He Could Have Bought a Practical Car. He Got an American Icon Instead.

He Could Have Bought a Practical Car. He Got an American Icon Instead.

Bob Williford, 82, and his son, Samuel Williford, 50, attorneys based in Ridgeland, Miss., on their 1967 Pontiac GTO, as told to A.J. Baime.

Bob: In January 1967, I went with my father to a local dealership to buy a car in Greenwood, Miss. My dad tried to direct me toward a practical, four-door Pontiac with an automatic transmission and air conditioning. I saw this less practical, two-door red GTO with no air conditioning. I said, “Dad, that’s my car right there.” I bought it off the showroom floor.

Samuel: I was born in 1973 and grew up in “The Dukes of Hazzard” era. At the time, our family had moved to Madison, Miss., and there weren’t many people living there. There weren’t any kids to play with, and there was not a whole lot for me to do, so I played in this car. It had manual windows I could roll up and down, and I played with the steering wheel. I didn’t know what a GTO was, but I knew it didn’t look or sound like my mom’s Buick Skylark. I joke that my dad put the first 100,000 miles on the GTO, but I put the next 100,000 play miles on it.

Bob: The GTO is an icon of the muscle-car era. It first came out in model year 1964 and is regarded as the first muscle car. GTO stands for Gran Turismo Omologato. [The GTO’s success made an icon of its chief engineer, John DeLorean, who later invented the DeLorean car company. Omologato is the Italian word for “homologation,” meaning the car could qualify in a class of racing.] For years, the GTO was my daily driver. In 1968, when I got married, my wife, Ginger, and I went on our honeymoon in this car all the way to Canada. When I moved to Oxford, Miss., to go to law school, the car came with me. I almost traded it in for a Volkswagen Beetle during the gas crisis in the ’70s. But when it came down to it, I said no thanks. I’m keeping this car.

Samuel: My dad always took good care of it. It was originally restored by a local guy in Brandon, Miss., named Joe Ellingburg in 1999 and later touched up by Mike Martin at Classic Restorations in Gluckstadt, Miss. It has won gold awards at national events with the GTO Association of America and the Pontiac-Oakland Club International.

Bob: I like to joke that the car has aged better than I have. It always surprises me how it never fails to get attention. People give it the thumbs-up and wave.

Samuel: The car has been featured in books and in a magazine. This past winter, I got an unexpected phone call. A TV show called “The Great Christmas Light Fight” had picked a house nearby to award a winning trophy, and they wanted a red car to deliver it. They found me through my local car club. When you see Santa Claus in that episode in a red muscle car, that’s me behind the beard, and that is our GTO. It’s amazing that this car, which my dad purchased new, has not only ended up being a fun member of our family, but that we have been able to share it with others. We want people to enjoy it as much as we do.

Write to A.J. Baime at [email protected].