Ramon Lowe '58 Cheifton
 

looking for pictures and info on Ramon Lowe's
'58 Cheiftain stocker from back in the late '60s early 70's

You can pm me also. Thanks!

Larry

Re: Ramon Lowe '58 Cheifton
 

Try searching this thread.
Bob Rice

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...d.php?t=201085

Re: Ramon Lowe '58 Cheifton
 

Here are a picture at Riverside

Re: Ramon Lowe '58 Cheifton
 

How about Jay Hamilton? I was a big fan of Pontiac's back then....Had a '58 street car and raced it some. Craig Muller from NJ was a buddy of mine and he had one for a while and knew the west coast guys. Stu Rogers was a Pontiac guru and I worked with him a lot. He was Billy Izykowski's partner on the first Biscayne Billy raced.........My '58 went in the 14's and was driven to the track......I had a F.I. unit for it but sold it.......Ah those old days were cool....I loved my '58 !!!!

Re: Ramon Lowe '58 Cheifton
 

My brother use to have one like that with a 389 GTO motor and 3x2 carbs, 4 speed automatic. Very cool car.

Re: Ramon Lowe '58 Cheifton
 

To all who didn't know it the Fuel Injection Manifold used in PRODUCTION in late 1957 & 1958 on the Pontiacs was a sheet metal unit,

Re: Ramon Lowe '58 Cheifton
 

I have one just like Mary Ann Foss's....black, tri-carb, posi, auto, black with only 28,000 mile ...all original except for rubber products....tires, belts, hoses, etc.

I bought it out of Ohio about three years ago. I have all the paper work and verified mileage statements.......it's a beauty!

My pictures were to big to download here so I'll have to figure a way to shrink them if anyone wants to see them.

Jim

Re: Ramon Lowe '58 Cheifton
 

Here is one from Bristol 1967, he won the stock eliminator there.

Re: Ramon Lowe '58 Cheifton
 

Tony, you have any pictures of Royce Virgin's 58 ? I beleive he ran FI at one time on that car. Very nice car and was lighting fast back in the late 60's.

Re: Ramon Lowe '58 Cheifton
 

Sorry Keith I do not but I remember the car well.

Re: Ramon Lowe '58 Cheifton
 

Hey Tony,

Your second picture was not of Ramon Lowe, correct?

I see that it's a four door.

Re: Ramon Lowe '58 Cheifton
 

The 4 Dr 58 Pontiac is Jay Hamilton at Bristol 1967

Re: Ramon Lowe '58 Cheifton
 

Fred Borcherdt was an East Coast Pontiac guru during that time period, who had a '57 F.I. that he raced, I think. He later built and raced "ROCKY'S GOAT," a 1969 Ram Air IV (I believe) GTO and made the cover of Popular Hot Rodding magazine when he won Stock at Dallas (NHRA World Finals) in about 1970 or '71.... not sure of the year,
Jerry Stealy bought the car and re-named it "Nemesis" and ran it in C/SA for years..

Robert Chiesa was a West Coast '58 Pontiac racer who won a few. I think he was from the SF Bay area..

Loved that Strato-Flite dual-coupling hydro... lol!


Bill

Re: Ramon Lowe '58 Cheifton
 

Bill you would not have loved the Jet Away or Strato-Flite if you ever drove one.

Re: Ramon Lowe '58 Cheifton
 

A couple of pics of George Cureton's FI '58 Pontiac.
http://i713.photobucket.com/albums/w...9161424_22.jpg
http://i713.photobucket.com/albums/w...9162297_25.jpg

Re: Ramon Lowe '58 Cheifton
 

The F.I. unit I had came off a car sitting on a farm in Flemington,NJ. It was a very rare car....a '58 SuperChief. There were long wheelbase and short wheelbase '58 Pontiacs. Bonneville's and SuperChiefs were longer wheelbase and StarChiefs and Chieftains were shorter. That SuperChief had a stock CAST manifold F.I. unit...no sheet metal.....It also had the fender emblems on it and I took those also. They sat on my basement wall for 30+ years. I sold them on Ebay a couple years ago. The F.I. unit I sold many years ago thru Nat'l Dragster. I think Fred Borcherdt had a '57 Safari wagon tow car and it had a F.I. unit on it. I wanted to build one of those but could never find one. I bought an engine for my '58 that was supposed to be from Jay Hamilton or Ramon Lowe thru Craig Muller. Craig had a black '58 with a 315 hp F.I. engine and it ran very fast and won class at Indy if I recall right. He got some help from Ralph Truppi at T/K's on that car. Craig was also a bowler and did the Pro tour for a few years and was on TV a few times.....He qualified first once for the ABC saturday show. I always watched those shows as I was also an avid bowler. My '58 was my first nice car. I borrowed a 4.56 chunk from Craig and drove it to the track and even towed our racecar ( a 57 sedan delivery) to the track like that. Was a little on the noisy side!!! I had a McKeller cam for the '58 but am not sure if I had that in there then....Those were solid cams and would have made a heck of a lot of noise with that rear gear in there!!!

Re: Ramon Lowe '58 Cheifton
 

Geez Keith you've been around longer than I thought

Re: Ramon Lowe '58 Cheifton
 

I saw where Ramon won two classes the same day, way back when. Didn't he have a 60, and maybe a 62, also?
Where is he now?

Re: Ramon Lowe '58 Cheifton
 

Tony,

You're right; those Jetaways and Strato-Flite transmissions were not the best drag racing transmissions ever to hit the strip.

I was being sarcastic, but my humor leaves a lot to be desired... :(

They did have better ratios than the Dual-Range hydros (3.95; 2.55; 1.55; 1:1) instead of 3.81; 2.63; 1.45; 1;1.

The 1956 Pontiac Dual Range hydros had a 1.55 front planetay that gave ratios of 4.08: 2.63; 1.55 and 1:1.

That was a better deal than the 1.45 (regular) front planetary unit because it did two things;

1. It raised the stall speed (power flows from the crankshaft, and though the front planetary before it goes to the fluid coupling, on a hydro), so the 1.55 planetary gives the engine more "leverage" at stall, using the same fluid coupling, and

2. it closed up that awful ratio gap (2.63:1 to 1.45:1) on the two-three shift, a little. Anything in the way of help there, was welcome....

I put a '58 370 Pontiac motor and Strato-Flite into my street car, a '56 Chieftan 2-door HT.

Hated the transmission, so when it failed after a short time, I replaced it with a Dual Range hydro out of a '56 Pontiac.

What a difference... lol!

Re: Ramon Lowe '58 Cheifton
 

Tony,

I tried to send the pic's of my '58 Pontiac to your address but it said it was the wrong address. Please send me a PM .

Jim

Re: Ramon Lowe '58 Cheifton
 

PM sent

Re: Ramon Lowe '58 Cheifton
 

Here are three of Jim's pictures of his 1958 Pontiac. I sent 3 of the five pictures

Re: Ramon Lowe '58 Cheifton
 

The distribution block that feeds fuel to the tri power looks like the brake distribution block on my '65 GTO.

Re: Ramon Lowe '58 Cheifton
 

Thanks a lot tony, hope people like seeing the FIRST GTO.....LOL!

What most people don't know is that the car is NOT restored, it has one re-paint otherwise it's just like delivered in 1958!

Jim

Re: Ramon Lowe '58 Cheifton
 

Stu Rogers ... Now there is a name I haven't heard in long time.. I remember him at Raceway E-Town NJ back in the 70's... He did make them Pontiacs run..

Re: Ramon Lowe '58 Cheifton
 

Hey Joe, I've been around longer than even I thought. Just plain sic! lol First national event was '67 Winters, seems like yesterday....yea right

Re: Ramon Lowe '58 Cheifton
 

Stu was quite a character...I worked for him for a while at Tony Feil's. We worked on cars in the back. Super Tuned them along with anything and everything. Stu and Craig were buddy's/ Stu could make any Pontiac run. Stu even knew Jess Tyree,,,,,a F/C racer who used a pontiac engine. We worked on his stuff once in a thrash during a race he was running at E-Town..... A Nitro burning Pontiac, now that's pretty crazy but it's true.....I was there....I always wondered what happened to Stu......I heard he was in Florida and was not well and that was a long time ago....He was an onery S.O.B. and would argue with anyone but man he was a very smart guy when it came to cars and drag racing......

Re: Ramon Lowe '58 Cheifton
 

Your not the only one thats been around a while Keith.....I was at Indy racing a car in 1966 and it definately is only a distant memory ........

Re: Ramon Lowe '58 Cheifton
 

I was at the NHRA Oklahoma City Nationals in '57 when John Zink's 317 HP Tri-Power, solid-lifter, Chieftan showed 'em all the way home in Stock.... but I had to leave early and didn't get to see it... :(

He ran 94+mph (dunno the e.t.), through the mufflers, with the air cleaner on, and on street rubber. 3-speed stick car.

I've always heard that the supercharged Fords were the baddest pure stock cars around in '57, and we all know how fast the Fuelie 283's were, but this Pontiac ran roughshod over the entire field......

Re: Ramon Lowe '58 Cheifton
 

I don't think most would prefer a Jetaway or Stratoflight. Bill, you mentioned Fred Borcherdt. Fred did have an injection on his 57 Pontiac Safari Catalina wagon. It had a Jetaway (I think) in it, and he was always swearing that he was going to put one of his dual range hydros in it when the Jetaway finally broke, but it never did. Fred's 57 Pontiac Junior Stocker had a dual range hydro in it, but finally was flagged in inspection as 56 was the last year Pontiac had a dual range in them. A funnier combination was his 48 Jeep pick up which had a 327 Chevrolet with the Rochester injection, still 4wd, and the Borg Warner overdrive. When Fred partnered with John Thropp for John's Passionate Poncho, 57 Pontiac with injection, it had the Jetaway and he worked and worked experimenting to try to get the small fluid coupling for 4th to fill faster. That car made it to the World Finals stock eliminator final round, but JT redlighted.

Re: Ramon Lowe '58 Cheifton
 

Here is a shot of Mary Ann's at the 1964 Indy Nationals

http://inlinethumb45.webshots.com/43...600x600Q85.jpg

Re: Ramon Lowe '58 Cheifton
 

One other comment. The 57 FI intake was made from stamped sheet metal. Fred B always said that it flowed better than the porous Chevrolet aluminum cast runners / intake. I am fairly certain that the 58 Pontiacs had the cast aluminum.

Re: Ramon Lowe '58 Cheifton
 

Back to the top, for more interest in Ramon's car.

Lots of Jr. Stocker / Stocker chatter over at Jalopy Journal hamb site also.

Larry

Re: Ramon Lowe '58 Cheifton
 

Ha! I remember that program! I used to watch it too, Saturday afternoons, before ABC's Wide World of Sports came on.

Hmmm...now who was the top bowling champ back then? Oh yeah, Earl Anthony! :)

M68

Re: Ramon Lowe '58 Cheifton
 

Bill, I was also at the '57 Nationals and the John Zink Pontiacs impressed me as much as anything there. I was fourteen at the time and caught a disease that I still have today.

Jimmy

Re: Ramon Lowe '58 Cheifton
 

I rarely missed a show....I watched that show every week and taped it if I wasn't home....I loved bowling and bowled 3 nights a week at one time. Averaged about 175-180 20 years ago....

Earl was "The Man" for sure but I was a big fan of Dick Weber......Shot from way outside and very little hook but really roped them in there when the presure was on.....I bowled a lot and that was my shot...outside down and in. I have 2 league champion trophy's and they sit next to my Wally's.....

Re: Ramon Lowe '58 Cheifton
 

Who's mom is that in the picture?

Re: Ramon Lowe '58 Cheifton
 

Jimmy Parker..

It got us all...