In an earlier blog entry, I shared some scans from the March 1967 issue of Car and Driver magazine, my first issue after my father had gifted me with a subscription. However, this is not the oldest issue of C&D in my possession. All during the ‘80s and ‘90s, while attending automotive flea markets, I added to the collection by purchasing older issues.

For this posting, I pulled out one of the more infamous issues, from March of 1964. Note that the cover illustration is a painting, not a photo. That is because the acts it depicts, a Ferrari GTO racing a Pontiac GTO, is a work of fiction. But that, combined with the headline, created quite a stir among performance car fans. How can you not appreciate the audacity of this subtitle: “Ferrari never built enough GTOs to earn the name anyway – just to be on the safe side, though, Pontiac built a faster one”.

The complete road test is reprinted here for your reading pleasure. It is interesting how the editors did not shy away from some truths, first, that they did indeed make concerted efforts to arrange a side-by-side comparison of these iconic automobiles, but were unable to coordinate it; and an outright admission that their test cars had been “modified” by a Michigan dealer, Royal Pontiac, who made changes to carburetion, compression, and ignition timing. Still, a published 0-60 time of 4.6 seconds for an American car in 1964 is impressive.

Other highlights from the March ’64 issue:

• Letters to the Editor including missives from a Mr. Moss and a Mr. Purdy:

• A Chevrolet Corvette ad in which the copy takes up more space than the single photo, with the text a defense of the Corvette as a true sports car as compared to its European competition:

• A Chrysler ad featuring the Airflow as an argument in favor of the corporation’s advanced engineering:

• The back cover is an ad for the Volvo 1800-S (note the bull horn front bumper, and a sticker price of $3995, while the GTO has an as-tested price of $3377)

Scans are from the March 1964 edition of Car and Driver magazine which is in the author’s personal collection.