At the age of 16, Salvatore “Sam” Furfaro fell in love with musclecars and hot rods. By 20, he purchased his first “semi-musclecar” (as he put it), a 1977 Pontiac Grand Prix. “It had a mild cam, a 750 carb, some head work done to it, and of course, headers,” said Furfaro.
Although he wouldn’t actually realize it for a few more years, with the purchase of that first car the Pontiac brand had already worked its way into his blood. After the ’77 Grand Prix, and before Ford’s Fox body version arrived heavily on the scene, Furfaro came across a mint 1977 Mustang that had a decent 302 motor and ladder bar setup out back. It was with this car that he cut his teeth on the street and strip.
“I drove the Mustang around a lot, cruising with other car guys, hanging out… the usual stuff. I even street raced with it and did pretty well, too,” Furfaro continued. “As time passed though, I felt a need to be more involved in the actual sport of drag racing, so I started to help out guys who were taking their musclecars and hot ods to the track regularly. It didn’t matter or just to test, I wanted to be a part of it.”
The Mustang was sold to make way for a clean ’71 Pontiac GTO convertible for Furfaro to drive on the street as well as race at the track. The car needed substantial work inside and out, so while it was in the shop he picked up a 1969 hardtop GTO to feed an ever-growing need for speed. He cruised and raced the ’69 until the ’71 Goat was done.
“From day one of having the ’71 GTO back, I drove the car almost everywhere—to the beach, car shows, out cruising—and also raced it at the track. My appreciation for keeping a rare GTO in good shape took over, though. After about 12… Read more of this article. Just click on the digital feature below this introduction.
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