Copyrighted photos courtesy of Steve Reese

When we ran an open call for feature cars a couple months back on Yellowbullet.com, we were besieged with submissions of a number of great cars. All sorts of machines from Mustangs to Camaros, but only a few “other brand” machines came to light, and one of them is the gorgeous ’65 GTO you see here. It belongs to Millersville, Maryland’s Jack Pumphrey III, and has been in his possession since the ripe old age of 15. The 37-year-old spent much of his youth drooling over the GTO’s owned by his father and grandfather, and when the opportunity arose to purchase this piece for the princely sum of $1700, he jumped on it. It was purchased with no engine and transmission, and in short order, Jack and the family set out to install a 455 and M21 manual transmission in between the framerails. “I still remember the first pass I ever made in the car – it was a 13.53 at 105 MPH, and from that moment I was hooked,” he says. 

“I spent a year in community college, but quickly realized that it wasn’t for me. So I decided to go to tech school, and here I am as a fourth-generation master plumber now. My dad and I work together – he started this business back in 1991 and we work together all day,” Jack explained. Spending his time installing new toilet seals and putting in extra bathrooms helps to pay for the racing addiction, but there’s more to life than just racecars. His wife, Dawn, and children Jack IV, Joshua, and Ashlyn (with number four on the way) keep him busy much of the time when he’s not at the track or upside-down under a customer’s kitchen sink.

“We’ve been married for eleven years, and I try to spend as much time with the kids as possible – they keep me plenty busy. But our racing is a family affair – my dad also has a ’70 GTO and we spend lots of time racing together too,” said Jack.

It’s nice when your passion for racing is shared by other members of the family, as it keeps everyone happy and builds new racers. It’s only a matter of time until Jack IV starts to look for a GTO of his own, even though he’s nowhere near driving age at this point.

As mentioned, the GTO addiction runs in the family – Jack’s dad has the one he races in addition to a ’70 GTO street car, and his grandfather had one, too.

“I can remember looking at all of the pictures of them while I was growing up, and when it came time for me to buy a car, naturally these are what I gravitated towards,” he explained.

His gorgeous ’65 Goat relies on a sweet 25.5 chassis installed by one of the East Coast’s chassis masters – Ron Rhodes of Rhodes Custom Auto Works in Townsend, Delaware. Rhodes worked his magic on the machine a couple of years ago, cutting out the cage that used to be in the car and installing one of his custom creations, along with a slick new set of ladder bars and other items designed to keep the car on the straight and narrow when speeds reach 170+ MPH, as the car has done on several occasions. In fact, it boasts a best elapsed time of 7.94 at 170.8 MPH, achieved with a quick 1.17 short time. Although the car can run into the 7’s, Pumphrey often dials it back to run in the heavy-hitter 8.50 index class at Cecil County Dragway, the Yellowbullet Nationals, and other races where the car fits.

Gaby Labiosa at EIC Motorsports put together a 541 cubic-inch motor using an All Pontiac aftermarket block, a 4.50-inch stroke Crower billet crankshaft, a set of MGP aluminum connecting rods, and CP pistons. Induction choices for the Poncho are limited, so Pumphrey picked out a set of Edelbrock RPM castings and a Victor Jr. manifold to go with the LSM roller camshaft, which features an LS1 firing order. One of Dale Cubic’s CFM Nitrous Dominators sits atop the engine and is designed to keep it happy when the fogger and plate combination from Induction Solutions is activated. The car launches on the 200-horse plate, and .6 into the run, 325 horsepower more flows through the fogger system to drive the car to its low elapsed times.

Pumphrey relies on a complete MSD ignition system including a 7531 box to provide the spark, while a Product Engineering 460-GPH fuel pump keeps the fuel flowing. One of Neal Chance‘s 10-inch welded torque converters gets the power to a Turbo400 featuring a Kilgore 2.10 first gear and Griner transbrake, put together by Dave Wilson at Southern Automatic. A Strange Engineering 9-inch rearend features a Strange spool and 40-spline axles, which have been gun-drilled to lessen the rotating weight and help the 3,460-pound machine get up to speed quickly. Exhaust is handled by a set of 2 1/8-2 1/4-inch step headers and a set of 4-inch Vibrant race mufflers.

Front suspension components are all from the team at TRZ Motorsports in Florida, including the A-arms, billet steering arms, and rack and pinion. A set of Santhuff double-adjustable shocks in the front and AFCO Racing coil-over rear dampers control the motion of the suspension. Strange Engineering brakes are at all four corners. A VFN Fiberglass hood and bumper are the only lightweight body components, while a set of Weld Racing Magnums keep the car looking good and rolling true. Jack is quick to credit lifelong friend and crew chief Mike Cumming for keeping the car together while the chips are down, and is happy to represent sponsors like Gaby at EIC Motorsports, Ron at Rhodes Custom Auto, and Strange Engineering on the track. This is one badass Poncho. Thanks for sharing it with us, Jack!