CLEVELAND -- A 5 On Your Side investigation uncovered a potentially deadly defect in thousands of cars across the country.

NewsChannel5's Ron Regan said it's a defect that the automaker and federal safety regulators failed to warn drivers about.

The Pontiac GTO was brought back on the market from 2004 through 2006. What Regan uncovered could affect nearly 40,000 cars on the road right now.

When the GTO returned, the 350 horsepower and its performance was driven home to customers. But behind all the commercials, there was something experts said Pontiac never told its customers.

Trevor Task owns a GTO and said his car suddenly lost control.

The right front tire of Task's 2004 GTO exploded on a Cleveland Freeway. He said it was shredded, and it had peeled the inside of the tire like the top of a can lid. He said he could see the frayed steel belts inside.

But there was something else. Regan reported that a thin razor-sharp cut extending around the entire inside wall of the tire was visible.

Task said he had no warning that the tires on his brand-new GTO were slowly being peeled away.

Twelve months after the first GTOs were sold, complaints began piling up, Regan report. He reviewed reports received by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration from GTO owners around the country.

Experts said two of the reports in early 2005 should have raised red flags.

These are the excerpts from the report that read:

"Front tires are rubbing against the inside strut."

"Tires could eventually explode."

Task complained to NHTSA but said nothing was done.

5 On Your Side showed exactly what those complaints described. The strut is part of the car's suspension. The inside of both front tires may be rubbing against the strut, slowly and without warning, slicing the tire like a can opener.

What Regan uncovered is now getting serious attention in Washington, D.C., by the nation's leading auto safety group.

Clarence Ditlow heads up the Center for Auto Safety and said if it wasn’t for "Channel 5's investigation, the Center for Auto safety would have not caught this problem."

So far NHTSA has received 65 complaints from GTO owners. At least eight involve blowouts, including one crash.

Task pulled his GTO under control before slamming into a semi. But his complaint and others have fallen on deaf ears until now, Regan said.

"Hopefully, what will happen is that Pontiac will be forced to issue a recall on the tires and provide some kind of problem-solving with this issue so no further injuries result," Task said.

General Motors released this statement:

"We have been contacted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and are working with them and have an investigator assigned to this. We are looking into this, we are aware of this. Safety for our customers is paramount."

Motorists can report problems with their vehicle to:

• Center for Auto Safety
• Office of Defects