CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO 1969 PONTIAC GTO ‘THE JUDGE’
Story and photos by Larry Bell
JUDGE MYTH
IS DISROBED
Reader finds locally famous GTO right under his nose
After this 1969 GTO The Judge disappeared from the streets of New Castle, Ind.,
in 1972, rumors persisted about its fate.
In March 1969, I was 17 years old and driving a new Verdoro Green 1968 Pontiac GTO convertible with a four-speed. I felt I was the “coolest cat” on the street. One late night, while “cruising Broad” in search of girls or a late-night street race, I noticed another GTO pull up behind me as I sat at a red light.
This GTO was orange, but I wasn’t aware Pontiac made an orange GTO. Then, as the light was ready to turn green, the driver lunged the car up beside me at the light, blipped the throttle and proceeded to give me the “let’s go” sign — he wanted to race. I was so stunned by the car — it said “The Judge” on the fender — that I froze. He took off, smoking the tires of the bright-orange GTO The Judge, and I was left sitting at the light. Feeling like yesterday’s news, I turned right and went home, all the while wondering what The Judge was. The next day, I found out what a GTO The Judge was, but I never laid eyes on that particular car for another 40 years.
In 1983, I was working out at a
local gym when a young girl noticed my GTO T-shirt and she told me about her uncle’s Judge. Apparently, he had parked it in 1972 with a bad clutch and never drove it again. The girl also told me her uncle’s name and where they lived, but after quite a few attempts, I was never able to contact the owners.
Many more years passed and by this time, this particular The Judge was becoming a local urban legend, a ghost of sorts. Stories about the car circulated for decades, most saying it had been sold, destroyed or was stored at the edge of town in a shack and guarded by a pack of wolves. No one seemed to know where the elusive Pontiac had vanished to all those years ago, and the owners apparently weren’t talking either.
In April 2009, I was sitting in a little diner I own and having breakfast with a friend of mine when three older women sat down at the next booth. The Highway 38 Diner is car-themed and the walls are covered with pictures of my cars, both current and past. One of the ladies asked if the cars on the wall were mine and I said, “Yes, most of them.” The lady then asked me, “How much is a one-lady-owned ’69 GTO The Judge with a four-speed worth?”
OCW reader Larry Bell eventually found it hidden in a local garage in 2009.
In 1983, I was working out at a local gym
when a young girl noticed my GTO T-shirt and
she told me about her uncle’s Judge.
I nearly dropped my fork and said, “You have got to be Donna.” She said yes, she was, and she was interested in the value, because someone had recently approached her to buy the car for $8,000. Donna said she thought the price was low, and it was. I told her what I would pay for the car sight-unseen, and she thanked me for being honest in telling her what I thought it was worth.
I also told Donna how I had seen the car once — 40 years ago — and had searched for it unsuccessfully for 25 years. I said I would love to add it to my collection. She made it plain the car belonged to her, not her husband, and how she paid for the car herself and drove it off the showroom floor at Wells Pontiac in Richmond, Ind., in 1969. It was solely her decision what to do with the car.
Two days later, she left a message at the diner for me to call her. I immediately called and made an appointment to look at the long-lost The Judge as soon as I got over the flu. She told me not to worry, the car was mine if I wanted it, but we still hadn’t agreed on a price. After a few agonizing days, I was healthy enough to get my first look at this “urban legend” in more than 40 years. And it turns out this storied car was just six blocks from my New Castle, Ind., home!
When I laid eyes on The Judge for the second time, it was parked in the same tiny garage where it had been left since 1972 and had not seen daylight since. The car had a little more than 40,000 miles on the odometer, new tires, new exhaust and a 1972 Indiana State Safety Inspection sticker. Donna and I agreed on a price in a matter of minutes and the long-lost The Judge was finally mine.
I took a crew to examine The Judge, and we were all amazed at how well the car had survived the decades. We filled the four flat tires with air, lifting it off of can of house paint, then wiggled the Hurst shifter a few times and pulled it out of the garage and onto a trailer for a short trip to a friends’ restoration shop to see what we had. After a few days of cleaning, it came back to life cosmetically and began to look as it did in ’72.
The gas tank was emptied (it was as clean as new); the carburetor was rebuilt; the plugs, plug wires and points were changed; fresh oil was poured in the crankcase; the battery was changed; and with a few other minor items, The Judge started right up. It also turns out the clutch was fine after all.
After 37 years of hiding, The Judge was alive again, purring like a tiger. I have taken it to a couple local shows in the last 18 months and everyone remembers the car and has a story to tell about it. It is a true survivor and will never be restored or sold.
Today, the 40,000-mile The Judge looks as fine as when it was parked in 1972.
Flashy Judge could hand out swift justice
Any muscle car inspired by the “Here Come da Judge” skits on Rowan & Martin’s “Laugh-In” TV show was sure to be a bit crazy, and the GTO The Judge was crazy in a very fast way. As Car Life magazine once put it, “Pontiac inspired the supercar for this generation … and The Judge is one of the best.”
The new model of GTO was designed to be what Car and Driver magazine called an “econo racer.” However, the end product became a heavily optioned muscle car priced at more than $300 over the GTO’s sticker and still provided a lot of muscle for the money. It was a machine that could race “as delivered,” and for a lot less money than a purpose-built drag racing car.
Pontiac Motor Division’s release of the “The Judge” option package was made on Dec. 19, 1968. At first, “The Judge” came only in Carousel Red with tri-color striping, but it was later made available in the full range of colors that were available for other ’69 GTOs. Special standard features of The Judge package included a blacked-out grille, Rally II wheels (minus bright trim rings), functional hood scoops and “The Judge” decals on the sides of the front fenders and “Ram Air” decals on the hood scoops. At the rear of the car there was a 60-inch-wide “floating” deck lid airfoil with a “The Judge” decal emblem on the upper right-hand surface.
The standard “The Judge” engine was the Pontiac-built 400-cid/366-hp Ram Air III V-8. It came linked to a three-speed manual transmission with a floor-mounted Hurst T-handle shifter and a 3.55:1 rear axle. A total of 8,491 GTOs and Judges were sold with this motor and only 362 of them were convertibles. The more powerful 400-cid/370-hp Ram Air IV engine was installed in 759 cars in the same two lines and 59 of these cars were convertibles.
“The Judge” option was added to 6,725 GTO two-door hardtops and only 108 GTO ragtops. The editors of Car Life magazine whipped The Judge through the quarter-mile at 14.45 seconds and 97.8 mph. Supercars Annual covered the same distance in a Judge with Turbo Hydra-Matic transmission and racked up a run of 13.99 seconds at 107 mph!