Why a Pontiac GTO is called “The Goat”?

Considering the excitement surrounding the Pontiac GTO, it is tough to believe that it wasn’t the fastest or most powerful muscle car back when it was launched. However, it still ranks at the top of the muscle car list because it was the first car that gave birth and popularized the genre. Muscle cars were essentially an invention of marketing, rather than technology, and the GTO offered this aspect for the first time to baby boomers.

Introducing the Goat

This car was introduced in 1964, as the optional GTO performance package for the Pontiac Tempest. It gained traction and emerged as a popular supercar, which was later termed as “muscle car”. GTO is often known as The Legend or The Great One, and has also been referred to as The Grandfather of Muscle Cars. However, the name of “The Goat” is what defined its reign, and remains common when it comes to classic GTOs.

GTO Name and Story Behind it

John DeLorean is the person who took the acronym of GTO from the Ferrari 250 GTO. The abbreviation stands for Gran Turismo Omolgato, which means a versatile car that can be used for racing in multiple events. As per Edmunds, “the Ferraristi were up in arms about an American carmaker giving a midsize coupe with no pedigree the same name as their legendary sports car.” Despite a lot of protests, the name Pontiac remained, and perhaps it can be attributed to sheer arrogance!

Relegated to Single Names

Americans tend to reduce car names to a world comprising a single syllable as it is easier to pronounce and remember. Thus a Corvette becomes ‘vette, while Mustang is shortened to ‘stand and Baracuda to ‘cuda. The latter influenced Plymouth to refer to performance based models as ‘Cuda in the year 1968. Similarly, Goat became synonymous as the single syllable term for Pontiac GTO. The original source of this name is still unknown, but it caught on and remained. Some say the name is a reversal of the last two letters in GTO.

Personality Traits Exert Considerable Influence

It isn’t uncommon in automotive subcultures to associate personality traits with vehicles, which could (or might not) be related to the acronyms of the car’s name. So if you consider the term Goat, it indicates an animal that can eat anything, while the Pontiac GTO is known for “eating anything on the street”, as a nod to its power and capability of beating other cars while racing. The GOAT has also been said to be a “Gas Oil and Tire” burner that is a double-edged sword – those who could afford to purchase the car burnt the three resources, while those who didn’t have the cash to splurge couldn’t use the “sour grapes” approach.

Pontiac’s Tiger

Pontiac joined hands in 1965 with U.S. Royal’s new line of Tiger Paw Tires for joint advertising and producing an exclusive array of tires for the new model GTOs. Aaron Severson of AteUpWithMotor said the Pontiac created the “GeeTO Tiger” as a new nickname to continue leveraging its popularity but in a new image of GTO as the Tiger. Pontiac pulled out all stops to market the tiger theme, but the Goat had already captured the interest and affection of the public. Needless to say, GM senior management wasn’t pleased with the results. As per TopSpeed, the Goat had a huge public footing by 1966.

Lastly, there is another reason why “The Goat” became so popular with the public – it is credited to an American attitude that viewed it as a fiercely independent move against what was a European name.