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'69 Pontiac GTO Judge
In 1968, I got discharged from the Army and had a 1966 Chevelle SS396. The SS396 was stolen three times, and the last time, it was gone for good. I was working for a Pontiac dealer in Massachusetts and bought this brand new 1969 Pontiac GTO Judge. The Judge was black with a parchment interior, hood tachometer, 4-speed close-ratio transmission, power steering and brakes, AM-FM radio and limited slip differential. Along came a job as a service representative for Alfa Romeo sports cars, and since that included a company car, I was able to retire the Judge. Now the Judge became a drag racing hobby. About the same time, I married Ines Altamura and with our 1960 Chevy wagon (nicknamed "Rosebud"), we towed the Judge to a variety of Northeast drag strips. The Judge had a rare and very special Ram Air IV engine and our best quarter-mile elapsed time was 12.03 seconds. Our Judge was retired from racing in 1975 and was sold in 1979. Ines and I have some fun memories of Sunday barbecues in the drag strip pits and some Pontiac racers that became friends even to this day. We retired in 2004 and moved to St. Pete Beach. Every now and then, I see a nice old muscle car on the road and it's easy to think back to the fun that we had with ours.
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