The 74 GTO proved to be a great addition to Pontiac’s muscle car collection. Even though there were some sales problems in the past and they had not managed to sell as many units as they planned to, the American manufacturer had not given up yet.
Pontiac decided to move on with the 74 GTO in order to avoid competition with AMC Hornet X, and the Ford Maverick Grabber.
If you wanted the new GTO package you would of had to pay $195 for it and you would be in for a shaker hood, mirrors, a heavy duty suspension which featured rear and front anti roll bars, 3 speed manual transmission with a Hurst floor shifter, various GTO emblems, a special grille and wheels.
As for the engine, the only one that would be available would be the 350 CID V8 (5.7 litters) which featured a compression level of 7.6:1 and one 4 barrel carburetor. It featured 295 lb ft (400 Nm) with 2800 RPMs, and it had 220 HP at 4400 RPMs. If you wanted to go for other transmission types, you could of had the 3 speed Turbo Hydra Matic or the wide ratio 4 speed one with the Hurst shifter.
The good news was that you could have the GTO option regardless if you choose to go with the Ventura Custom line or just with the base Ventura, either as a hatchback coupe or a 2 door sedan.
The 1974 Pontiac GTO was soon put to the test by one of the most popular car magazines of that time, “Cars Magazine” and the results for the 4 speed model in the 0 to 60 mile per hour were 7.7 seconds. In the quarter mile the car also did well and achieved 15.72 seconds going as high as 88 mph.
Even though when it came to sales, they were basically better than in previous years, with 7058 models sold; though this was not enough of a reason to have the series continued.