Lil Old Lady owned GTO

This 26k Original Mile GTO was purchased by a woman that never left town and just drove to the grocery store with it. It rarely left town and was parked outside left to weather in the elements for decades 🙁

Turns out that I had seen this car way back in the early to mid 1980’s at my brothers friends Grandmothers house. She actually came out and fired it up when I was there. She revved it up for me at the time but, I was into dirt bikes at the time so I paid no attention to it.

Little did I realize that it was a GTO that she had started way back when and when I was getting my Drivers License I expressed interest in the car. However I was shot down learning that she was keeping it for her grandson, my younger brothers friend.

As it would turn out her grandson grew up liking computers more than cars. So he expressed no interest in this car at all. This GTO was fairly well known among people in Somerville NJ with many people wanting to get their hands on it.

Eventually it came to the point that she would not be driving it so her family to her to my friends dealership and sold to them still with the original 26 thousand original miles on the car. So as I walked in last week there was someone inspecting the car for a purchaser. However the man was on the phone with the buyer telling him it was going to need 18 to 20 grand at least in a body off the frame restoration. So add that into the offer price for the car cause it was all going to add up.

Looking at the car with it’s Manual Brakes and Air Conditioning, it would seem to be a fairly oddly outfitted GTO. That and having an original 26 thousand miles on the clock I think it would be a shame to body off the car. It can only be original once. The dealership owner told me it drives like a 26k original mile car from the 70’s should. It’s tight and holds the road like you would only wish a 1070 car could.
So if he restores it is he really destroying the originality of the car or what?

Latest Update as of Saturday May 17 this car was sold for a lot less money than I thought. The buyers claim to have taken it to a GTO expert who says he found the secret engine code on the block and claims it is not the original engine. Now we have not been told of the location or what the code is so the question is, is there really a secret code?