"CARZ"

By Jackie Swiesz

With twinkly eyes, Clayton jovially describes himself as a “jack of all trades and master of none.” Our conversation began with his love of building things, from a 1917 Model-T with wooden wheels, to a gnome house, and even crafting wedding cakes during his baking career at Buttrey’s Food Store in Billings.

His pride and joy, though, is his classic car, a 1965 GTO decked out with artwork as homage to Vietnam Veterans. When he was approached years ago by a fellow vet, Clayton garnered the help of David North, the man who designed the original 1964 Pontiac GTO. The result was a one-of-a-kind high-performance street-legal car with patriotic insignias.

When Clayton was done with his creation, David signed his dashboard (one of only 200, of which Jay Leno has 2 of them!). When Clayton began taking his GTO to the Burn the Point events, he couldn’t believe how many veterans would come up and shake his hand, grateful for his authentic recognition of service to our country. He is planning to participate again this year in the annual Burn the Point celebration, so be sure to look for the snazzy deep blue GTO sporting those patriotic decals! And, if you are considering taking your own collector’s car in the parade, heed his advice. “Idling along slowly in the parade is hard on the cars, so I rigged up extra fans to cool the engine.” If you ask him, I bet he would even help you install them on your car!

Our talk turned to Clayton as a youth, who even as he was diagnosed with some health conditions early on, was determined to make the most of things. “The doctor told me I had to take it easy. That’s fine, but the key is to stay active,” he told me. “So, I took up wildlife photography, camping in Yellowstone Park so I could capture the critters in their natural environment.”

To this day, Clayton is one active guy! Always on the hunt for projects, when the old Buttrey’s store was torn down, he salvaged a bunch of the beautiful red oak and built a bedroom set for his wife. When a giant old tree in his back yard had to be cut down, he used the six-foot stump to showcase his gnome house creation. He stayed busy during the winter putting the pieces together, then he assembled them in the Spring during mild weather.

Most importantly, Clayton is a “regular” at ARA as part of the Chore Corp and Meals on Wheels. Of course, he’s a MOW driver - he’s still in love with driving cars around everywhere!

At this point, I thought, is there anything this guy hasn’t done? I’m amazed and inspired by his optimism, someone who is “lookin’ for a sunny day” every day. And I can’t wait to see what he finds for his NEXT project!

Clayton got his inspiration for customizing his ’65 GTO from the legendary automotive designer, David North. As a teenager in Billings during the early 1950’s, David was fascinated with drawing cars. When he was working at MacIntyre Motors in Billings, his sketches were noticed by the General Motors Chairman who had come through Billings on his way to visit Yellowstone Park. Once he graduated from the Arts Center Design School in California, and because his sketches were submitted by the GM head man at Detroit, he was hired on at General Motors and assigned to the Pontiac studio. There he met John DeLorean, who asked David to draw one of his “wild” sketches, as he wanted to introduce a fast car to the younger generation guys. David was already assigned to design the Tempest, so he took the idea of a big engine in a smallish car and the result was a flashy rendering in a vibrant blue.

Thus, the “birth” of the GTO took place. Even today, the 1964 Pontiac GTO is credited as the first muscle car in American showrooms, and its styling proved to be an immediate success for Pontiac, blowing initial sales expectations out of the water.

On any Friday night in the 50’s and 60’s a four-block in downtown Billings was a constant flow of young people and their cars “burning the point”. If you go to this year’s parade, (traditionally held on Labor Day Weekend), you’re bound see many of David’s designs, not only the GTO, but also the Grand Prix, the Oldsmobile Toronado, the Cadillac Eldorado, and two Buicks, the Riveria and the Reatta.