Most movie cars end up crushed or locked in a studio vault the second filming wraps. This one didn’t. A flame-spitting 1967 Pontiac GTO convertible, built for a role in XXX: Return of Xander Cage, showed up available to rent through Turo — and underneath the prop flamethrower rig sits a genuine, documented HO-engine GTO from the last year before Tri-Power disappeared. Read on to find out what makes this particular movie car a real piece of muscle car history.
Most movie cars end up crushed, parted out, or locked in a studio vault the moment the cameras stop rolling. This one didn’t. A flame-spitting 1967 Pontiac GTO convertible, built for a supporting role in XXX: Return of Xander Cage, showed up on Turo of all places, available to rent by anyone with the nerve and the credit limit to book it. Underneath the movie-prop flamethrower rig sits a genuine slice of muscle car history — 1967 was the year Pontiac quietly dropped Tri-Power for a single four-barrel and pushed the GTO’s optional HO 400 to its highest rating yet. So what’s it actually like renting a piece of Hollywood history that also happens to be one of the last great pre-emissions GTOs?
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1967: The Year Pontiac Simplified the Engine Lineup
Pontiac dropped the triple two-barrel Tri-Power setup for 1967 in favor of a single four-barrel Rochester Quadrajet, a change driven partly by new GM corporate restrictions on multiple carburetion for mid-size cars. In its place, the GTO’s optional HO 400 got pushed to 360 horsepower, the highest official rating the engine would carry. GM’s corporate decision affected several divisions simultaneously that year, forcing Pontiac, Oldsmobile, and Buick to all abandon multi-carburetor setups on their mid-size performance cars in favor of single four-barrel arrangements.
Only 13,827 Buyers Went for the HO
Of the 81,722 GTOs Pontiac built for 1967, just 13,827 buyers checked the box for the HO engine option, making it very much a minority choice even among buyers who’d already committed to the GTO over less aggressive intermediate coupes on the same showroom floor. The remaining majority of 1967 GTO buyers opted for the standard 335-horsepower 400, a perfectly capable engine in its own right but one that lacked the HO version’s specific performance camshaft and revised valve springs.
A Visual Refresh That Still Reads as Aggressive
Pontiac gave the GTO a real styling update for 1967, swapping the louver-covered taillights for eight individual round lamps and relocating the GTO badges from the front fenders down to chrome rocker panels, changes that gave the car a cleaner, more purposeful look than the 1966 model. Those styling changes carried forward largely unchanged into the 1968 GTO redesign’s early planning stages, making 1967 something of a transitional year bridging the original Ferrari-inspired 1964-66 look and the more sculpted body that followed.
The Base Engine Grew Too
Under the hood, the standard 389 grew to a 400-cubic-inch engine rated at 335 horsepower for every buyer, with the 360-horsepower HO version reserved as the serious enthusiast’s upgrade — meaning even a base 1967 GTO carried more displacement than the car it replaced. That displacement increase alone gave every 1967 GTO buyer, regardless of engine choice, more low-end torque than the outgoing 389 had offered, a change Pontiac marketed heavily even on base-engine cars.
Convertibles Were Always the Minority
Of the full 81,722 GTOs produced that year, Pontiac split production between 65,176 hardtops, 9,517 convertibles, and 7,029 pillared coupes, making a documented convertible meaningfully rarer than the hardtop most enthusiasts picture when they think ‘1967 GTO.’ Hardtop coupes remained the practical, popular choice for buyers who wanted GTO performance without the added cost, complexity, and structural compromises a folding top introduces to a unibody design.
From Assembly Line to Movie Set
The flamethrower rig bolted to this particular GTO for its role in XXX: Return of Xander Cage is obviously a custom addition Pontiac never installed at the factory, a theatrical prop layered on top of a genuine period-correct chassis and body for the film’s action sequences. Production companies sourcing period-correct muscle cars for action sequences typically work through specialized vehicle coordinators who source, modify, and insure these cars separately from the studio’s main production budget. Studios rarely let a genuinely screen-used vehicle leave their control this easily, which only adds to the appeal for renters chasing something more memorable than a standard convertible.
Why Renting It Through Turo Is So Unusual
Most movie cars with this kind of studio provenance end up in private collections, museum loans, or manufacturer heritage fleets rather than a peer-to-peer rental app, which makes this GTO’s availability to ordinary renters a genuinely strange second act for a documented piece of film history. Turo’s peer-to-peer model means the car’s owner, not a studio or dealership, ultimately decides pricing, availability, and who gets access, adding another unusual layer to a vehicle with this kind of documented history.
A Real HO-Era GTO Underneath the Theatrics
Strip away the flamethrower rig and the movie pedigree, and what’s left is a real 1967 GTO from the last year before Pontiac began facing the same insurance and emissions pressure that would reshape the entire muscle car segment within a few years. Buyers researching the car’s provenance can typically cross-reference production stills and behind-the-scenes photography from the film itself against the vehicle’s current condition to confirm its authenticity beyond the owner’s own claims.
Movie Provenance as Collectible Currency
Collectors already chase cars with documented ownership history, race pedigree, or celebrity connections, and a confirmed film credit functions as an unusually flashy version of the same appeal — verifiable provenance that adds a story on top of the mechanical specifications. Auction houses handling documented film cars routinely note a measurable price premium over otherwise-identical examples lacking that same verified screen history, treating provenance as a genuine value driver rather than a novelty.
An Unlikely Second Life for a Genuine Muscle Car
Between the rarity of a documented HO convertible and the novelty of its film role, this GTO occupies a strange but genuine niche: a real piece of 1967 muscle car history now available to anyone willing to book it like a weekend rental car. Whatever anyone rents it for, the car ultimately returns to functioning as exactly what Pontiac built it to be in 1967 — a genuine performance GTO, flamethrower rig notwithstanding. Whoever books it next gets more than a rental car — they get a working piece of both Pontiac’s muscle car era and modern Hollywood history in the same set of keys.
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