Plymouth GTX: What Does GTX Stand For?
The Plymouth GTX is an iconic car first introduced in 1967. Some people refer to it as the Gentleman’s muscle car because it was an upscale trimmed package packing a lot of horsepower under the hood. Many people wonder what GTX actually stands for.
According to Jack Smith, who led the Plymouth’s mid-sized car planning program at the time, the GTX was born to compete with the GTO. They couldn’t name it GTO but liked the GT and thought the X added to GT sounded good.
Jack Smith said, “What does that X mean? It’s just a letter. We arrived at it in sort of a logical way, but it was a copy of GTO.”
In the long run, GTX, doesn’t really mean anything. It’s just 3 letters that sounded cool and the styling and power of the GTX cars over the years make the GTX name sound even better. Even though, I have an educated guess what GTX stands for, keep reading below.
What Does GTX Stand For?
As we know the GTO stands for Gran Turismo Omologato and the letters GT stand for a lot of different things with different cars. There are many GT cars out there but only one GTX.
Rumors and speculation over the years have led to many people guessing what GTX stands for. Some of those good guesses include the following:
- Gran Touring Executive
- Gran Touring Experimental
- Gran Touring Exceptional
- Gentleman’s Touring Extreme
- Grand Touring Extra
Some people claim the X stands for luxury because the GTX was highly optioned for a Plymouth muscle car. I know a woman who says it stands for “Girls Take Over.”
My favorite guess is, Great Tiger Exterminator. Let’s take a close look why I like it.
How About “Great Tiger Exterminator?”
I bring this up because in the 1967 Plymouth Data booklet, you’ll find the term in the Belvedere book shown below. Immediately under the heading, GTX…Great Tiger Exterminator! The first sentence says the following:
Now there’s no place for tigers to hide. That’s because Belvedere’s GTX is loaded with secret weapons guaranteed to out-gun any tiger on or off the road.
As you may know, Pontiac associated the tiger with the GTO. Pontiac was using tigers in GTO ads as early as 1965, prior to the GTX name.
Since, the main purpose of the GTX was to compete with the GTO, the Great Tiger Exterminator makes the most sense to me and probably influenced people like Jack Smith. After all, the term is used in Plymouth’s literature.
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1967 Plymouth GTX Engine Options and Specifications
1970 Plymouth GTX Engine Options and Specifications
