This will be a short article about a short lived muscle car option.

As status and rich lifestyles go, usually the ones with all of the money get to have all of the fun. That goes for the muscle car world as well. It was a rare occurrence that an eighteen to twenty something kid would be cruising in a high end muscle car during the glory days of the big threes fight in the streets. Although the manufacturers knew that those very kids wanted the big engined Super Sports and R/Ts they would have to settle for a budget small block car or worse.

To combat this Plymouth introduced a low buck higher performance version of their B body to fill void between the Satellite and the GTX in 1968. They gave it a 335 horsepower 383 and a 4 speed standard as well as a heavy duty suspension and not much else. Plymouth also gave it the name Roadrunner, complete with the Warner Brothers trademarked cartoon bird. With a sticker price of $2900 it became a hit amongst the youth. Plymouth only figured they would move around 2,000 units but ultimately sold around 45,000 birds.

Over at Pontiac John DeLorean took notice. He was the top dog and had made sure the GTO was the top of the heap as far as muscle cars where concerned. The GTO had great success for the 4 years leading up to the debut of Plymouth's Roadrunner but the new offering cut into DeLoreans profits and performance category. Something had to change. He needed a car that would draw the youth over to Pontiac's showrooms. His engineers formulated a plan using Plymouth's recipe. They would take the bottom rung A body Tempest pillar coupes and make it a budget entry level muscle car with GTO like performance and styling. They would include a 330 horsepower H.O. 350, a slashing belt line stripe, hood tach, cowl induction, and bright paint to grab attention. It would be known as the E/T or elapsed time.

John DeLorean wouldn't have it. His performance cars would get every cubic inch allowed by the General. It was 400 or nothing. After redesigns and approvals Pontiac unveiled The Judge in 1969. With a base price of $3,156 but routinely optioned over the $4,000 range it became the anti Roadrunner.

Let's move on to 1970. The A body got all new steel. The Tempest was still the gate keeper leading up the ranks to the GTO. Things were different though. There was a new T-37 option on the Tempest. It would get you a 255 horsepower 350 sporting a 2 barrel. The T-37 was what The Judge was supposed to be. It couldn't have come at a better time either. Insurance companies were coming down hard on the "supercars" leaving Detroit. If you were young and maybe had the scratch to get yourself a GTO the insurance man might have made it impossible to insure it. So why buy it?

The T-37 name stood for Pontiacs VIN sequence. T meaning Tempest and 37 designating a hard top body style although you could get it in the pillar coupe. The T-37 was a stripped down entry level performance car. By midyear 1970 Pontiac gave the youth what they wanted and made available the option GT-37. Still standard was the 255 horsepower 350 2 barrel but now you could get the 245 horse 2 barrel 400 or the 400 4 barrel making 330 horsepower. The good news was it wasn't going to be insured as a GTO. Now you could have your cake and eat it too.

Attached File

(1970 GT-37)

The GT-37 option package netted the buyer low restriction dual exhaust exiting throug the rear valence, split chrome exhaust tips, Rally II wheels, G70-14 White letter tires, heavy duty 3 speed with a Hurst floor shifter, hood pins, the 1969 Judge stripe, and special GT-37 decals on the fenders and deck lid. The car had a base price of $2,688. There were over 20,000 T-37s built in 1970 but only 1,419 GT-37s built.

Attached File


As stated earlier the standard transmission was the heavy duty 3 speed manual. You could option up to the 400 automatic or the Muncie 4 speed. A strange twist seemed to occur though. If the buyer ordered an automatic in their new GT-37 the got the 330 horsepower 400 out of the full size lineup. If the 4 speed was checked they received the same Ram Air III 350 horsepower 400 found in the GTO. Complete with the big valve heads and lumpyer camshaft but minus all of the functioning Ram Air goodies like the hood and air cleaner assembly. Now you had a car that weighed less that The Judge with the same engine bolted between the fenders for less money all around.

Attached File


Power was distributed back to the 10 bolt rear available in mutiple ratios and optional Safe-T-Track limited slip. The cars rode on the same 112" wheelbase as the GTO.

Though you could order your T-37 and GT-37 with mutiple options to give it the GTO appearance you could not have bucket seats. It was bench seat only but who cares. You were young and out there beating up the streets.

Attached File


1971 saw the continuation of the GT-37 option but the Tempest was dropped from the linup. The option was now applied to the Le Mans. The GT-37 came equipped in 1971 with GTO exhaust, standard H.D. 3 speed with Hurst floor shifter, Rally II wheels (dechromed like The Judge), G70-14 bias belted white letter tires, hood pins, Judge stripes, body colored sport mirrors, and GT-37 emblems on the fenders and deck lid..

Little changed body wise besides a minor front bumper revision but a whole lot changed under the hood. General Motors took aim at compression and lowered it across the board. Pontiac made the changes but still managed to put out decent power numbers. Among the base 2 barrel 350 and optional 2 and 4 barrel 400s were the GTOs 455 and 455 H.O. the latter was derived from the 69/70 Ram Air 400s complete with the round port heads. The 4 barrel 400 was down to 300 horsepower for 71. The 455 made 325 and the H.O. 455 came in at 335 horsepower.

By mid year 1971 a new optional "Sword" stripe would run full length down the side of the car with GT-37 call outs cut out. The new stripe was made of reflective foil and only about 50 owners opted for it.

The GTOs numbers were down by 75% in 1971 but the GT-37 production was up. 5,802 were built in 1971. 15 got the 455 and 54 got the 455 H.O. the majority left the factory with the standard 350. All of the 1971 production were hard tops even though literature showed it was available on the pillar coupe. Magazine advertisements in 1971 showed an orange GT-37 with a line shot directly at the youth. It read " There's a little GTO in every GT-37 and you don't have to be over 30 to afford it!"

Attached File

(1971 GT-37 shown with new for 71 honeycomb wheels)

The option dissappeared in 1972. It was now called the GT on available on only convertible bodies. Over 8,000 were produced for 72.

If it weren't for the youth there wouldn't be a roadrunner. If it weren't for the Roadrunner we wouldn't have The Judge and if not for The Judge there wouldn't be the GT-37 to offer to the youth. Things work out for a reason I suppose.

Have enjoyed your posts about past muscle cars. Is it possible that you could tell me how to find out how many of my car were produced. 1971 Cutlass Supreme Convertible. 350 rocket motor, factory 4 speed. Have been told there wasn't very many built but have never been able to find out.
Thank You
Marty

@martyjm

There were 10,255 convertibles built in 1971. 394 got M20 4 speeds according to GM records through June of 1971. That's 0.6 % of "4200" (body style number) Supreme production both hardtop and convertible. There was still one month of production left so it could have risen albeit very little.

Hope this helps.

Post some pics of the Cutlass. I have one as well.

You got me!  Been a car guy all my life and never realized what this car was.  I've heard of it, just didn't realize the status it carries. Thanks for another great post!!

I'm trying to post the uncommon stuff first. There are plenty of them to go before the run of the mill muscle cars.

There are plenty of guys that might read them that are just getting into muscle cars. Hope it helps them out.

Excellent, informative post. I enjoyed reading it. Very nice, many thanks. I only wish more posts were like this, and not garbage posts we see. Thank you.

Thanks. Come back on Sunday. That's when I typically post MCotW. This week's was late due to a very busy weekend.

Friend of mine had a T-37 and I do not remember it being very fast. I did not hear they had the ram air 3 motor. I miss the those years. I got to drive or own so many muscle cars.

Only a handful it seems got the RAIII engine and only if paired with a 4 speed.

Well that explains that then. Had a ram air -3 built a few years ago but never got to fire it up.

Great thread OP keep it up.