1970 Pontiac GTO Judge Convertible in Irish Green & Engine Sound

Kevin Callahan had owned plenty of cars, but none of them ever felt truly his. So he built a 1970 Pontiac GTO Judge convertible from an idea up, wrapped in a custom color he calls St. Patrick’s Day Green and named Irish Eyes. Lou Costabile catches the restomod at the World of Wheels show and lets Kevin explain why he walked away from a factory restoration to chase something built entirely around himself. The result is a Judge unlike any Pontiac ever made. Watch to see it.

There is a particular kind of car owner who has already had the fast ones, the clean ones, the ones everybody nods at, and still walks away feeling like something is missing. Kevin Callahan was that owner, and the thing he could not shake was the feeling that none of his cars had ever truly been his, designed around him rather than simply purchased. So he did what very few people are willing to do: he started over from a bare idea, picked a builder, and chased a color that does not exist on any factory chart. What rolled out the other end is a 1970 Pontiac GTO Judge convertible unlike any that left Pontiac in 1970, and the name he gave it tells you almost everything about the man. Almost.

⚑ Featured Gear

Start Car Conversations →

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

A Judge Named “Irish Eyes”

Lou Costabile catches the car for My Car Story at the World of Wheels show in Rosemont, Illinois, and the first thing that hits you is the paint, a custom blend Kevin calls St. Patrick’s Day Green, with the car itself christened Irish Eyes. This is a restomod in the truest sense, built by Mark Klopack of Hot Rod Auto in Schiller Park, Illinois, which means the classic Judge silhouette hides modern underpinnings and a level of fit and finish the original assembly line never dreamed of. The Judge started life in 1969 as Pontiac’s loud, decal-splashed, budget-minded halo version of the GTO, named after a comedy bit, and it became one of the most collectible muscle nameplates of the era.

Why He Built Instead of Restored

What makes a genuine 1970 Judge convertible so special is scarcity: Pontiac built only a small handful of drop-top Judges that year, numbers so low that surviving originals trade for enormous money today. Kevin sidestepped that whole conversation by building the car he actually wanted rather than restoring one to a factory spec that would never have suited him anyway. The green paint, the open top, the blend of old shape and new hardware, all of it points to a man who finally got the car designed just for him. Costabile lets Kevin walk through the choices and the reasoning, and the engine note at the end is the exclamation point on the whole build. What comes through most in the conversation is how personal a project like this becomes, how a car stops being a collection of parts and turns into a portrait of its owner, right down to a name and a shade of green that no dealer ever offered. For anyone weighing a numbers-matching restoration against a clean-sheet restomod, Kevin’s Judge is a persuasive argument for building the car you actually dream about. Watch the full video and share your thoughts below.

Republished by Blog Post Promoter