2005 Pontiac GTO: the LS2 arrives

For 2005 the GTO received the 6.0-liter LS2 V8, rated 400 hp at 5,200 rpm and 400 lb-ft at 4,000 rpm on the SAE net standard, in what this record's own overview describes as a shortened model year. Over-Drive Magazine gives 11,069 built for the year, including 24 cars specifically ordered without hood scoops under RPO BZJ, while MuscleCarClub's own separate production table splits that same total into 6,809 manual and 4,260 automatic cars.^1,2

This record's own production section carries an unusually granular breakdown beyond that plain transmission split: forty-four individual exterior-color, interior-color, transmission and wheel-size combinations, all sourced to Mark Quitter Racing's own vehicle-build-combination tables, with each color's own combination rows summing to that color's separate production total. Two wheel options are separately documented, 17-inch wheels under RPO P79 with 9,262 installations and 18-inch wheels under RPO N87 with 1,807, summing exactly to the 11,069 total and implying every car carried one wheel size or the other with no third choice, while the hood itself split between 11,045 cars with the standard scooped hood (RPO BQS) and the 24 BZJ flat-hood cars already described above, together accounting for the full 11,069 total as well.³

A manufacturer's press release gives a GTO coupe base price of $32,495, though this record's own source note describes that release itself as undated beyond being issued for the model-year announcement. The six-speed manual, RPO MN6 using a Tremec T56 gearbox, shows 6,809 installations matching the manual-transmission production figure above, while the four-speed automatic, RPO MXO using a 4L65E unit, shows the corresponding 4,260, together confirming the same manual/automatic split already given from MuscleCarClub's own separate production table.^4,3

Seven exterior colors are documented with their own production counts: 792 Yellow Jacket, 999 Impulse Blue, 1,092 Midnight Blue, 1,331 Cyclone Gray, 1,500 Quicksilver, 2,179 Torrid Red and 3,176 Phantom Black, the last of these the single most popular finish for the year by a wide margin. Three interior leather colors are recorded: 7,990 black, 673 blue and 2,406 red, alongside a separate note describing which leather colors could be paired with which exterior finishes per the factory specification sheet's own swatch column, black available with every exterior color while blue leather paired only with Impulse Blue.^3,5

This record's own conflicts section flags a weight dispute specifically: Over-Drive Magazine's own compiled figure gives 3,791 lb, while the factory specification sheet instead prints a 3,725-lb curb weight, and this record's own treatment states both figures while noting that the specification sheet's 3,725 lb is the same number printed for the 2004 LS1 car, so it may not actually reflect whatever weight change came with the heavier LS2 engine.^1,5

Specification detail beyond that disputed weight includes a 109.8-inch wheelbase and 188.98-inch overall length for the coupe, dimensions this record documents as identical between the two sources despite their disagreement on weight specifically. This record's own performance and identification sections are both empty for 2005, a documented gap in period-test and VIN-decoding detail rather than an assumption that neither exists for the model, leaving this record's engine, transmission, color and weight data as the full extent of its coverage for the year.¹