About Us

The Richmond County Pontiac Association is located in Staten Island NY.   The club is extremely active with regular weekly meetings rain or shine.   Members are dedicated automotive enthusiasts and member cars range from rare perfect Pontiac restorations to highly modified classics.  

There are no dues, but jackets can be purchased on an individual basis with the clubs logo.

Message From the Founder

RichmondCountyPontiac.com was created to display a collection of American muscle cars from our youth. It all started in 1974 back in Brooklyn, New York when all my friends were assembling what was to be their first cars. All were Chevy’s with the exception of Richie Marino who had a 1968 LeMans with a factory 4-speed. His first Pontiac was a 1964 LeMans 2dr. hardtop with Mickey Thompson Radirs in front and chrome reverse with baby moons in the rear. Not having a car yet Richie started to hunt down a Pontiac for me. Several blocks from home he spotted a 1967 LeMans 2dr. 326 2bbl. It happened to belong to a cousin of mine. A deal was struck and Richie now had another Pontiac in the mix. We converted that car to a Turbo 400 with a 4 bbl. buckets, console and floor shifter were added. The usual Cragar SS wheels of the day were also added.

Never being able to afford a GTO back in the day when these cars were popular I embedded an image of a 1967 in my mind. Little did I know that 19 years later in 1994 while I was at a local cruise night in Staten Island I saw a car that was to awaken that image. It was a 1967 GTO Marinar Turquoise exterior with a black interior. This car was BEAUTIFUL. Not your run of the mill car with a so called nice paint job. This was a restoration project that took years and it showed. I struck up a conversation with the owner Ed who gave me a brief history on his car. I then told him I’d been looking for several months for a GTO. His car motivated me to continue my search. My wife also encouraged me to find one. All this was before the internet.

Not long after that I found a 1966 GTO convertible and was cruising one day and ran across Ed doing the same thing. We pulled over talked for some time and started what today is a great friendship. Ed has done 2 full resto’s on 1967 GTO’s. He has a wealth of knowledge and has helped many people along with myself during some of the harder phases of work. I now own 2 GTO’s and have just restored a 1967 Ram Air GTO. It spanned 18+ months and I with Ed’s help and Pro 1 Restoration have achieved what I believe is an awesome reproduction of a factory rare numbers matching 1967 GTO with the Ram Air option. So thanks to Richie for my initial interest and to Ed for his help and constant support. And most important my Wife Maria who allows me to spend way too much money and time pursuing a hobby that consumes both. Want to become part of this crew? Need someone to help find the Pontiac of your dreams?

Joe Portagallo  GTOJOE228@aol.com

Dedicated Pontiac Enthusiasts

Richmond County Pontiac Association