Why No 421 Super Duty in current NHRA Guide?

[Dwight Southerland]

Pontiac did produce 421 SD "Swiss cheese" cars in 1963. I watched one race locally when the cars were new and the driver, Charlie Mitchell, is a local hero. The car he had was a silver Catalina coupe with a 3-speed. Before that, he had a red '62 Catalina light weight car with a four speed. My only explanation is that Pontiac did not produce enough of one model to get approval by NHRA. There is some inconsistency in the decisions that have been made by NHRA for some 1960s specialty cars, and maybe this falls into that bucket.

[DeuceCoupe]

Originally Posted by Dwight Southerland

Pontiac did produce 421 SD "Swiss cheese" cars in 1963. I watched one race locally when the cars were new and the driver, Charlie Mitchell, is a local hero. The car he had was a silver Catalina coupe with a 3-speed. Before that, he had a red '62 Catalina light weight car with a four speed. My only explanation is that Pontiac did not produce enough of one model to get approval by NHRA. There is some inconsistency in the decisions that have been made by NHRA for some 1960s specialty cars, and maybe this falls into that bucket.

There could be some logic to the numbers - IIRC, NHRA had a minimum of 100 at one time, then 50 in 1964, but I think it was for a given ENGINE AND a given MODEL.


So, there were only 57 Z11 Chevs, but they were all 427/430hp and all 2door hardtops.
There were only 50 Lightweight Galaxies, but they were all 427 HiRisers and all 2door hardtops.


There were about 74 SuperDuty Cats, but they left the FACTORY as different models (post vs hardtop vs GrandPrix) and with different engines - in fact, all the Swiss Cheese Cats are factory 389-2bbl-3spd cars so they would not count as SuperDuty cars, let alone the holes in the frame.


There are 23 Cat Hardtops with the FACTORY 421/410hp, that is the most common model/engine combo of all the "Super Duty" cars McCarthy lists - and 23 would not meet the minimum.


I bet that's it! So with 74 "Super Duty Cars", a lot of books sorta-rightfully assume they existed, but the 23 common model/engine cars was not enough for NHRA.


I looked for a Mitchell car in McCarthy's book but don't see one - there are only 14 Swiss Cheese cars so it might be possible to hunt it down. McCarthy says in his book (1989) that 11 of the 14 had been found.

[Dwight Southerland]

Charlie Mitchell's car was owned by Caplinger Motors in England AR. I have asked around here several times, but i have found no one who knows what happened to the car.

[DeuceCoupe]

Originally Posted by Dwight Southerland

Charlie Mitchell's car was owned by Caplinger Motors in England AR. I have asked around here several times, but i have found no one who knows what happened to the car.

I don't see a Caplinger either. McCarthy lists the Swiss Cheese Cats as
* Blank
* Royal
* Thompson
* Vanke
* Van Winkle
* Unknown
* Beswick
* Union Park
* Seaton
* Unknown
* Packer
* Blank
* Collingwood
* Milner


So I guess its one of the 4 that doesn't have a delivery name already. The 1st 12 cars were silver, the last 2 gray. I should add, in the text McCarthy notes that though the Swiss Cheese engine code was a 389-2bbl, the 421sd was actually installed at the factory. Still a long way from the NHRA minimum 50 though.

[mtkawboy]

1963 Ford light weight Galaxies were low riser 427s, not high risers

[DeuceCoupe]

Originally Posted by mtkawboy

1963 Ford light weight Galaxies were low riser 427s, not high risers

Good catch, though I was a bit too terse.
I was trying to point our cases where NHRA allowed a car into Stock (or S/S) with only 50 units.
I was using the 1964 LWG, only 50 made, all 427 HR, but all hardtops ie all the same (vs the 1963 Pontiac 421sd cars) so NHRA let them in.


For 1963 I show 227 LWG total, those were all 427 LoRiser from the factory, a few did run the 427 HR late in the year but not in stock class.

[FED 387]

Beswicks car if I remember back in the late 70's early 80's a guy named Ray Bisic SP or something like that had his old SD car Silver Catalina 2 dr HT blue interior--- Raced at Union Grove WI he was a beer truck driver lived in Chicago or north suburbs of Chicago---FED 387