How often do we question the obscure letters or numbers on the back of our cars? For a lot of people, probably not that often, especially as they often just refer to the size of the engine, or maybe whether the trim option includes heated seats, or something. But the letters GTO on the back of one of the greatest muscle cars of all time are just a little bit more emotive than explaining to an onlooker that a hatchback is, in fact, a Turbocharged Direct Injection, rather than a Suction Diesel Injection.As we all probably know, the GTO is the name of the first muscle car produced, of course, by Pontiac. But it gets a bit more complicated than that, because these letters seem to have been borrowed from somewhere else, and have a totally different meaning for a totally different car, in a totally different language. Here's the story of how three innocent letters transcended decades and continents to become one of the most popular automotive names in history. Here's How The Pontiac GTO Got Its Name 1964 Pontiac GTO 1974 Pontiac GTO Specs Source: PontiacIn the early '60s, Pontiac was in the process of reinventing itself. The company was keen to capitalize on a new, younger group of car buyers and wanted to become less fuddy-duddy in the process. The company's new cars had been battling it out in NASCAR, and the more groovy clientele were taking notice – that is, until GM introduced a ban on racing, leaving Pontiac without a game plan. Young engineers John DeLorean, Bill Collins, and Russ Gee had been drafted in to Pontiac with new ideas, one of which was to put a 389 V8 into a 1964 LeMans coupe.This was the easy part. The difficult bit about creating this new, hot Pontiac for the youth was getting it past the company itself. There was a corporate ban on engines over 330ci in midsize cars, but DeLorean and co found a loophole that allowed the hotter engine to be made an option package of the Pontiac Tempest LeMans. They just needed a name that would get plenty of attention for the new car. A New Exotic Supercar Made Its Competition Debut In 1962 In March 1962, a new car made its competition debut at the Sebring circuit in America. The vehicle, piloted by Phil Hill and Olivier Gendebien, finished its first race second behind a Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa but won the GT class comfortably. It was called a 250 GTO, and already in its first race it was achieving superstar status. The 250 GTO is fitted with a 296-horsepower V12, with a top speed of 155 mph, and cost $18,500 when a Corvette was about $4,000 new. The Ferrari GTO was the hypercar of its day. Why not borrow its name for our new V8 coupe, Pontiac must have thought. It Was A Daring Move, But It Worked It was a bit of a cheeky move, but then DeLorean was both a genius engineer and a virtuoso salesman – he knew what would get people talking. While certain parts of the well-heeled establishment no doubt bawked at the audacity of Pontiac likening itself to Ferrari, this all played into the company's hands. The young buyers of the car saw it as an anarchic act of defiance against the older generation who were too busy worrying about heritage and tradition, and boring stuff like that.The 1964 Tempest LeMans, with the GTO option package, kicked off the muscle car era, with a high-performance 6.4-liter V8, dual exhausts, special GTO nameplates, simulated engine-turned dash panel inserts, and dual hood scoops. A heavy-duty three-speed or close-ratio four-speed transmission was optional, and customers who didn't think 325 horsepower was enough could option a more powerful Tri-Power engine producing 348 horsepower. The standard GTO accelerated to 60 mph in 7.7 seconds and cost $2,852. What The GTO Name Really Means Ferrari The Ferrari GTO was built for homologation into the FIA's Group 3 Grand Touring Car category, with the requirement to build 100 cars, even though that figure was apparently never reached. As such, the acronym GTO in Italian stands for Gran Turismo Omologato, or Grand Touring Homologated – in other words, it's approved for racing. The 250 in the name relates to the cubic centimeters of displacement for each cylinder of the V12 engine, equating to a 3-liter displacement. None of this really relates to an early '60s Pontiac coupe, but that didn't get in the way of the American GTO.Pontiac sold 32,450 Tempests with the GTO package during the 1964 model year. Meanwhile, Ferrari produced, depending on who you ask, 36 or 39 250 GTOs between 1962 and 1964. To reinforce the Pontiac GTO's audacious start, a well-known magazine even fictitiously pitted it against a Ferrari GTO, with the cover showing a green Pontiac chasing a red Ferrari into a right-hand bend. The muscle car era had well and truly started in the most dramatic way possible. Pontiac GTOs Through The Ages Mecum Key Moments In The Pontiac GTO Timeline Launched for the 1969 model year, the Pontiac GTO Judge was aimed at the young adult market The GTO name was given to the smaller Ventura in 1974 The Pontiac GTO was reborn as an American version of the Holden Monaro in 2004 With the Pontiac GTO proving a great success and putting the brand firmly on the map, the top brass wasn't going to miss an opportunity to roll out these letters for decades to come. The name was still on a high with the iconic (and playful) GTO Judge, but the badge started to lose its shine a little in the '70s. By 1974, the muscle car era was in decline and GTO sales were plummeting. Pontiac made the decision to put the GTO moniker on a smaller 1974 Ventura. Under the good was a 5.7-liter V8 with four-barrel carburetor and burbling dual exhausts, good for 200 horsepower.The name reappeared on the 2004 GTO, which was basically a rebadged Australian-built Holden Monaro. It doesn't sound great on paper, but this was a fast car that you could argue was worthy of the badge. Sadly, it didn't help save the company, with the last muscle car that Pontiac ever made being the G8 GXP, before the company closed its doors in 2010. The Letters GTO Also Resurfaced Elsewhere Over The Decades Bring A TrailerWhile not as common as say 'GTI', 'GT', or 'RS', the letters GTO have been used by carmakers other than Pontiac over the years that followed. The most obvious is Ferrari itself, reclaiming the moniker for the mighty 288 GTO and the later 599 GTO. But anyone in Japan, or a fan of JDM cars, may be thinking that the letters GTO sound strangely familiar. That's because the hefty tech-fest that is the Mitsubishi 3000GT was also called the GTO for the home market. It was available in red and had two doors, but the similarities with both the Ferrari and the Pontiac pretty much ended there.