During the '60s, car salesmen and women in America must have been among the busiest people on the planet. Ever since the Pontiac GTO launched the idea of a "muscle car" in 1964 onto the optimistic postwar public, everyone wanted to get one of these all-American models.While the Europeans were making do with whizzy four-pots in their sedans and roadsters, the muscle car offered enough V8 grunt to pull out a tree stump, along with chunky looks and usually an affordable sticker price. The US car buyer couldn't snap them up quickly enough, with many models selling well above their projected sales figures. Ford was managing to sell more than half a million of its Mustang pony car every year, meaning that the folks in the dealerships had a lot of paperwork on their hands.Of course, the '70s switched on the lights at the muscle car party and told everyone to go home, with the oil crisis and emissions regulations acting like the angry parents who just saw that their house was trashed. But, the muscle car golden era was great while it lasted. It may have seemed like manufacturers had the Midas touch when it came to coming up with successful models – and one in particular was marketing gold. This could just be the most special '60s GTO on the planet.HotCars used Hagerty.com and Classic.com for secondhand prices in this article. This feature is not designed as buying or investment advice. Pontiac Probably Didn't Need To Think Of Ways To Sell The GTO...But It Did It Anyway Bonhams The Pontiac GTO was a muscle car that no one really needed to think of ways to actuallysell. These things were flying out of the showrooms, like hot dogs at a ball game. Much of the credit for the GTO goes to engineer John DeLorean, who realized that there was room to make a factory hot rod of sorts by taking the 389 cubic inch V8 from the full-size Catalinas and Bonnevilles and sticking it in a Pontiac LeMans.The GTO option package – borrowed from the Ferrari 250 GTO and stood for "Gran Turismo Omologato" – also included a suspension upgrade and badges, so everyone knew what you had. The GTO was offered in three body styles from 1964 to 1967: a pillarless hardtop, a two-door sedan, and a convertible. The engine option up until 1966 was the 389-cubic inch V8 with 10.75:1 compression, although this could be had in different flavors. Pontiac offered a Tri-power set-up as an option on the GTO, which was up to 348 horsepower (thanks also to a cam swap) from the four-barrel carb model's 335 ponies. The power later went up to 360 horsepower thanks to improved cylinder heads. The GTO Sold Much Faster Than Expected Bonhams Pontiac thought it would sell 5,000 GTOs, but the customers just kept walking in through the showroom doors. In the end, the company shifted more than 32,000 in 1964, with every other manufacturer rushing to create a competitor for the GTO. Sales weren't exactly slow then, but Pontiac knew it needed to ride the wave before anyone else could get a chunk of the market share. Pontiac Marketed The GTO As A Tiger Bonhams The marketing for the GTO was mainly tiger-themed. Why tigers? The connection between a V8 muscle car and a large cat from India isn't immediately clear, but some reports suggest that the faster versions of the Pontiac Tempest have been categorized as two or three tigers. When the GTO was launched, some marketing material referred to it as "the new tiger," and Pontiac just decided to run with the theme. There was even a point when a dealership was offering a test drive in a GTO that had been painted with tiger stripes and had a large tail sticking out and into the air.The tiger theme may be forgotten by some people these days, but in the '60s, it was a big selling point for the GTO. In 1975, the GTO was selling even better – Pontiac shifted around 75,000 units, says Hemmings – and the company was gearing up to turn it into a standalone model in 1966. Pontiac wanted something special to remind anyone who had been living on Mars of the GTO's existence, and it decided to lean in to the tiger theme a little more. The Tiger Gold GTO Is An Outrageously Bling Muscle Car Bonhams Normally, the only people who would want a gold car are glamfluencers and crypto bros. But in the mid '60s, this would be the color choice for the rarest GTO. Pontiac decided to go with the tiger theme and launch a special edition that would be limited to just 100 units. The GTO was the hottest model that Pontiac had in its showrooms, but even a halo car needs a halo. The Tiger Gold special edition had code 2-2 special Tiger Gold paint, a black vinyl roof, and black interior, a combo which featured in a Pontiac advertising campaign. The Tiger Gold Stood Out Among GTOs Bonhams The Tiger Gold also came with the 360-horsepower 389 V8 engine with Tri-Power carburetors. The cars could be had with a 4-speed manual transmission with Hurst shifter, Marokite vinyl upholstery, a sporty steering wheel, and chrome exhaust tips. Other options included rare Hurst wheels with bullet caps and a 3.55:1 Saf-T-Track limited-slip differential.It is hard to say if the addition of the Tiger Gold special editions helped boost sales of the GTO, but the sales rocketed in any case. The 1966 GTO, which featured a new "Coke-bottle" shape and a standard 335-horsepower 389 engine, sold 96,946 units – the highest ever in a single year. How Much Do Tiger Gold GTOs Go For? Bonhams The special edition Tiger Gold cars don't come up for sale very often. Not long ago, a GTO came up for sale in this spec that had been bought by MLB Hall of Fame legend Reggie Jackson a few years before. Jackson, according to Bonhams, said he bought the car “because I’d always wanted a ’65 GTO with the 360-horse tri-power and four-speed, and this looked like a particularly attractive one with plenty of documentation. It turned out to be everything I thought it would be and drives just like I thought it would.”Despite its famous owner on the title, the car didn't fetch mega bucks — it sold for $60,000 says Classic.com. GTOs from this era don't make huge money, in any case, because they sold in such large numbers. A 360-horsepower 1965 Pontiac LeMans GTO (hardtop coupe) sells for $46,400 in good condition, says Hagerty Valuation Tools, while a convertible with the same engine will cost $52,600.Sources: Classic.com; Hagerty.com