Pontiac GTO pumps up the muscle -- with elegance

Three letters: GTO.

Letters that could signify circumvention.

Originally, they stood for Gran Turismo Omologato, an Italian expression for grand touring cars built in high enough volume to be certified as production vehicles for racing purposes, according to the Road & Track Illustrated Automotive Dictionary.

In 1964, GTO meant ''hot American muscle car." Built by Pontiac, it was really a LeMans/Tempest that got around General Motors' rules on production car engine size.

Fact is, GTO has always represented a line where the pure need for speed, for performance, power, and muscular mystique ponged the thin blue line between fun and law.

Today I give you the reborn Pontiac GTO for 2004: a rear-wheel drive, thundering, throwback V-8 beast. In fact, it has more torque than horsepower, a trait I love in my muscle cars.

It appears at a time when rear-wheel drive muscle cars appear ready to roar in the midst of a comeback. Mercury tried it with the Marauder but discovered that 302 horsepower was, well, just not enough, so that car will be discontinued. Chrysler has a new line of Hemis (you've seen the ads) hitting the market. Infiniti (yes, an Asian company) built one of the finest American muscle cars I've seen in recent years, the Infiniti M45, with 340 horsepower. It is the car the Marauder should have been.

You could argue that the M and E55 versions of BMW and Mercedes-Benz have muscular American hearts beating at their genesis. And don't forget Audi's S series of cars. Audi even builds a station wagon, the S6 Avant, it would call a muscle car.

American muscle under European skin.

The times made it easier about two years ago for Bob Lutz, mover and shaker at GM, to bring back the GTO than it was for John DeLorean to deliver the original. DeLorean had to overcome a GM rule that said no intermediate-size car could be sold with an engine packing more than 330 cubic inches.

DeLorean and others wanted the 389 cubic-inch engine from the Bonneville in the car they envisioned, a hot rod LeMans/Tempest. Voila: the GTO, a ''factory option" for LeMans/Tempest buyers with a yen for yowza. You bought your intermediate-size car and ordered the special ''GTO option."

The rest, they say, is history . . . interrupted.

Lutz went to Australia, drove a Holden Monaro, and, as you might expect from a man who flies his own Soviet-era military jet and jet helicopter, he came away impressed by its power.

Eighteen months after he ordered it up, with his push for not only speed but superior interior quality, the new GTO was ready.

We are talking 350 horsepower and 365 lb.-ft. of torque from the same engine you'll find in some Corvettes. A four-speed automatic transmission is standard, but I'd spring for (as tested) the six-speed manual. You get 0-60 in under 5.5 seconds. You get an exhaust note from dual pipes, resonator, and asymmetrical outlets that is a powerful burble.

Want to hear it? Go to pontiac.com/gto.

I found the car remarkably quiet, stable, and rapid on the road -- be it highway or twisting country lane.

Where I expected rattling feedback from steering or suspension, I got silk (wrapped around a brick).

Its suspension system is fully independent, with front struts with progressive spring rates and rear semi-controlling arms with gas dampers, controlling the torture you put upon 17-inch, five-spoke wheels. (I think 18s or even 19s would be wicked on this car.)

They absorb the power from the hand you deal while you are ensconced in as fine a GM car interior as I've seen in years. It is a coupe with two-plus-two seating that makes no pretense of being able to carry a third person in the rear seat.

These may be the best production seats I've sat in (old favorite: Volvo S60). They have bulbous bolsters for torso and legs, with stitching that matches other leathers on the wheel and shift knob.

Other great interior touches include the use of satin aluminum, from the black pedals to the shift knob, to the four spokes of the steering wheel, to the framing of the center control stack. For the last, picture it from behind the raised head of a cobra snake, outlined in metal, circling the controls of the center stack -- audio, climate, etc.

The four analog gauges behind the wheel come in colors to match the car: red, blue, light blue, purple, and yellow.

And showing GM's willingness to reach from far-flung sea to far-flung European port, the sound system at center stack is a Blaupunkt setup with 200 watts, a six-disc CD player, and 10 speakers.

Visit boston.com/cars. Royal Ford can be reached at ford@globe.com.