Best Pontiac Powered Stockers

[oldskool]

Originally Posted by Dodge64

Hi, I believed the Pontiac that was named "Kathys Clown" where owned by a close friend here in Sweden (scandinavia) and raced at the dragstrips in Scandinavia!

Wow ! If that's so, that was quite a trip for a car that only made short trips, of a quarter mile at a time.

But, I know that the quickest Pontiac Stocker ever built was sold & shipped overseas.

I assume that everybody reading this already knows this. But, Scott Burton's Ram Air IV 1970 Formula Firbird was the quickest Pontiac Stocker ever. Or at least it's the quickest one I ever heard of. It ran really low 10's, and is said to have dipped below 10.00, a time of 2.

Not sure what was the next quickest Pontiac Stocker ever ? I assume it might be a '69 RAIV BIrd, maybe John Schloe ?

My next guess might be a Ram Air II '68 Bird. I think maybe Leo Glasbrenner has one.

Then there are Randi Lyn Shipp's '67 Bird & Chris Stepenson's '68. They've both ran below 10.50.

LOTS of Pontiac Stockers now run high 10's. There's an assortment of '68 Birds, from Adam Strang & Todd Hoven on the East coast, to Bob Aceves on the West coast. Tim Gillespie also has one. And I could name a few more.

Then there are lots of 10 sec 455HO powered cars. Brad Burton & Scott Underhill have the first 2 that come to mind.

I would be VERY interested in the quickest pass ever made, by each of the 10 sec Pontiac Stockers now active. There may be several of 'em that can run quicker than 10.50, but just don't, in competition, so they won't get hp added to their combo, by NHRA. So, I'll never know.

It's interesting to me to compare the times the Stockers are turning today, compared to back in the '70's. Many of 'em are over 2 sec quicker. Today's Stockers are quicker the the Super Stock version the the cars were, back then. I suppose the cam & valve spring rule had a lot to do with that.

[oldskool]

Well, we've mentioned all the GTO's, in order, except the last one. For '74, the GTO was an X-body, and had a 350 engine.

But, as drag racers are known to do, some guys decided to see what they could get out of the '74 GTO. So, there have been a few '74's that did very well, including some record holders.

I think I've mentioned this, but the first to run a '74, that I'm aware of, was Rock Running. Think I posted a pic of his Super Sleeper '74 GTO.

Al Vanis won Indy with a Ventura II. It wasn't a real GTO. But, NHRA allows the same engine in a plain '74 Vent. So, for this discussion, there is really no difference. You can even run this engine in a 4-door Vent, or most any 2 or 4-door Lemans.

http://www.classracerinfo.com/Engine...px?ENGINE=2088

Bill Rink's '74 GTO is listed as the J/SA class winner at the 2005 US Nats.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...r2005#indextop

He qualified #21, with a 1.141 under, 11.609.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...r2005#indextop

The quickest '74 GTO Stocker, that I know of, belongs to Brad Koivisto. I'll look it up, but I think he ran some low 11's this year.

So, Rock Running's Super sleeper won class at the US Nats. Al Vanis won Stock at the US Nats, in a '74 Vent, the Duttweiler Automotive '74 GTO was class record holder for 5 years straight, from 1991 thru '95, & Bill Rink won class & was #21 qualifier, at Indy, in '05. That ain't a bad showing for the little 350 powered X-bodies.

Brad Koivisto ran a .939 under 11.211 at this July race, to qualify #6. So, I'd say the '74 Pontiac GTO was competitive in the the mid '70's, the first half of the '90's, the early 2000's, & still is, today.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...r=100#indextop

Will be lookin for more info & pics of '74 350 powered Pontiac X-body Stockers. So, anybody with info and/or pics please post that info.

[gsa612]

Danny Ashley had a fast '74 GTO in the early 90's which went to Sweden.Mike Macdonald (Q-jet perf.) also had one which was sold to Richard Desmond from Minn.I'm not sure if Brad K's black car was owned at one time by the Nelson's also from Minn.There was also a guy from Montana Chuck Salerno (sp).The car was blue and called "Git-Go" and was a top q'fier back then...gsa612

[oldskool]

Originally Posted by gsa612

Danny Ashley had a fast '74 GTO in the early 90's which went to Sweden.Mike Macdonald (Q-jet perf.) also had one which was sold to Richard Desmond from Minn.I'm not sure if Brad K's black car was owned at one time by the Nelson's also from Minn.There was also a guy from Montana Chuck Salerno (sp).The car was blue and called "Git-Go" and was a top q'fier back then...gsa612

Hey, that's good info ! Any pics ? Know where I might get some pics ? Any idea how to contact any of these guys.

[gsa612]

Originally Posted by oldskool

Hey, that's good info ! Any pics ? Know where I might get some pics ? Any idea how to contact any of these guys.

Danny is a member here and was a friend of Mike M's.You can try PM'ing him, he may have some old pics.Not sure but Chuck's car may have gone to CA.Also you can try to PM Bill Rink(if he doesn't see this first) he's run his for years in STK and now SS.He may have more info on these cars.And you have pics of Brad's car as he currently runs it...gsa612

[BRINK]

Originally Posted by gsa612

Danny is a member here and was a friend of Mike M's.You can try PM'ing him, he may have some old pics.Not sure but Chuck's car may have gone to CA.Also you can try to PM Bill Rink(if he doesn't see this first) he's run his for years in STK and now SS.He may have more info on these cars.And you have pics of Brad's car as he currently runs it...gsa612

Auto Imagery has all of the pictures of my '74 at the NHRA National events.Go to their web site and type in my name in the box. There's hundreds of shots.

[oldskool]

Originally Posted by BRINK

Auto Imagery has all of the pictures of my '74 at the NHRA National events.Go to their web site and type in my name in the box. There's hundreds of shots.

Yeah, I did that for a few years. But now when I go to that site no box shows up to type a name into. You only have the option of which race you want to see pics of.

Or, maybe they just changed the format or something. It doesn't work for me like it use to.

https://www.autoimagery.com/index

[Dale Hulquist]

Lee Bannister comes to mind, in 1999-2000 he was in 11 finals and won 8 of them in NHRA and IHRA i belive it was a 1972 firebird 455 that was driven by the creator of the Texas Twister "Lee B" himself which many got to experience first hand. Not sure how fast it would run but, rarely lost a hdsup in elimination's and surprised quite a few.

[oldskool]

I'm gonna save this spot for more 1974 X-body info & pics. So, ya'll help me find some.

I LOVE it when you can come back and edit a post.

The biggest Pontiac site I'm on will only allow an edit for 1 hour. There have been many times when I've gone back over my posts & saw some type of error, which I'd like to correct. For times when the error was bad enuff, I had to make another post, to correct it. This way is much better. I can not only make corrections, if needed, but can also add more info and/or pics, when I get 'em.

So, for now, this is just a parking space for more '74 X-body stuff.

[oldskool]

Now that we've looked at all the GTO years, I'd like to talk about the Firebirds. I usually just call 'em Goats & Birds.

So, as most know, the 1st Bird was a '67 model, same as Camaro. I know of 2 '67 Stockers. But I'll need help with others. I'm sure there were probably quite a few '67's run, thru the years. But, right now, the only two I know about are those driven by Randi Lyn Shipp & Bryan Phillips.

Most Pontiacs that are running today, have been raced by others. Some have changed hands several times. I think somebody here has already mentioned who had Randi Lyn's car, before she got it. I always like to know the racing history of a Pontiac. It's interesting to me to see if an owner has more success than the previous owner, or less.

So, for you guys who know the previous history of any of the cars mentioned in this thread, please share that info.

I assume Randi Lyn's car & Bryan's car have to run the exact same engine specs. That's a 400 engine, with a 750 Q-jet carb. Probably has #670 heads. Some later Birds, had more than one 400 engine option. But, I think the '67's only had one. The basic specs are no secret. Anybody can look 'em up.

http://www.classracerinfo.com/Engine...4&MAKE=Pontiac

I know Randi Lyn has run some 10.40's, in D/SA, & 10.30's in C/SA. Don't know her best ET, in competition. Anybody know ? I do know that she has pulled some huge wheelstands. Appears to me that she needs some wheelie bars, like many other Stockers have.

And, she has won lots of races, including several nat events. She seems to be very popular with racers & fans.

She was the D/SA class winner at Indy, in 2013, with a 10.645.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...r2013#indextop

https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/enth...cid=spartandhp