Best Pontiac Powered Stockers

[Rich Biebel]

I have a picture hanging on my wall here of my partner in our '57 Chevy sedan delivery racing Joe Perzan's Big Bruiser Pontiac wagon.

It was from 1967 at Capitol Raceway.....

There were quite a few Pontiacs racing there that day as I recall....

We raced Perzan and had to rerun him for some reason and won.....

A Bucks up Jr.Stock event from over 50 years ago !!!

Ed Beyer's '60 Pontiac was nice and he had a '56 before the '60......Saw his '56 race a number of times including at Vargo in eastern Pa. around 1966 or 1967

[oldskool]

Due to the omission of Judge Stockers, in the Junior Stock book, I'll dedicate this post to the '69 Judge Stockers. Most won races and/or were nat record holders.

One is "Rocky's Goat". The 1st pic of it is from a '69 newspaper article, showing that it beat John Thropp, in an all Pontiac final. I love those.

Then there is the '69 "Big Iron" I mentioned.

Then the "Nemisis" '69 that was totaled in a towing accident.

Then there is the Nunzi sponsored '69 Judge. I don't know exactly what years all these cars were raced. But, most of the Pontiac dealer sponsored cars were raced during the same model year they were new.

https://www.hemmings.com/blog/articl...ram-air-iv-x2/

This video is just for kicks.

[oldskool]

For 1970, there were some rule changes, which did away with many of the bogus combos some '55-'57 Chevy models were running. This also affected some older Pontiac models. The '61 & earlier Pontiacs could no longer run the over-the-counter parts, that didn't come in factory built cars.

The book mentions a '70 400 Powered Firebird Formula, named "Viking". Said it had a Chevy 12-bolt rear, with a Pontiac part number. I can vouch for this. I used the 12-bolt out of one of these '70 Formula 400's, in the '71 Bird bracket car we raced for several years. I think this was a 1-year only rear end, in the Birds. They switched over to the GM 8.5" rear, in the '71 Birds.

That Viking name tripped something in my memory. So I looked back thru some of my pics, & found one of a '70 Judge, named Viking. Appears to be built by the same guy. It was sponsored by the Schoon Pontiac dealership, in MN.

The book also shows a pic of a '66 GTO, which it says was making another 12-sec pass. The author said that GTO's drag strip popularity did not equal their street popularity. IMO, that could probably be said of all the popular mass produced Musclecars. The % of those used on the street, probably far outnumbered the % of 'em that were made into competitive Stock or SS cars.

There have obviously been lots of '70 model Pontiacs raced, thru the years. Don't know how many were raced during the 1970 season. Lower budget, independent racers, sometimes had to wait 'til they could find a good price on a used Goat or Bird. Didn't take long, back then. A 100,000 mile GTO was just a worn out used car, that had probably been abused, that hardly anybody wanted.

Obviously, there are a few rare models that were made with drag racing in mind. The Ford Thunderbolts come to mind. And I'm sure you guys can think of a few others. Mopar really built some bad cars, beginning with the 413 & 426 Wedge cars, then the 426 Hemi cars, & 440 6-pack cars. Then there were the high power solid lifter BBC models.

But, there were LOTS of GTO's being raced, all over the country, especially at the local tracks. Guessing there were lots of '66 Tri-Power GTO's that did very good at local tracks. Then, beginning in '67, with the 400 engine, the TH400 trans, & the Q-jet carb, the Goats & Birds became competitive, in some of the auto-trans classes.

Then, came the round port RAII engines for '68. Then RAIII & RAIV in '69 & '70. There was also a high CR 455 GTO engine in '70. Then in '71, came the 455HO engines. Those 455HO engines have won LOTS of races thru the years, & are still winning.

But, I suppose for many non-Pontiac guys, it's real easy to just dismiss Pontiacs, from class racing, especially since no Pontiac V8 has been built since '81, and the Pontiac brand disappeared after 2009.

But hey, there are still competitive Pontiacs out there. Hope they all do good, this year.

[oldskool]

A scan thru the '71 section of the book revealed the the mention of only 1 Pontiac. It is a '63 wagon, which ran R/S.

He quoted the driver, Bob Williams, as saying that at one of the tracks they ran on a regular basis, Quaker City, the track ran uphill. Since they didn't have a line-lock, they had to block a rear tire, after staging, to prevent the car from rolling backwards, out of the beams.

Said the car was RU @ Indy that year, in R/S.

But, the 455HO engine was available in '71 Birds & A-bodies. Nobody can make me believe that there were not quite a few 455HO cars bought, strictly for drag racing. Probably quite a few Pontiac dealerships, as well as individual racers campaigned a 455HO powered car.

I'll post examples I have. Again, I can't always say exactly what season these cars began racing. I've heard of several cars that were raced by a dealer maybe only one season, then by others, after that.

The '71 T-37 is the 1st model that comes to mind. But the 455HO was available in T-37, Lemans, & GTO models.

http://www.classracerinfo.com/Engine...px?ENGINE=2060

The most famous one that I can think of right now is Rock Running's "Super Sleeper". I've already mentioned this & maybe all these cars I'll post pics of on this post. The White Bros, Ken Shawver, & Jack McCormack all ran one. We all know how some race cars changed hands a lot. So, I don't know exactly who was the 1st to race any of these cars.

As mentioned, Mick Leiferman ran a '71 GTO, was RU @ Indy 3 years straight, & was a nat record holder for 5 years straight, beginning in '73. Don't know exactly what year the car first began racing. The pic I have shows it in H/SA.

Have a pic of the White Bros '71 Formy, running H/SA, & a Towne Pontiac '71 Formy running H/S. Also have pics of Gary Moore & Max Sterling in H/S '71 Birds.

[Kevin Love]

The Towne Pontiac ( John Dubois) Firebird was a 455/335 hp ram air car.

[oldskool]

Originally Posted by Kevin Love

The Towne Pontiac ( John Dubois) Firebird was a 455/335 hp ram air car.

When running in the H/S class ?

So, what class would a 400 engine have run ?

That would mean that those T-37's would have had to have been a lot lighter than the Formy. BUT, according to the Class Racer Info site, a '71 Formy, with a 455HO engine is actually a few lbs lighter than a T-37. My calculator just won't come up with numbers that will make a lighter car run a lower class, using the same engine.

http://www.classracerinfo.com/Engine...px?ENGINE=2060

So, does that mean that back in the early '70's that engine was rated with less hp than the same engine in an A-body ??? That's the only thing I can think of that would make the same weight cars run several classes apart, running the same engine.

I remember that back when we 1st started, the 330hp Bird engine, was basically the same as the 350hp GTO engine. Maybe it was the same for the Birds & A-bodies, in '71. Anybody know what the 455HO engine was rated, in a '71 Bird & a '71 A-body, back in 1971 ?

If anybody has some classification info from back then, that might clarify this, please post that info.

Also thought about this. There is not much difference in the hp rating of the '71 400 & the '71 D-port 455. So, I suppose both engines could have possibly run the same class ??? I remember that Gary Wood said they did just as good with a '72 D-port 455, as they had with the '72 455HO. But, we've discussed that the '71 #66 heads don't make as much power as the '72 & '73 D-port 455 heads.

By the way, I was just about to add a couple of pics to the '71 post. Lyndel Warren bought a Bird from Gary Moore. They built it as a '71 455HO Formula. He worked for Coke, so he named the car "Coke Machine". It ran E/SA, & was the quickest E/SA car at the Winter Nats. He said it had run 11.79, during that time period. This was sometime in the mid '70's I think. Maybe NHRA gave the engine a big hp increase, in a Bird, during the '70's ???

I don't have access to that info. I assume there may be a few long time racers here who do still have access to a lot of the NHRA info from back in the '70's.

[oldskool]

Today @ the Baby Gators, Adam Strang qualified #15 @ .892 under. Wayne Larsen was #56, @ .655 under, in a 94 car field.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...er=30#indextop