track tests

Original story By Eric Davison

Photography by: Albert Fisher, Eberhard Luethke, and Noel Werrett for the March 1966 edition of Car and Driver. Photos reproduced with the permission of Hearts Men’s Group.

It has been over a year since John Fitch died and I don’t suppose that all the great John Fitch stories will ever be told. He was a force of nature and while he always seemed to be the consummate gentleman, he was a fierce competitor, and while rules were rules, sometimes the application of common sense gave him an edge.

In 1965, during his first stint as editor of Car and Driver, the late David E. Davis, Jr. conspired with his associate and good friend Brock Yates to do some wonderfully crazy things to make the magazine interesting, fun, and relevant. It would be hard for us old timers to forget the hypothetical match-up they created between a Pontiac GTO and a Ferrari GTO.

Naturally the story outraged Ferrari purists and tickled mightily the Pontiac fans. But it sure sold magazines and it sure did get talked about.

One of the other big ideas that they cooked up was a showdown between what were then called “super cars.” Invitations were sent to all the makers of such vehicles. The Pontiac GTO, Olds 442, Buick Skylark GS, Chevy Chevelle SS396, Mercury Comet Cyclone GT, and Ford Fairlane GTA; all these makers decided to participate. Wiser heads at Chrysler declined and warned that the folks at C&D were opening a real can of worms; basically an all-out track war. They were prescient.