 speed manual...nice car. Nothing wrong with it...trans ams took over the gto spot....
This car "is" a 350 4 spd. Some bone-head stuck on a 400 badge. Unless the seller doesn't know what he's looking at. Who knows, it could be a 400. Most amateur's can't tell the difference.
Sadly a lot of people don't even realize these cars are "real" GTOs!! Heck i used to own a 1974 Oldsmobile Omega and drove it to my local Oldsmobile Dealer (this was back in 1985) and the salesman asked me "So are you thinking about trading in your Nova?" and I looked at him and said "Are you stupid that is an Oldsmobile Omega!" The guy then turned back around to look at my car and seemed stunned that I was driving an Oldsmobile when he actually LOOKED at the car and realized the name plate on the car read the word OMEGA on the side of it!!! The thing is my car had the original Oldsmobile Rocket 350 with the four barrel carb, and he began asking me questions about my car. I was happy to explain to him that the Omega nameplate was a name that started in 1973, with this body style, which was weird because the salesman was older than me, so he should have KNOWN all this to start with, even keeping in mind, that he in fact WAS SELLING OLDSMOBILES himself!!
I’m right with you! I hated the X-body style for the GTO, it screams Chevy Nova!! Pontiac could’ve made upgrades for the GTO in ‘74 leaving it with the Colonnade body!! Even the gaudy font for the letters “GTO” didn’t fit, nor did the red, white and blue!! That was a tacky send off for a legendary muscle car!!
No, the SD never made it into the Goats. Cars magazine of the early 70s, did a road test on a proto-type 73 GTO, that the SD "might" have gone in. But last minute, Pontiac dropped it, and only put it in a few T/As of the 73-74 model year. The torque of an SD in this Nova, would've busted the windshield out of this car.
I don't get all the hate on the '74 GTO. Looks MILES better than that boat they called a GTO in '73, IMO. And, there should have been plenty of hop up potential in that Pontiac 350. I'd drive the wheels off one of these. Badass, in my book.
In the Nova and the Oldsmobile Omega you could also get the hatchback version with a "camper package" which was basically a tent that zipped to the hatchback and made the car into part "tent"!! I am not sure if Pontiac or Buick (Buicks version in the 1970s was called the Apollo then later around 1976 became the Skylark) offered the same feature, but the sale flyer I still have on my 1974 Oldsmobile Omega shows it was offered as a "package deal" that could be ordered with the car!!
i had one bought it for 800.00 I put a turbo 400 in it and ran ok for a 350 car 400 was not available for the 74 Ventura plus is what I always called it. they should have kept it in the G body design .
By 1973 and 1974 GTOs and other muscle cars were hit with the "triple whammy" of death, which is what you HAVE TO remember!! To begin with insurance companies were sick and tired of "big horsepower cars" forcing every manufacturer to de-tune all their cars and make then ALL less powerful and gone was a lot of the "big block cars" like the 396 or the Super Duty Pontiac Motors (421 I think it was) so the only available option was low compression smaller displacement V8 motors which were 400 or 350 cubic inches or less!! Thank California Air Resource Board (CARB) too for mandating stricter pollution controls on cars as well, that robbed even MORE horsepower from these cars nationwide as well too. By 1973 compression ratios were a joke, to start with and a 1972 car was the last of the higher compression motors in a lot of ways as well!! Lastly the gas wars of the 1970s had a lot to do with killing off the "big horsepower" muscle cars as well!! You might have to wait a week to get gas for your big block 440 Super Bee, if the gas station had any gas at all!! So from the economy stand point nobody wanted a car that only got 11 miles to the gallon when a Chevy Vega, Ford Pinto or a Honda Civic could run for a couple weeks on a tank for of gasoline!! I was only around 7 or 8 years old, but I remember my uncle waiting in line to fed his 1969 GTO Judge, and then back then he was complain about high test gas costing more than $1 a gallon to fill that hungry monster as well with 104 octane!! But you have to remember too $1 a gallon back then was expensive for muscle car owners in cars that only knew raw horsepower NOT gas economy!!! By 1973 and 1974 these cars were getting smaller, lighter and so they required less horsepower as well anyhow all in the name of gas mileage and pollution control!!!!
too bad pontiac missed the boat and did not offer 400 or 455 in this body.before cats convertercars came alomg.i t would have been a true fast gto.may have been faster then transam.
By 1973 and 1974 GTOs and other muscle cars were hit with the "triple whammy" of death, which is what you HAVE TO remember!! To begin with insurance companies were sick and tired of "big horsepower cars" forcing every manufacturer to de-tune all their cars and make then ALL less powerful and gone was a lot of the "big block cars" like the 396 or the Super Duty Pontiac Motors (421 I think it was) so the only available option was low compression smaller displacement V8 motors which were 400 or 350 cubic inches or less!! Thank California Air Resource Board (CARB) too for mandating stricter pollution controls on cars as well, that robbed even MORE horsepower from these cars nationwide as well too. By 1973 compression ratios were a joke, to start with and a 1972 car was the last of the higher compression motors in a lot of ways as well!! Lastly the gas wars of the 1970s had a lot to do with killing off the "big horsepower" muscle cars as well!! You might have to wait a week to get gas for your big block 440 Super Bee, if the gas station had any gas at all!! So from the economy stand point nobody wanted a car that only got 11 miles to the gallon when a Chevy Vega, Ford Pinto or a Honda Civic could run for a couple weeks on a tank for of gasoline!! I was only around 7 or 8 years old, but I remember my uncle waiting in line to fed his 1969 GTO Judge, and then back then he was complain about high test gas costing more than $1 a gallon to fill that hungry monster as well with 104 octane!! But you have to remember too $1 a gallon back then was expensive for muscle car owners in cars that only knew raw horsepower NOT gas economy!!! By 1973 and 1974 these cars were getting smaller, lighter and so they required less horsepower as well anyhow all in the name of gas mileage and pollution control!!!!
And what are you talking about.......Catalytic Converters started appearing on cars in 1975, which by 1977 ALL cars had them!! The sad part about that is the Catalytic Converters, were installed to prevent "Global Cooling" and the science of the day was telling us "Without Catalytic Converters, we would experience the next ice age!" Pontiac DID NOT "miss the boat" like I reposted to your comment, there was a gas shortage AND the insurance companies who DEMANDED cars got rid of the "big horsepower" engines!! Why do you think you can't find any real 396 big block Chevys AFTER 1972???? Sure the 454 was still available, but when you look at the actually horsepower numbers of a 1972 396 to a 1974 454, the 454 cars drank gas like no tomorrow and turned out almost 100 less horsepower than a 1972 396 did!! Besides nobody wanted a car after the gas crisis in the early 1970s that got 11 miles or less by 1973 and 1974, because nobody could feed them!! That is why Honda Civics, VW Beetles, Chevy Vegas and Ford Pintos became all the rage!! And even the 1974 Mustang II came in a four cylinder and V6 models, though the Cobra had a 302 V8!! But gone were the days for many muscle car folks like myself!!!
@@gregbenwell6173 Greg your abosoulty right , butbim ready to retire so bn I'm after a '67 gto with a 400 engine n trans. Ou r '67 buick Riviera GS if course or '67btbird with 390. And a 3:55 possi rear end. Ooo yeah
"And the only reason it shakes is because of the low compression smog motor, leaned out, EGR equipped 350, detonating itself to death underneath it. Horrible what Pontiac did to this classic car in 74.
Thank you
She is a beauty brother. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
???usususus??? (2nd time I've seen this in 2 days. Haven't got a clue what it means. (Far out?)
Back in 1986 I had no car, was a poor teen, and I walked everywhere in my small town. There was someone who had one of these Nova/GTO's and I swear, many days after dark, this car would burn out at every stop sign and just light it up. It was Red, had the auto T shifter and all the SS gauges, Cragar SS mags and it was awesome. It WAS FITTING FOR A gto BUT NOT THE SAME. When I was 17 I was able to buy a solid 66 GTO with auto and it was an animal. Long Live the GOAT.
Only the GOATS had the passenger Panic handle. And that shaker hood.... straight from the earlier Trans Am's. The 66 hood scoop was fake but It looked awesome. This unit may be a 1974, but you can tell by the stripe package that it was a limited, Bicentennial Edition, American Spirit legend... Salute 07.
I knew someone that had one of these and dropped a 455 in it from a '70 Boneville. 375 HP. 525 FT/LBS torque. It flew. Factory manual car. It was the Sprint model. I found the factory hood with functional shaker and ralley gauges in the bone yard for $125.00.
HE should have been near unbeatable on the street with that combo.
@@w41duvernay
He was. Word got around. Years before that he had a high revving 69 327 Chevelle 4 speed.
I had a 73 Ventura bench seat 3sp. In the floor.
I'M curious how this car would run with a good set of Edelbrock heads and a cam, and if it could handle more performance with the stock 10 bolt in there.
Great looking 74 GTO - Had one - 350 Pontiac felt a lot stronger than its advertised 200 HP - pedal to the metal and when the scoop opened up it sure helped :)
I've read numerous times that the advertised 200 HP is not the actual hp. due to insurance purposes. The 74 350 GTO was only .3 seconds slower on a 1/4 mile than the Trans Am with the 400 big block because the 400 was already EPA compliant. My mom drove a 74 GTO when I was a young kid. I still remember her squealing the tires by accident. I was born in 72.
There is no such thing as a big block Pontiac. Pontiac engine blocks were all the same physical size. Bore and stroke determined cubic inches. Large displacement yes, big block no. No Pontiac small blocks either
1Bandit455 pedal to the metal with a whooping 200hp😂
stefan w He said it felt a lot stronger than it's ADVERTISED 200 hp. And it's "whopping", not "whooping".
It was stronger than 200, what I heard was they under rated it for insurance. Had brand new one in 1974, have one now with 30,000 mi on it that I found. Also have another 74 we are redoing. Love them!
A nice mod , but the center console should be replaced with an original , or a made to fit from another year GTO . As an owner of a 65 , I think you did a real nice job . It’s cool !
Pontiac should have stuck with the colonnade body for it's final gto model in 1974.
A friend of mine bought one just like this new. He let me drive it, and it was the first time I drove on the street. It was before I got my license. I still love that car.
Did general motors build that red color? I had a white one red interior
I had a 1971 GTO it was a beast! I really miss that car.
I like the '70-'71 as well especially when the interior had the transam steering wheel
Last years of gto...i like this ventura gto...you could of got one with 350 4 speed manual...nice car. Nothing wrong with it...trans ams took over the gto spot....
This car "is" a 350 4 spd. Some bone-head stuck on a 400 badge. Unless the seller doesn't know what he's looking at. Who knows, it could be a 400. Most amateur's can't tell the difference.
This car was an option on the Pontiac Ventura. It would have looked better if he sourced a Ventura console rather than make that wood one.
you could use a console out of a Nova, Firebird or Camaro if you can't get Ventura oem.
A Ventura (Nova) with GTO badges. The hood scoop was cool.
That’s what I thought.
Sadly a lot of people don't even realize these cars are "real" GTOs!! Heck i used to own a 1974 Oldsmobile Omega and drove it to my local Oldsmobile Dealer (this was back in 1985) and the salesman asked me "So are you thinking about trading in your Nova?" and I looked at him and said "Are you stupid that is an Oldsmobile Omega!" The guy then turned back around to look at my car and seemed stunned that I was driving an Oldsmobile when he actually LOOKED at the car and realized the name plate on the car read the word OMEGA on the side of it!!! The thing is my car had the original Oldsmobile Rocket 350 with the four barrel carb, and he began asking me questions about my car. I was happy to explain to him that the Omega nameplate was a name that started in 1973, with this body style, which was weird because the salesman was older than me, so he should have KNOWN all this to start with, even keeping in mind, that he in fact WAS SELLING OLDSMOBILES himself!!
I’m right with you! I hated the X-body style for the GTO, it screams Chevy Nova!! Pontiac could’ve made upgrades for the GTO in ‘74 leaving it with the Colonnade body!! Even the gaudy font for the letters “GTO” didn’t fit, nor did the red, white and blue!! That was a tacky send off for a legendary muscle car!!
I wonder if Pontiac ever produced a SD 455 in this year GTO . I know they did for the 1974 trans am. They were pretty fast cars cars .
No, the SD never made it into the Goats. Cars magazine of the early 70s, did a road test on a proto-type 73 GTO, that the SD "might" have gone in. But last minute, Pontiac dropped it, and only put it in a few T/As of the 73-74 model year. The torque of an SD in this Nova, would've busted the windshield out of this car.
Great car
This is a gto Pontiac should have build.with 400 and 455sd
I don't get all the hate on the '74 GTO. Looks MILES better than that boat they called a GTO in '73, IMO. And, there should have been plenty of hop up potential in that Pontiac 350. I'd drive the wheels off one of these. Badass, in my book.
They definitely have a lot of potential. A 455 will drop right in and trans am suspension parts will also fit.
Great car. But its a darn nova
That year Pontiac could've offered it, you had to beg to get that special motor pit in , buuuut you had to pay GM f ou r it 🤑🍒🏎💥
Lose that wood center console for Christ sake! Pontiac should have made the last year GTO available with the SD 455/4spd. Let it go out with a bang!
It's sad that because of gas crunch, the 74 455 cid was only rated at 200 hp, so kudos for the upgraded engine .
Actually, 74' Pontiac 455 was rated at 250 horsepower net.
These days Camry V-6's have 301hp, how times have changed!
If I bought that car, I'd put in a year correct NOS replacement Super Duty 455
Can I have it
Lose the custom console keep it all original
I would replace the head with pre -70s GTO heads and an aftermarket cam (214 @ .050s) for a little more performance.
I've read somewhere you could order this car with a hatchback and fold-down rear seat (in the same style as AMC's Hornet). Must've been practical...
In the Nova and the Oldsmobile Omega you could also get the hatchback version with a "camper package" which was basically a tent that zipped to the hatchback and made the car into part "tent"!! I am not sure if Pontiac or Buick (Buicks version in the 1970s was called the Apollo then later around 1976 became the Skylark) offered the same feature, but the sale flyer I still have on my 1974 Oldsmobile Omega shows it was offered as a "package deal" that could be ordered with the car!!
It's nice but to me it's not a GTO. It's a Ventura with stickers.
i had one bought it for 800.00 I put a turbo 400 in it and ran ok for a 350 car 400 was not available for the 74 Ventura plus is what I always called it. they should have kept it in the G body design .
By 1973 and 1974 GTOs and other muscle cars were hit with the "triple whammy" of death, which is what you HAVE TO remember!! To begin with insurance companies were sick and tired of "big horsepower cars" forcing every manufacturer to de-tune all their cars and make then ALL less powerful and gone was a lot of the "big block cars" like the 396 or the Super Duty Pontiac Motors (421 I think it was) so the only available option was low compression smaller displacement V8 motors which were 400 or 350 cubic inches or less!! Thank California Air Resource Board (CARB) too for mandating stricter pollution controls on cars as well, that robbed even MORE horsepower from these cars nationwide as well too. By 1973 compression ratios were a joke, to start with and a 1972 car was the last of the higher compression motors in a lot of ways as well!! Lastly the gas wars of the 1970s had a lot to do with killing off the "big horsepower" muscle cars as well!! You might have to wait a week to get gas for your big block 440 Super Bee, if the gas station had any gas at all!! So from the economy stand point nobody wanted a car that only got 11 miles to the gallon when a Chevy Vega, Ford Pinto or a Honda Civic could run for a couple weeks on a tank for of gasoline!! I was only around 7 or 8 years old, but I remember my uncle waiting in line to fed his 1969 GTO Judge, and then back then he was complain about high test gas costing more than $1 a gallon to fill that hungry monster as well with 104 octane!! But you have to remember too $1 a gallon back then was expensive for muscle car owners in cars that only knew raw horsepower NOT gas economy!!! By 1973 and 1974 these cars were getting smaller, lighter and so they required less horsepower as well anyhow all in the name of gas mileage and pollution control!!!!
You mean A body.
Is this car still available for sale?
Aquaintance had a ventura that he allowed to turn to shit😣😝😥
Wrong grab bar......tacky wood thing 'tween the seats. 400 on the scoop......gotta go. No splitters ?
too bad pontiac missed the boat and did not offer 400 or 455 in this body.before cats convertercars came alomg.i t would have been a true fast gto.may have been faster then transam.
By 1973 and 1974 GTOs and other muscle cars were hit with the "triple whammy" of death, which is what you HAVE TO remember!! To begin with insurance companies were sick and tired of "big horsepower cars" forcing every manufacturer to de-tune all their cars and make then ALL less powerful and gone was a lot of the "big block cars" like the 396 or the Super Duty Pontiac Motors (421 I think it was) so the only available option was low compression smaller displacement V8 motors which were 400 or 350 cubic inches or less!! Thank California Air Resource Board (CARB) too for mandating stricter pollution controls on cars as well, that robbed even MORE horsepower from these cars nationwide as well too. By 1973 compression ratios were a joke, to start with and a 1972 car was the last of the higher compression motors in a lot of ways as well!! Lastly the gas wars of the 1970s had a lot to do with killing off the "big horsepower" muscle cars as well!! You might have to wait a week to get gas for your big block 440 Super Bee, if the gas station had any gas at all!! So from the economy stand point nobody wanted a car that only got 11 miles to the gallon when a Chevy Vega, Ford Pinto or a Honda Civic could run for a couple weeks on a tank for of gasoline!! I was only around 7 or 8 years old, but I remember my uncle waiting in line to fed his 1969 GTO Judge, and then back then he was complain about high test gas costing more than $1 a gallon to fill that hungry monster as well with 104 octane!! But you have to remember too $1 a gallon back then was expensive for muscle car owners in cars that only knew raw horsepower NOT gas economy!!! By 1973 and 1974 these cars were getting smaller, lighter and so they required less horsepower as well anyhow all in the name of gas mileage and pollution control!!!!
And what are you talking about.......Catalytic Converters started appearing on cars in 1975, which by 1977 ALL cars had them!! The sad part about that is the Catalytic Converters, were installed to prevent "Global Cooling" and the science of the day was telling us "Without Catalytic Converters, we would experience the next ice age!" Pontiac DID NOT "miss the boat" like I reposted to your comment, there was a gas shortage AND the insurance companies who DEMANDED cars got rid of the "big horsepower" engines!! Why do you think you can't find any real 396 big block Chevys AFTER 1972???? Sure the 454 was still available, but when you look at the actually horsepower numbers of a 1972 396 to a 1974 454, the 454 cars drank gas like no tomorrow and turned out almost 100 less horsepower than a 1972 396 did!! Besides nobody wanted a car after the gas crisis in the early 1970s that got 11 miles or less by 1973 and 1974, because nobody could feed them!! That is why Honda Civics, VW Beetles, Chevy Vegas and Ford Pintos became all the rage!! And even the 1974 Mustang II came in a four cylinder and V6 models, though the Cobra had a 302 V8!! But gone were the days for many muscle car folks like myself!!!
You got that right karman a 400 would've made a difference on a 400 lbs. Lighter car
@@gregbenwell6173 Greg your abosoulty right , butbim ready to retire so bn I'm after a '67 gto with a 400 engine n trans. Ou r '67 buick Riviera GS if course or '67btbird with 390. And a 3:55 possi rear end. Ooo yeah
Is this for sale?
+Gary Bressler yes
Let me know if still available and how to contact you.
Kenwood stereo >> Sony stereo
Original sticker. Reproduction.
When you touch up paint it makes it look like crap, leave it alone...and that wood console just doesn't make it look nice inside...
Car was a turd with a boat anchor motor all they did was copy the Chevy Nova and slap a Pontiac badge on it what a joke
dont this car have a motor and what ,s up with the crazy box sad times for the all mighty G T O
This is not original
The 74 didn't look as good as the late 60's
I think 74 was a ugly time for all cars. Especially the front.
a Nova with a shacker hood . what a joke.
"And the only reason it shakes is because of the low compression smog motor, leaned out, EGR equipped 350, detonating itself to death underneath it. Horrible what Pontiac did to this classic car in 74.
I agree the 74 was a joke...