67 Royal Pontiac GTO 4 Speed Car
 

Don,
Here is everything you wanted to know about the white with black top '67 GTO Royal Bobcat 4 speed GTO that John "Cheater" Politzer drove in the switch and "Street Racing" by Brock Yates. It will take one more "reply" to get it all in. This car was over a full second fast then the automatic car. Then you'll understand why nobody can tell you what was in the cars on any given night. LOL
Enjoy

Don,
Next few pages of from 'Super Stock and Drag Ill" February 1967 issue.

Dr. Schiffer I seem to remember a article on the Firebirds with 400's (can't remember witch one) came from the factory throttle limited and that there was a mod to get full throttle and more performance. I wish i could remember so i could give more info.

Brut,
Is this the article you are looking for? All that was done was remove the restrictor clip on the carbs linkage. This clip prevented full opening of the carb. That is why the engine HP rating was less than that of the GTO, to satisfy corp HP/Wt. Remove the clip and you have full movement of the linkage.

The B/Stock '66 Chevelle in the lower right is the lettered Wally Booth Trumbull Cherolet that John "Cheater" Politzer drove in a street race on I-94 against a lettered A/Stock Hemi car. They ran twice that evening. Standing start to an overpass. Took the over pass to come back around. Lined up and came back to the trailers. John won both races.

Yes Dr. that was it. Thank you.

Black Bird coming out of hibernation
 

Here are some more pictures of the Blackbird as I bring it back to life starting in 1997.

Doctor, thank you again for all of your time to post these articles that us who were'nt around at the time (Im 40) nor living in the area.(SF Bay Area)

Ive read about this article in Wangers book which was about the 1967 GTO 4-speed car and how after the race against the Vette people started to question whether the car that had beaten that Vette was not the auto but the stick car, & I never thought I would actually get to read it.
Thank you!!

Sincerely,
Don

Black Bird Striped ready for fresh paint
 

Black Bird after new engine built and installed heads to body shop with new steel hood and steel cowl vent. April 2000 Reassembled 2001

Don,
There are a million stores in the Motor City. LOL What you really don't know is that many of these racers grow up together. Lived near eash other went to high school together etc.

John Politzer grow up with Butch Elkin and his brothers, Diamond Engineering. Dick Aarons and Wally Booth, Booth Aarons, Richard Maskin, Dart Heads, Terry (Peanuts) and Art (the Dart) Kozins, Tony (Parts Mgr at Stan Long Pontiac and racer) and Mike Kineper, Howard Measles (parts mgr Packard Pontiac and racer) and the list goes on and on.

The City of Detroit was a large, two million population in the '60's. But most of these guys grow up and lived on the north west side and went to Mumford High School. Some guys even raced Plymouths for Hamilton Motors or Fords for Bob Ford.

By the late '60's most of these families moved to the northern suburbs along Woodward Ave. Huntington Woods, Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills. Right place, right time. Sorry you missed it. But oh, what a time it was......

Many of these guys came from weathy familes and they were finaniced by them. Be it car new car when they turned 16 or money to start a business.

Don and Brut4,
You are very welcome. It really is my pleasure. I would like to keep things in prespective.

By the way since you mention Jim's book. I'd like you to go back to the book, "Glory Days". Open the book up to the "Introduction" page (V). Read the very top italicized words. Let me know what it say's.

"It's Friday night and the traffic on Woodward Avenue for the Dream Cruise is already wall to wall. The crowd on both sides of the street is ten feet deep. My friend Eric Schiffer is driving my 1969 GTO Judge. The Michigan license plates read "Wangers". As we slowly creep along Woodward at 14 Mile, a teenage kid runs up to the Judge and pleads, "Do you guys know Jim Wangers?" Before I can answer, he asks again, "Did he really invent Woodward Avenue?"

Classic, the fact that the image of Wangers inventing Woodward Ave and the image that the GTO creates & you are the driver, is uncanny!

Don

Thought you might enjoy that visual. This in fact a true story. It was the Friday night, day before the official Dream Cruise day. We were stuck in traffic along the curb lane of Woodward with all of our window down. My wife Janis and son my Sam were in the back seat when this young kid came running over and asked us this. It was very funny!LOL

The only thing to me that kinda compares a little is 1991 American Graffiti Night in Modesto,CA. Cars lined up both ways & people sitting in their lawn chairs on McHenry Ave while I and a group of my buddy's walk up and down looking for chicks. That was the last year they had it because of the trouble that outsiders were creating.

Ah, the memories.

Don

Funny, Im typing this and someone out on the freeway is going thru the gears in his musclecar!!

Doctor, you know that a picture is worth a thousand words but having a video of the car to actually hear the idle etc.. is worth a million words.

Do you have any video of the Blackbird idling or in motion??

Thanks,
Don

Sorry, No film of the Black Bird that I know of. We have had video of our Royal Pontiac Drag Racing dates over the years that we used at our club display in the Detroit Autorama over the years. But I don't remember seeing the Black Bird on any of those video's only in the still photos. If some one in the club has video of it I certainly have not heard about it or seen it.

We do have a little street action video from Woodward in the Royal Pontiac club's events section under "Dream Cruise 2011". Two of our members got a little bored and went out on Woodward and got one off in front of Fresard Buick GMC. A Black '67 GTO 428 Bobcat convert and a white '66 Lemans race car. I stood in the center isle and filmed it. Look for it at www.royalpontiac.org. Left side menu hit "Events". Then look for "Woodward Dream Cruise 2011". click it. Scroll down for the two videos and click those and watch. That should give you a visual and sound of drag racing on Woodward.

Just read that the Adams' family,from PMD's ad agency McMannus, John and Adams, sold their '69 T/A convertible for approx. $750,000.00 a few years ago in rough shape...Hummm.
I wonder if the same guy would be interested in a '68 Blackbird in excellent shape with spare parts from it's past racing history!
I'd be sad, but for that kind of money I might beable to get over the lose rather quickly.

Only if he would preserve it as well as you have!

Ya. with hind - sight. If I was only a day eariler in 1974-5 and bought my neighbors '69 T/A convertible automatic car that was driven by the wife and son's who did not abuse the car for the $1,000.00 that Carl Rawley paid for it. I sould have gone over and offered Carl more. But no one knew the value or how few had been built. THe value was based on the value of a '69 SS Camaro Convert.

As apposed to the Adam's '69 T/A 4 speed Ram Air IV convertible (eventhough rarer) was driven hard by the son's Randy and (drawing a blank) their friend Gary Cocral who blow the clutch while racing it on Woodward one night. One of the two Adam's brothers got in a bad accident with the car too.

Carl Rawley at least put a new paint job on it with a half hearted resto when he got the car. Carl would show the car at local Detroit car shows. I saw it at the GM Tec center show in approx. 1980. When Carl passed away the car at least went to a real collector. Milt Robson of Georgia bought it for approx. $100,000.00 Not sure what he sold it for a few years ago. It is the T/A with the hood tac and black interior.

But really in 1974 -75 I was more interested in street racing and those were heavy cars. At the time I had my '57 Vette and '71 Nova. I was offered a friend's, Mike Katz's, Citrus Green '70 SS 396 Camaro for $900.00 at the time he needed a bigger car with a trunk to carry his electrician's tools. Ah, the days when muscle cars just fell off trees!

Then the high price of gas, $0.40/ gal. I sold the Vette and the Nova. Bought a Suzuki motor cycle and Capri V6 with air to commute to the Univeristy of Michigan. What the H--- was I thinking? LOL

I did recover from my lapse in judgement while going to school in St. Louis in 1976. I got married after my first semester. Janis had a '74 Camaro Type Lt and I bought a golden rod yellow 1976 T/A 455 4 speed. Put a '74 T/A dual exhaust system on it and opened up the shaker scoop. A year later traded her '74 Camaro in for a '77 Grand Prix T-Top.

Don't even ask why I got off on this tangent? LOL

Great stories Eric.