Pontiac GTO Vs Oldsmobile 442: How Do These Legendary Muscle Cars Compare?

If you were a teenaged gearhead in the 1970s, you may very well have hung posters on your wall of the Pontiac GTO and/or Oldsmobile 442. These General Motors cousins were titans of the American vehicular arms race and each earned a well-deserved place in muscle car history. With AMC's underappreciated muscle cars challenging the American 'big three' of Ford, Chrysler, and GM, each automaker worked to outdo each other. As a result, many parking lots and stretches of road ended up with streaks of molten rubber to show for it. Simply put, many Americans back then were driven by a desire to go fast and look good doing it, and the car companies happily obliged.

While many brazen young Americans engaged in impromptu drag races seeking street cred and risking their pink slips, others drove their cars responsibly from point A to B without hammering the gas pedal at every chance. The make and model of one's car was often a source of pride and identity, as many owners valued tough-looking cars that could be modified to make more horsepower. But the GTO and 442 were both formidable in stock form; the two models were mechanically similar with subtle styling differences designed to meet the target audiences of their respective GM brands. For the sake of a fair comparison, we'll give a brief history of each model and see how the 1970 versions of these two muscle cars match up.

Pontiac made several iconic muscle cars, but the 1964 GTO is often cited as the one that jump-started the era. The GTO was launched in the fall of 1963 as a performance package on the next year's Tempest, and Oldsmobile followed up with the 442 midway through 1964. The 442 (later styled as 4-4-2) designation was a reference to the car's setup; a four-barrel carburetor, a four-speed transmission, and twin exhaust.

The GTO was initially offered with a 389 cubic inch V8 as standard equipment and a three-carburetor "tri-power" setup as a popular upgrade. Larger V8s were also on the option sheet, and by 1970 you could buy a GTO with a 455 cubic inch high output engine that put out 360 horsepower. The 1970 442 came with a 455 cubic inch V8 of its own that produced 370 horses with the W-30 package's hot cam, aluminum intake, and redesigned cylinder heads and distributor. The 1970 GTO with a 400 cubic inch engine and four-barrel carburetor took 14.6 seconds to cover a quarter mile and crossed the line at 99.55 mph on its way to a top speed of 121 mph. That same vintage 442 with a 3.91 rear axle covered the 1/4 mile strip in 14.2 seconds at 102 mph; while in these specific configurations the 442 was a hair faster, both models were offered with a range of axle ratios that impacted acceleration and top speed.

The GTO's lines were aggressive and angular, and Pontiac sold it with bright orange paint, bold psychedelic graphics, and a spoiler as the GTO Judge for a few years. The design language of the 442 was more conservative, with a wide stance and sweeping lines that converged at the toothy split grille and chrome bumper. In a broad sense, the 442 was tailored to Oldsmobile's older and more upscale market segment while John DeLorean's GTO was meant to appeal to younger drivers. The 442 offered Olds' signature refinement along with strong performance, while the GTO mostly screamed fun with a hint of danger. Despite these small differences, both cars got plenty of attention from the nation's creative forces. A yellow 1970 GTO figured prominently in the 1971 film "Two-Lane Blacktop" starring Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys and singer-songwriter James Taylor, and 442s have appeared in dozens of films and TV shows.

The 442's Hollywood connection extended to the racing world when actor James Garner drove a modified 1970 example to a second place class finish at the National Off-Road Racing Association's (NORRA) grueling 1969 Mexican 1000 — that race is now known as the Baja 1000. Both cars have also been immortalized in song: Ronny and the Daytonas released "Little GTO" In 1964 and Primus mentioned a 442 in 1991's "Jerry was a Race Car Driver."