Pontiac GTO fans have been visiting UltimateGTO.com owned by Sean Mattingly for years. A megasite rather than a simple portal, almost anything related to the first US muscle car is there if you look hard enough. It has over 16,600 pictures of real GTOS, Tempests and Lemans from every year. This year, TUGTOPS is expanding with new features, so we thought it was time for another interviw with Sean Mattingly.
PHS: TUGTOPS recently celebrated its 12th Anniversary. When you first started, did you think it would ever get this large?
SM: In 1996, no. My computer at the time had a tiny 40 Meg hard drive, and going on a quest to collect a photo of evey GTO seemed impossible. In the beginning, I was only saving photos of 1968 GTOs on large 5.25 inch floppy discs. I think I fitted 8 photos on each floppy. It seems pitiful today compared to the fast commercial server I'm on with Terrabytes of storage space. What surprised me is how many "car nuts" would contact me from around the world with tales of their GTO lust. If you can get high on car enthusiasm, this is it.
PHS: My favorite section of the site is advanced picture search. I use it all the time for research purposes. Do you have a favorite part of the website; one that still gives you lots of pleasure to this day?
SM: The Advanced Picture Searcher is my favorite too. If people haven't seen that, they're missing out on my buddy, Jeff Klein's, brilliance. He's helped database every photo on the site. Easily a decade before other sites even thought of organizing pic galleries with "tags", we'd built a searchable database. If someone needs to search just for GTO "pedal cars", there's a dropdown box on the screen to see 24 pics of pedal cars. If you get a hankerin' to see lesser known models like the "Custom S", Advanced Picture Searcher will show you 63 of them in 2 door hardtop, convertible and 4 doors. See right there, you might have learned something interesting if you didn't realize there was a four door "Custom S" that resembles your GTO.
One of my daily pleasures is reviewing photo comments. Every day, web visitors leave comments on the cars. Usually, they have favorable encouragement for the car's owner. Once in awhile, a guy will find a pic of his long-lost GTO and tell the owner, "Hey, that's my old car! My Dad made me sell it when I got my first speeding ticket. Good to see mny old car is still alive."
PHS: Looking over the Wide Track era, Pontiac added many new pieces to keep the GTO a front runner. At one point, the image solidified and people perceived GTO to be the best performance intermediate available. Sales statistics suggest that happened in 1966. In your opinion, what were the strong and weak points of the 1966 GTO?
SM: How can a person explain love at first sight? Even if one of these cars was sitting in the middle of a junkyard among many other makes, it's the first one you have to walk up and examine. Even the King of Sweden adores the 1966 GTO and drives his in parades. Of course, I have a photo of that along with 1,282 others. I've tried to gauge the popularity of different model years using weekly poll questions on the main page. I asked people what year they prefer. If you thought 1966, you'd be close. In polls conducted from 2001-2003, the '69 GTO won. From 2004-2006, the '67 GTO was most popular. In the past three years, it has been a tie between 1969 and 1967.
PHS: The GTO along with the Mustang, was one of the first muscle cars to be restored in the late 1970s. Your website has remarkable tools for the restorer from vintage pics and many variations in trim and options, links to Performance Years forums and a large dealer list by zone. How did you start a zone list file? Dealer codes are only seen on build sheets, sales receipts and PHS documents.
SM: I started the Pontiac Zone and Dealer Code list as a side project. It's located under "Text Topics" on main page. For the most part, car owners contributed their codes via email and I add them to the list. Some of my helpers will walk around car shows and jot down zone codes and dealer names from window stickers and send them to me. I was sure someone would volunteer a printed complete list. No such list has surfaced. Since 1996, I've had people liquidating two different estates tell me they thought such a book or document was in their dad's collection. Neither of them were able to produce a master list. So until one appears, we have over 1,050 user submitted codes with towns and notes.
PHS: Sean, you're adding more features and content this year. What can visitors expect to see on TUGTOPS soon?
SM: I'm adding more GTO pics and picking out bigger images for "Picture of the Week." The backlog of unposted material is huge. I've probably 2,500 to edit and database. I'll post some news items on GM and the current demise of the Pontiac brand. I wish there was positive news to report on that.
PHS: Like most people, you have a day job, tending operations for radio stations in Indiana and doing a DJ drive as well. Is it difficult to get spare time?
SM: The site is set up so I can administer it from pretty much anywhere. It helps when I'm on the road. I can't make a career out of GTOs can I? If I made UltimateGTO.com my main business, the site would have to be plastered with ad banners. I'd never do that to my fans. It's a fun hobby site, I'll keep it that way.
PHS: In the summer, you've toured all the drive in theaters of Indiana and posted photos of many. Is there anything you'd like to do with your GTO that you haven't tackled yet?
SM: I caught the drifting bug at the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving. I'd like to do a perfect 360 degree spin. GTO drifter, Rhys Millen, showed me how it's done there. I keep trying but can't get it just right. For some reason, my non power brake car has trouble nailing it back home. I can make a few passes in my '68, but then the cops have to come and watch...
PHS: From my perspective, once prices at auctions topped $50,000 for decent GTOs, it hurt the hobby. We saw less GTOs and other real muscle cars appear at cruise nights and owners became reluctant to drive them. I haven't seen a real hemicuda in four years. What is it like out your way? Do people still enjoy their cars the way they used to?
SM: Here in the Muncie, Indiana area, land is cheap. The countryside is flat farmland with plenty of pole barns. You know what's in those barns, tractors and old cars! I don't think people are overly scared of driving them around here. The towns are small, traffic is light, people are still polite. Heck, I still drive my GTO down to the shopping center to get a haircut. Nobody messes with the car. Just today, I saw a shiny 1966 LeMans at Subway. There's a lady who works at a fast-food place with a purple metal flake GTO with skulls hanging from the rear view mirror. I also know a guy with 5 CanAms in his side yard, all in driveable condition.
With today's technology, if you wreck your classic beyond hope, who cares? With the internet, you could find another one and have it in your driveway in about a week. Searching for cars and parts has never been easier with the internet. In my opinion, it makes no sense to try to "keep the miles off" a car. Life is short, put ON some miles flying down country roads in an old-school car made without any computers in it! Enjoy the hell out of it and yes, use it up without remorse.
PHS: Everyone it seems has a favorite GTO. If you won the Powerball Lottery and money was no object, what model GTO would end up joining your 1968 hardtop?
SM: I might get some kind of pace car. The Indy 500 is south of us. I regret Pontiac never made a Pace Car edition GTO. They should have made a Hurst GTO pace car, darnit! One of the orange and white Camaro convertible Pace Cars would be cool.
PHS: What are some of the big changes you've seen with GTO owners since you've started this site?
SM: People used to write in telling me how "rare" their car was. Now they can browse through pictures, look at maybe 45 pics of cars with the same paint and roof color. Suddenly it's not so rare, plus they can correspond with other owners. It's great to see people sharing stories and info about their GTOs.
PHS: A great feature you have is continual updates on news items related to GTOs. You've covered car crashes, street racing arrests, notable auctions. What's the strangest story you've seen involving a GTO?
SM: There were so many. A lady won a new GTO on "The Price is Right" game show. The prize car they delivered had been previously wrecked and repaired. They didn't disclose that to the lady and she sued. Another one is the Police Chief in tiny Boones Mill, Virginia, with his 2004 GTO patrol car. He's in the news for ticketing speeders or fighting with the mayor and the town council. Last one I saw, he bought a good size yacht at a surplus auction. Not having a lake for his new yacht, he built a pool for it in the front yard and puts it on display as a lawn ornament. OMG the photo is hilarious.
PHS: Your early hobby car experiences are documented in the website.At one time, you bought a GTO. What made you buy one over say, a Trans Am or Chevelle?
SM: Since junior high I liked Pontiacs. I would go the public library and read all the car mags they had. When shopping for my first car, I tested a used Smokey & the Bandit TA. It was way out of my price range. I also admired the Buick Grand Nationals. Instead, I veered off to the GTO world and am thrilled with it. My wife won't let me buy any additional cars with one exception. She says I can bring back a '77 Bandit Trans Am anytime. I just might do that someday as a surprise!
PHS CollectorCarWorld thanks Sean Mattingly for
taking time to answer our questions. For more info,
pictures about the first muscle car, visit
http://ultimategto.com
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