1965 Pontiac Hearst GeeTO Tiger Special Edition up for auction.

The Pontiac GTO is known by many as the original muscle car. That's because auction house Mecum will be offering a unique example of the car at its upcoming Indy 2020 auction, scheduled for June 23-28.

This 1965 model is not a GTO, but a GeeTO Tiger. It was part of a promotional effort organized by Pontiac advertising executive Jim Wangers and dealers Royal Pontiac, Hurst, and Petersen Publishing. The tie-in included a nationwide contest based on the song "GeeTO Tiger" by The Tigers. Entrants were asked why they wanted to win the car and had to answer exactly how many times the word "tiger" was used in the song

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The car you see was the grand prize of the contest. This one-off GTO was finished in Hurst Gold, with gold Hurst wheels and gold-plated Hurst shifters. Under the hood is a Tri-Power 389 cubic-inch V-8 that sends 360 horsepower to the rear wheels via a 4-speed manual transmission and a 3.55 Safetrac rear axle.

The winner of the contest was 19-year-old Alex Rampone of West Allis, Wisconsin. He was handed the keys by George Hurst himself at the 1965 NHRA Indy Nationals, and according to Mecum, Rampone owned the car for several years before selling it to Pete Yeco, who took it to Union Grove, Wisconsin He regularly raced (and won) at Great Lakes Dragway.

Yeko sold the car to GTO collector Jim Urban, who rebuilt the engine before selling it to Jerry Trevelan of Appleton, Wisconsin in 1975; according to Mecum, Trevelan was unaware of the car's pedigree and only learned about it through a chance encounter with the Wangers. He first learned of it through an encounter with Wangers. The car changed owners several more times before it came into Mecum's hands.

Aside from a 1982 repaint, the GeeTO Tiger is "very original" and currently has 59,000 miles on it.