Keith, you have that March '64 PHR, you shared the images with me a couple years ago. I had forgotten until Tenney reminded me about the article.
Actually two articles in that issue. 1st detailed the Bobcat kit, 2nd was test of Blue car. Unfortunately, no way to know if this test was done before or after Daytona.
My guess is before. Assuming the PHR test was done in Detroit, Tenney tells me the Daytona testing was 12/26 to 12/29, makes sense given the weather in Daytona then plus other evidence.
We know that Roger Proulx drag raced in October, just after Royal completed prepping a GTO per his article. I assume that was the Blue car, it was definitely not the Red car which didn't get built until Nov. and was PS equipped.
Assuming the PHR test was done in Detroit, the likelihood that it was tested before Daytona vs. after is based on what I see in the pix. I know there wouldn't always be snow on the ground in January, but the conditions look more like Nov/Dec to me. If Proulx drove the Blue car as I believe he did, then the PHR article likely details the Bobcat installation done in Oct and the driving test conducted sometime thereafter but before the car went off to NYC to be tested by C & D staff. JMO. Remember, the C & D article says the manual steer (presumed Blue car) was driven from Detroit to NYC, then driven by the entire staff over the course of 10 days BEFORE John Jerome drove with his family to Daytona. That means the Blue car must have left Detroit by 12/15, maybe a day or 2 earlier.
Pertinent pics attached. Note the chalk "W" on the firewall, code for the Nocturne Blue exterior paint? I think so.
So do you see a 421 in these pix?
The 3rd pic is the 1st page of the separate Test Report article, shows the HJ-4471 with the Royal plate frame, same as seen in the C & D article. I believe this is the Blue car, the subject of the Bobcat treatment discussed in the other article (the article was intended to be generic in some respects, but I believe specifically shows the Blue car undergoing the Bobcat installation).
The PHR Test report says this car had already turned a
[email protected] on cheater slicks at a drag strip and C & D said they got a best of 12.8@112. The times seem all over the map to me. What do you race experts think? If the PHR pix show a 421, did the Blue car go to Daytona with a 421 and are the times indicative of that or not?
OMT makes a good point about the difficulty of managing traction with the factory vac secondaries. The Bobcat treatment employed mechanical linkage. But he also says times were just as good vac linkage if the car would hook.
I sure don't know, just trying to figure out if the Blue car likely did or didn't have a 421 when C & D drove it 3000 miles and then gushed about it.