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economist suntribune wheels thursday aug 22 2002 19 the judge for the uninitiated the handle makes little sense it conveys nothing about one of the most potent automobiles to ever rip up ribbons of asphalt the judge was a magical nameplate that struck a mixture of fear and awe into anyone old enough to drive but whats with the name these days any carmaker would have to be more than a little crazy to brand one of their models the judge but back in the late 1 960s and early 1 970s outright craziness was what sold cars and gained marketshare gm ford and chrysler were locked in a death grip as they fought to attract young upwardly mobile baby boomers with their thirst for speed and bottomless supply of cash and credit even straightlaced american motors builder of sane and sensi ble sedans was eventually sucked into the musclecar vor tex it was the one time in the history of north american auto industry when this type of attitude prevailed in detroits corporate offices in the mid1960s horsepower and cubic inches were all the rage although musclecars represented only a small fraction of total sales they were viewed as important image builders for detroit which used them to puff up the big threes youthoriented appearance this was particularly evident at pontiac which under whiz kid john z deloreans guidance had fully embraced performance as the key ingredient that separated it from the other divisions in the general motors stable by 1 964 the radical notion to stuff a big v8 between the frame rails of an intermediate economy coupe had resulted in the birth of the gto the car was as much about hype and hoopla as it was about horsepower but it stirred up the lucrative youth market like no other car before or since once the horsepower gauntlet had been tossed there was no stopping it every other gm car division except cadillac quickly followed suit hotly pursued by ford chrysler and amc but it was plymouth chryslers lowpriced sedan divi- sion that nailed it with the kids the marketing hotshots thought this group cared little for a car with all the fancy trimmings too much like dads newport custom all they cared about was straightline stop lighttostop light per formance that would give them bragging rights among their friends before anyone could say or even spell hemispherical combustion chamber out popped the road runner a strippeddown belvedere twodoor sedan devoid of exteri or chrome and geegaws save for ifs cutesounding beep- beep horn under the hook lurked a potent 335-horsepow- er 383 cubic inch v8 that could propel the car to 100 km- h in seven seconds the road runner hit the streets for the 1968 model year and riot surprisingly became an instant hit also not surprisingly the car caught the attention of pontiacs prod uct planners who felt the cheapspeed road runner might undermine their position as the top dog in the performance field pontiac needed to build its own road runner the initial prototype was based on the gto but employed a pillared twodoor coupe shell and hood used on the more commonplace pontiac lemans the gtos rubber endura front bumper was tossed in favour of a cheaper chromed piece under the hood further costsaving measures meant replacing the gtos 400 cu in engine with a smaller 350- cube unit equipped that used the 400s cylinder heads tests proved this combination was actually quicker than the road runner the prototype labeled the et dragstrip jargon for elapsed time was presented to john delorean who reacted in a lessthanenthusiastic manner not only did he think it eroded the gtos image but was mortified that any thing smaller than the goafs traditional 400 motor would go into the car clearly delorean wanted something special instead of gutting the gto as was done in the first attempt the next effort included all the standard gto features and added the potent 366horsepower 400 cubicinch ram air engine as part of the package also included was a hurst thandle shifter heavyduty suspension chrome air cleaner and rocker arm covers rally wheels and a rear deck spoilers what was intended to be a lowpriced road runner beater had become one of the most expensive cars of the day delorean loved it but insisted the et name be dropped his preference was to call it the judge at the time here come da judge was a popular expression used on rowan and martins laughin a popular tv comedy- variety show the name stuck the finishing touches to the judge consisted of an available bright orange paint scheme along with popart the judge decals and matching side stripes the first cars were released to dealers in january 1 969 which sold more than 6800 units or 1 0 per cent of the total gto production for that model year by far the vast majority were ordered in orange the following year sales of the judge dwindled to half of the first years production as the shortlived fad began to wane in 1971 the final year for the judge nameplate a mere 374 cars were produced including just 1 7 convert ibles the judge may have completely missed the mark as a road runner fighter but for at least one glorious season was the right car at the right time malcolm gunn is wheelbase communications chief road tester and historic writer wheelbase is a world- wide supplier of automobile news reviews and features i i