GOAT vs. Goat

We see how the iconic 1960s Pontiac GTO stacks up dynamically against today’s Jeep Wrangler.

- Dave VanderWerp

Settling arguments is often the basis for story ideas, and one particular debate regarding the magnitude of vehicular progress over the past six decades seemed perfect to tackle on the occasion of our 70th anniversary. The question is this: Could the much-heralded, world-beating muscle cars of the 1960s keep up on a back-road blast with even the least coordinated vehicles on sale today?

“It’s hard to imagine anything worse than this dynamically,” remarks executive editor K.C. Colwell after a plunge through our rough-and-tumble evaluation loop in rural Michigan in a 2025 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 392. A vehicle, in fairness, whose extended ground clearance, solid front and rear axles, knobby 35-inch all-terrain tires, body-on-frame construction, and recirculating-ball steering are completely at odds with ripping down paved roads.

Yet its imprecision and 470-hp 6.4-liter Hemi V-8 make for a riotous and comedic duo. The dynamic rightness that allows for inhaling corners in today’s best sports cars at two or three times their recommended speed earns deep admiration and respect, but it doesn’t lead to uncontrollable belly laughing like sawing away at the helm of a Wrangler midcorner and realizing how far you can move the wheel and still have zero effect on the direction the car is pointed. Or laying into the throttle exiting a turn, the Hemi hoisting the Jeep’s nose in the air while twisting the rear end like a shammy and screaming a deep-throated bellow all the while. Not since the 2006 Chevy Impala SS that sent V-8 power coursing through the front wheels has anything felt so overpowered or had so few chassis modifications to cope with the additional thrust. Cars today are too sophisticated, too buttoned up, too serious.