The month of April has traditionally brought the first consecutive days of the year in which I’ve been able to leave my windows at home cracked open. Over the past fifteen-plus years that I’ve lived in Chicago, the weather here has proven to be more unpredictable than any of the other four places I’ve lived for any significant amount of time. There have been stand-alone, individual days earlier in the year over that period that were outliers from the norm. For example, on January 5th of last year (2019), which was a Saturday, the high here had reached the mid-50s (Fahrenheit) before plunging this city into (literally) sub-Antarctic temperatures mere weeks later. It was almost as if Mother Nature had said, “Juuuuke!” right as we had we Chicagoans had gotten our hopes up for a mild winter.
The dawn of spring is usually when I start gauging the outside temperature against what I might wear to spend any extended amount of time outdoors. Now that the nationwide shelter-in-place order in the United States has been extended through the end of this month in an effort to “flatten the curve” against the spread of the COVID-19 virus, any connection to the world outside of my home has become increasingly welcome.
With my windows open, I can hear ambient sounds like the wind through the trees, the faint drone of planes passing far above, the occasional barking dog, and the periodic whoosh and click-clack of a passing “L” train. I now also wake up to a choir of birds, and have learned recognize cardinals and robins by their songs. Along with the cool morning air on my face, all of these things combine to form a comforting connection to life “out there”.
Another coping strategy with this (important and necessary) physical self-isolation has been to embark on a few projects involving the selection and installation of some of my photography in my home. While I’m going to be stuck here but for the absolutely necessary, local foot-trek for essential supplies, I might as well be able to glance around and look at images of places I’ve been and vistas I’ve seen. My memory of this ’69 GTO convertible spotted in my neighborhood was spurred by taking a little virtual trip through my neighborhood of Edgewater as revisited through various pictures I had taken over the years.
Pretty much everything captured in these pixels is off limits to me right now. At the end of this initial seven-day stretch of April, while it’s now warm enough to let a little cool air inside on a regular basis, it’s not quite warm enough for outdoor seating. Social distancing practices would dictate that CTA riders on the Bryn Mawr Red Line platform in the background of the top shot would be standing further apart from each other. I would not have been sitting outside to dine (like when I took these pictures), as the restaurants and eating establishments in the area that are offering any kind of continued service do so only on a take-out and/or delivery basis. Lastly, the driver of this GTO, if he still dared to drive with the top down with COVID floating around in the air, would likely be wearing a face mask. (Perhaps in a nice azure blue, to match his Pontiac.)
1969 Pontiac GTO convertible brochure photo is courtesy of www.oldcarbrochures.com.
Speaking of which, there were only about 7,400 GTO convertibles produced for ’69, against almost 65,000 coupes. In present day, this kind of combined volume for any two-door sounds insanely high, let alone for a specialized model like the high-performance GTO. Shockingly, even with sales numbers this high, the GTO wasn’t even the top-selling muscle car that year, with Plymouth’s budget-minded Road Runner taking that honor, finding close to 84,400 buyers over its three bodystyles.
The Road Runner, either as a hardtop or convertible, wasn’t even that less expensive in base form than a comparable GTO (there was no “post” / pillared GTO that year), with prices starting roughly 2% lower. The GTO came standard with a 400-cubic inch V8 that was offered in different variations yielding horsepower ratings ranging from 265 (in two-barrel form) to 370 (for the Ram Air IV). I’m not the “tech guy”, as many of you readers know, but we can all agree that our featured, 3,600-pound ’69 GTO convertible has plenty of scoot, whether equipped with a 3- or 4-speed manual, or the three-speed Turbo Hydramatic transmission.
Tooling around Chicago with the soft-top down, in a classic Pontiac convertible in this rich shade of blue would seem like such a faraway dream to me now, and not just because I don’t own a car. I still have my fingers crossed that 2020 will allow many of us to have even just a little sliver of summer as we have become accustomed to it. Needless to say, if that happens, I won’t be taking it for granted. In the meantime, I have my pictures to look at and the ability to mentally project myself behind the wheel of this GTO, even if only for four frames, or so.
Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois.
Saturday, June 24, 2017.
The interesting news to me here is that Chicago has a place called Bryn Mawr
I thought that to be interesting too, though possibly for a different reason than you. Here in the US, Bryn Mawr is usually associated with a wealthy suburb of Philadelphia, which itself was named after a location in Wales.
I’d never heard of a place called Bryn Mawr anywhere else, so I looked it up this morning. Turns out the original developer of this part of Chicago (where I assume the Bryn Mawr Red Line serves) was a Philadelphia native, and named places and streets in Chicago after his native area. In addition to Bryn Mawr, there other names that Philadelphians may recognize, such as Ardmore Avenue and Wayne Avenue (there are quite possibly others that I’ve missed).
Anyway, it seems that this very Welsh name migrated to Chicago via Philadelphia.
And thanks, Joe, for another terrific piece here.
It is not unusual. We usually see Bryn Mawr as a street name among college streets. Harvard, Princeton, Colgate, Yale and Bryn Mawr are usually clustered within a suburbs in the Midwest. Growing up there, I never associated the name with Pennsylvania because the next street was another college name, like Amherst, anymore than I would associate Brown with Rhode Island, or Yale with Connecticut. Just another college named suburban street.
I like that “Bryn Mawr” was brought up as a topic of conversation. About 10 years ago, I had a job interview in the greater Philadelphia area after having lived in Chicago for years, where I had seen signs referencing “Bryn Mawr”.
The whirlwind day of the interview was an early flight to Philadelphia, a two- or three-part interview, then a flight back to Chicago – all within the same 24-hour spread. While they ultimately went with another candidate with more experience in that field, I thought it great that they had thought enough of my qualifications and phone interviews to go to all that expense and trouble.
Still, that was a lot for one day, and seeing “Bryn Mawr” on a sign or two was a nice reminder in that cab ride that I’d be sleeping in my own bed at home that night.
There is an all-girls private primary/secondary school in Baltimore called Bryn Mawr too.
My old neighborhood when I lived in Chicago. My place was 3 blocks west of this exact spot, same street. Bryn Mawr is a very small area within Edgewater, but it is gorgeous. Originally an “affordable” development some 120 years ago when created, it is insanely high-buck today. Do not ask what I was paying to have a 400 sq. ft. Studio there in 2014-2017, as it was a crazy outlay looking back. Kathy Osterman aka “Hollywood” beach is just down the road to the east from this location. Many summer days were spent there sunning and funning. Go slightly further west and Andersonville is at your fingertips. I will forever hold this part of Chicago within my heart, and maybe one day I will return. It’s the only place I felt at home in outside of where I grew up (suburb of Saint Paul).
A most excellent sighting that makes all of us just a little bit jealous of that guy this morning. I recall a time when there was nothing I wanted more than a mid to dark blue car with white interior. I still think it looks great, even better now than it did then when it was much more common.
In the right color, wheels and trim level, this GTO is the undisputed king of styling among the GM A body cars of 1969. Everyone loves the 69 Chevelle, but I cannot see how it can top this.
Well, I’ll gently dispute that, I think the Cutlass is the A Body king. However, the ranking of Chevy, Pontiac, and Olds is very close and to me varies a bit by year and grill and trim details. I’d say that the early Buick’s were the worst of the bunch by far.
Most years I would agree, but I think ’69 is the weakest if the ’68-’72 Cutlasses, so probably GTO that year.
Wow, I hit those attributes on my very first car (which alas I’ve not since had replicated).
Unfortunately the rest of it was pretty mundane, and I’ve not had those attributes in an car I’ve owned since (not necessarily by choice, partly due to market availability changes). I had a medium blue ’74 Datsun 710, it had white seats. The bad parts: 1) brown carpeting 2) automatic (for me, some people would make it a plus 3) not very fast. The good parts: 1) Reliable in general, got me through 4 years undergraduate school while parked outside in Vermont 2) Easy to work on, pretty old school, my only car with points and carburator, drum brakes, so I’d not have been exposed to them otherwise.
I’m glad I no longer have vinyl seats, though white ones are pretty neat, but shudder to think about having white cloth seats (high upkeep?). I do wish we had more interior selection but cars have long been a commodity and individualization has become a luxury that fewer can afford. I’m happy with cloth seats if I can get them, for some reason VW has gone back to vinyl in its mid models, and I’m not a leather person, but would like them in some color if possible. To me it would be nice not just to have a nicely styled interior, but the option of nice seating (kind of like Peugeot and Renault were known for, not sure if they still are since we’ve not been able to buy new ones in NA for almost 25 years). As we get older, these would be appreciated…kind of asking for an old-fogey-mobile (like the old Cadillacs, Lincolns, and Imperials) that have comfortable seats, non-squat (and non-climb) entry height, and so on, but packaged in a shorter car that gets OK gas mileage. I’m even decadent enough to ask for doors that if they don’t close themselves, at least offer an arm to help pull them closed without having to lean out into the parking space to reach for them. Guess I’m resembling my Grandfather, just 50 years out in time.
Nice they didn’t “tack it up” with a RH mirror or rear antenna.
Does the third photo show a reach for a manual gear change?
Beautiful car!
These articles on the site lately are really starting to reflect our collective cabin fever. The nice thing about it for authors such as yourself is that there is now more time to write, which is always in short supply during normal times. I think we’ll look back and miss some of that extra time.
Nicely done, too, on the section about GTO’s. Good details.
Hopefully, come summer, this picture will look like it could have been taken this year. Thanks for this optimistic shot!
Thank you, Jon. I thought it was very fitting that I had scheduled this piece for a Tuesday that featured the very first eight-something degree day of the year here in Chicago! Made me pine to be outside even more, as I underwrote insurance policies from my at-home workstation.
I really hope we get a summer this year. Even a little one.
Except for the hood scoops and the silly tach, that is a very beautiful car.
Joe, I know that neighborhood; so thanks for a pleasant surprise.
Awesome. Glad I could share the pics. The green terra cotta Belle Shore Apartments still looks great.
A rich, spoiled boyhood friend was given new ‘69 GTO on his 18th birthday. Same color as this one (with a white vinyl roof), but a coupe. 4 speed with the 350 h.p. 400. Had a factory tach, but on the dash in lieu of the clock and not on the hood. Had a factory 8 track that sat on the transmission hump. Cool wood look steering wheel. Was stolen and wrecked about 3 years later, as so many of these were.
Why didn’t they put an Endura bumper at the rear too? It looks unbalanced.
I’ve been enjoying the lower noise levels too, when walking the dog in the neighborhood in the mornings. Birds are especially active right now, nest building like mad.
The Endura back bumper question is one I’ve asked before – not about the GTO specifically, but other cars like the Pontiac Grand Am (and probably a few others). How much more money could that have cost relative to the overall cost of the car?
FWIW, the ’70-’71 Mopar E-body and ’71-’72 B-body coupes were available with body-color ‘elastomeric’ coverings on the front and rear bumpers, even if they weren’t exactly the same as GTO’s Endura version.
Right! If Chrysler could find a way to justify it, GM should have also, for sure.
(I had almost cited the ’73 Chevelle Laguna as another example of mismatched bumpers, but as it turned out, the ’73 Laguna did have body-color bumpers out back.)
Speaking of lower noise levels, my house is under a landing path for our international airport, and I remarked to myself today when out in the back barbecuing, how quiet and peaceful it was, and I could listen and concentrate on the songbirds in the backyard, the cardinals in particular, without a single aircraft piercing the quiet, or for that matter absent the nearby highway roaring away. A small gratitude indeed for the time we live in right now.
Had that problem when I first moved to the city I’m at in the early 80’s…but they interestingly ended up moving the airport (when a military airbase closed that they’d donated the land to back in the 40’s, they took over the more spacious airbase)..now the land for the old airport has completely gone to residential/big box development, and a medical center they built on scarce empty land close into the city…it didn’t stay empty long.
Now live in a different place not near airport…I’ve been here 35 years so far.
As a retired person, I notice way more people walking during the day (when they’d otherwise be at work) which is kind of nice (though odd speaking as a car fan) that they can trade their commutes for being outside. Also lots more people knocking on my door for mistaken address for food delivery.
A 1980s co-worker had one of these. Dark green, manual tranny, interior and convertible-top completely shredded, and not one straight body panel. He finally got tired of soaking in water and freezing to death. So he converted the car to a hardtop with generous applications of duct-tape and body-filler!
Happy Motoring, Mark
Mark, how I wish there was a picture of this green one! Based on your description, though, I can imagine what it looked like. (What isn’t duct tape good for?)
Anyone else notice the hubcaps and trim rings on the car in the ad? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a GTO so adorned, (certainly not one from 1969).
These look like the very rare for 1969 optional wire wheel covers. Old Car Brochures has a Pontiac Accessories book for ‘69 that outlines this. Don’t think I ever saw these in the flesh. Most had the Rally II wheels.
That sounds a whole lot better since the ad car doesn’t exactly look like a strippo.
Agreed. But, those covers were sold for several years. My ’72 Pontiac GrandVille had them, and they are on the wall in my garage to this day.
They were featured on a car written up on CC some time ago….
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-cohort/from-the-cohort-1967-pontiac-bonneville-mixed-metaphore/
The article shows the covers in the 1967 product catalog as well.
That’s some fascinating stuff. The GTO in the ad is in motion and, as such, the wire wheel spokes seem to disappear, making it look like the aforementioned hubcap/trim ring combination I mentioned.
And I can really see how their appearance on a Goat would be rare. They really don’t fit, certainly not like they do on a full-size, well-equipped Poncho.
Great photos!
Most cars are not universally liked, but really, does anyone ever wake up in the morning hating on this car?
One of many from the Mitchell era hit parade.
Thanks, Dave! The ’69 GTO, to me, anyway, was one of the better looking cars in a model year that had a lot of lookers.
“….choir of birds, and have learned recognize cardinals and robins by their songs.”
CC Effect, or is is a Perch-side Classic Effect?
As I was reading this line Joseph, outside the open window directly behind where I am sitting, I hear a male Cardinal mating call, a late evening Robin roosting call, just as you mention, along with the alarm call of a Blue Jay. I also hear the sound of a Carolina Wren (talking to his mate), and even a Red Bellied Wood Pecker. And I live in the suburbs!
“Perch-side Classics” – gotta love it! The CC Effect continues to manifest itself in myriad ways. LOL
69 GTOs never had a 2bbl carburetor… they had 4bbl Quadrajets.
HowStuffWorks / Auto editors of Consumer Guide said the 265-horse, 2-bbl carb version of the 400 was an option. That was my source, but I suppose it could be wrong.
https://auto.howstuffworks.com/1968-1969-pontiac-gto-judge.htm
The 2 barrel 400 was a credit option; meaning if you ordered it the price was lowered a bit. And I can assure you it existed: a guy at Loyola HS got a brand new red GTO, but his dad ordered it with the 2 barrel option. Looked hot, but wasn’t really, as we found out when a guy in 327 Camaro spanked it in a race up Chestnut Avenue.
It was offered specifically for cases like this and/or to get a lower insurance rate.
Decked out right, these were the best looking GM mid-sizers of their time. Like you, I’ve been inside a lot more lately (working from home) and I’ve passed a lot of spare time looking at and working on old photos of my own. The last time I saw one of these was at a Saturday cruise night in Kissimmee, Florida 5 years ago – an orange Judge convertible. Always a favourite.
Was that the weekend cruise night at the Old Town/Fun Spot amusement park? It’s still going on (well, except for the hold right now).
Beautiful car and great sequence of photos! GM and Bill Mitchell kept hitting home runs during the 60s. Pontiac was on a roll then, but little did we know at the time that Oldsmobile would take the baton in the 70s and first half of the 80s.