Pontiac’s Jim Wangers: the Original Automotive Influencer

Wangers also consulted on a GTO-themed pop song in the summer of 1963, GTO by Ronny and the Daytonas, which sold more than a million copies and stayed on radio's Top 40 playlist for 17 consecutive weeks. He is often credited with writing the song, but according to his autobiography, Glory Days, he just added a few lines to make the song more GTO-specific. He did, however, try to duplicate that success in 1965 with a song called The GeeTO Tiger, in an effort to create a new nickname for the GTO. GeeTO (pronounced GEE-toe) never did catch on, nor did the song, though it was the basis for a nationwide sweepstakes that offered as its grand prize a Hurst-modified Tri-power '65 GTO.

One of Wangers' wildest schemes, intended to boost the GTO's drag racing reputation, involved sending a matched pair of modified GTOs on the drag race circuit in 1966 along with a "Mystery Tiger," a hot-shoe in a full-body tiger suit who would race against spectators selected in a drawing. With blueprinted 421 H.O. engines, four-speeds, and 3.90 gears in the Safe-T-Track rearends, the GeeTO Tigers were capable of 12.7-second e.t.s at around 112 mph. Of course they were quick—they were cheaters, Wangers admitted in Glory Days. "It was drag racing burlesque, and it was fun. The big winner was the GTO. Pontiac loved it, and the dragstrip promoters loved it too," he wrote. The finale of the Mystery Tiger drag race promotion took place at the 1966 NHRA Nationals. Various other drivers had donned the suit at earlier events, but the man behind the mask at Indy was none other than George Hurst.

Wangers remained a tireless advocate of Pontiac, and the GTO in particular, even after retiring from the advertising and marketing game. He was a popular speaker at car shows and other events, willing to tell tales and pose for photos for years, until declining health forced him out of the public eye.