The Blue Car

“I got to ride in this car when I was a kid,” Tenney Fairchild says, gently pulling the duster across the hood of his red 1964 GTO. “I was four years old, and the car was brand-new. I remember smelling the oil and the exhaust. I remember trying to peer over the hood to look at the engine. This car is the reason I’m obsessed with cars.”

Can you come up with another reason why this original-family-owner ’64 GTO has been used, resurrected, researched, documented and won’t be for sale during most of our lifetimes?

"A Tribute to Jim Wangers' 1964 GTO 'Test Car' built for Car and Driver March 1964" CHAPTER 1 Greg Raymond March 1964 Car and Driver The story is familiar to anyone in the Pontiac community: the Muscle Car era truly began in 1964, when Pontiac chief engineer John DeLorean, along with Russ Gee and Bill Collins, transformed the newly redesigned Tempest into the now‑legendary Pontiac GTO. While evaluating the 1964 Tempest, a car originally conceived as a four‑cylinder economy mo

"A Tribute to Jim Wangers' 1964 GTO 'Test Car' built for Car and Driver March 1964" CHAPTER 2 Greg Raymond Where do you even begin when contemplating a “Tribute to Jim Wangers” recreation of the lost pilot car used in the Car and Driver March 1964 road test? Before anything else, you have to dismiss the idea of finding a PHS‑documented GTO to sacrifice. Values of authentic, documented GTOs have reached a point where modifying one, especially for a tribute build, borders on sa

"A Tribute to Jim Wangers' 1964 GTO 'Test Car' built for Car and Driver March 1964" CHAPTER 3 Greg Raymond It’s well established that General Motors supplied two Pontiac GTOs for Car and Driver’s exhaustive road test in Daytona Beach, Florida, in late December 1963. Before diving deeper into the story of the lost “Blue Car,” it’s important to introduce someone who holds a direct connection to the other half of that legendary duo: Tenney Fairchild, the current owner of the ori

"A Tribute to Jim Wangers' 1964 GTO 'Test Car' built for Car and Driver March 1964" CHAPTER 4 Greg Raymond The donor car for this project was a 1964 LeMans Sport Coupe, an ideal starting point. This body style featured the crucial B‑pillar “post” separating the front and rear side windows, matching the configuration of both Car and Driver test cars. From the outset, authenticity mattered. The LeMans arrived with its original 326ci engine still in place, along with a freshly b

"A Tribute to Jim Wangers' 1964 GTO 'Test Car' built for Car and Driver March 1964" CHAPTER 5 Greg Raymond To build an engine worthy of the lost Blue Car, we turned to the team at JBA Speed Shop in San Diego, California, arguably the most trusted Pontiac engine builders in Southern California. Our mission was clear: transform our original 1966 GTO Tri‑Power engine into something capable of outperforming the legendary 1964 421ci Royal Bobcat. If the Blue Car was going to live

"A Tribute to Jim Wangers' 1964 GTO 'Test Car' built for Car and Driver March 1964" CHAPTER 6 Greg Raymond Have you ever had one of those days? The kind where everything is going perfectly… right up until it absolutely isn’t? Ring Failure & a vacuum leak makes for quite a show! Dyno Day… and Disaster With the engine reassembled and the Tri‑Power perched proudly on top, we rolled into JBA’s dyno cell. Spirits were high. We planned to run the engine publicly the next morning at

"A Tribute to Jim Wangers' 1964 GTO 'Test Car' built for Car and Driver March 1964" CHAPTER 7 Greg Raymond With the engine reassembled and JBA’s Stage II High‑Performance Package fully balanced and installed, we headed back to the dyno at JBA Speed Shop for another round of testing. Expectations were high. The numbers looked promising… until they didn’t. The Advantage of Experience When you’re surrounded by a team of high‑performance engineers with more than 50 years of combi

"A Tribute to Jim Wangers' 1964 GTO 'Test Car' built for Car and Driver March 1964" CHAPTER 8 Greg Raymond The numbers are finally in, and getting here took far more work than anyone expected. Three complete engine builds, two rounds of cast‑iron head failures, intake runners that had been over‑ported, oversized exhaust valves, and a center carburetor that simply refused to cooperate. The list of hurdles was long and painful. The good news? JBA Speed Shop’s machine shop solve

"A Tribute to Jim Wangers' 1964 GTO 'Test Car' built for Car and Driver March 1964" CHAPTER 9 Greg Raymond With the team at San Diego’s JBA Speed Shop transforming the Blue Car’s powerplant into a record‑setting engine, it was time to turn our attention to the body. For that, we entrusted the car to another group of masters: Patterson’s Speed & Kustom in San Diego, California. Their task? Prepare the body for its flawless Nocturne Blue finish. We were able to pull the drive t

"A Tribute to Jim Wangers' 1964 GTO 'Test Car' built for Car and Driver March 1964" CHAPTER 10 Greg Raymond With the car now in color and the engine receiving its final adjustments, it felt like the perfect moment to step back and appreciate the details. As the saying goes, it’s all in the details, and for this build, that couldn’t be more true. What made this project so exciting for me and the entire team was the sheer amount of research required to ensure this tribute would

"A Tribute to Jim Wangers' 1964 GTO 'Test Car' built for Car and Driver March 1964" CHAPTER 11 Greg Raymond It occurred to us that some readers may never have had the chance to experience the original March 1964 Car and Driver article firsthand. And with the Blue Car now in color and assembly about to begin, this feels like the perfect moment to take a brief trip back in time. Before we move forward, let’s revisit where the legend truly began. I was able to track down the ori

"A Tribute to Jim Wangers' 1964 GTO 'Test Car' built for Car and Driver March 1964" CHAPTER 12 Greg Raymond While we wait patiently for the Nocturne Blue paint to cure, it feels like the perfect moment to shine a spotlight on Royal Pontiac, the dealership that played a defining role in the creation of the original Blue Car and its legendary performance. Royal Pontiac was founded by Asa “Ace” Wilson in the late 1950s, and it didn’t take long for the dealership to become synony

"A Tribute to Jim Wangers' 1964 GTO 'Test Car' built for Car and Driver March 1964" CHAPTER 13 Greg Raymond Nocturne Blue is a color that demands respect, and a tremendous amount of preparation. I’ve learned that firsthand. Building this tribute to Jim Wangers’ Nocturne Blue pilot car, the very one he “hand‑crafted” in late 1963 for Car and Driver, has presented its share of challenges. Wangers famously sold editor David E. Davis, Jr. on the idea of a GTO vs. GTO comparison t

"A Tribute to Jim Wangers' 1964 GTO 'Test Car' built for Car and Driver March 1964" CHAPTER 14 Greg Raymond There comes a point in every build when the story stops being just history and starts becoming personal. Not in terms of the work itself, but in the way the experience connects to your own life. For me, that moment arrived when I revisited a story my father told countless times. In December 1963, my father and grandfather walked into Peelies Pontiac in Highland Falls, N

"A Tribute to Jim Wangers' 1964 GTO 'Test Car' built for Car and Driver March 1964" CHAPTER 15 Greg Raymond I came across a post from Speed Society on Facebook that read, “A car build is never about showing off to others. It’s about proving something to yourself.” It hit me in the best possible way. This isn’t my first build, so I’m familiar with the feeling that comes with each one: I genuinely love the process. But with this project, the process has been something special.

"A Tribute to Jim Wangers' 1964 GTO 'Test Car' built for Car and Driver March 1964" CHAPTER 16 Greg Raymond Every once in a while, it’s important to pause and look back at where you started, especially when the journey began nearly two years ago. The Blue Car was delivered to Patterson’s Kustoms on January 26, 2024, and as I write this installment of A Tribute to Jim Wangers’ 1964 GTO “Test Car”, we’re putting the final touches on the last of the body panels. The photo above

"A Tribute to Jim Wangers' 1964 GTO 'Test Car' built for Car and Driver March 1964" CHAPTER 17 Greg Raymond With the Blue Car out of the paint booth and deep into assembly, it was finally time to turn our attention to the trim. After more than 60 years, the typical deterioration of pot‑metal and aluminum components was everywhere. Fortunately, repainting Pontiac taillight panels and the fuel‑filler door trim is a process I’ve come to enjoy, almost a ritual at this point, havi

"A Tribute to Jim Wangers' 1964 GTO 'Test Car' built for Car and Driver March 1964" CHAPTER 18 Greg Raymond Working with perfectionists is a remarkable experience, time‑consuming, yes, but remarkable all the same. The team at Patterson’s Speed & Kustom decided the Blue Car’s dash bezel deserved nothing less than an exact, factory‑faithful recreation. What followed was a series of steps so meticulous, so far beyond anything I’d ever seen, that the process demanded to be docume