Watched the video. Always loved the way Tony pronounces Pon T ac. I agree with some of his points, but not his conclusion. Agree EVERY domestic engine design of the era, or any era, has some weak points, he calls design flaws. My list could be a mile long, but lets talk about Pontiacs. Pontiac connecting rods are a weak link, yes. Design flaw?, no. If they were a design flaw, they would be failing in "normal use and service", which they didn't. A n example of a "design flaw" would be a Takata air bag. It blows up and kills you in normal use and service. A Pontiac cast rod is just fine to 5800 RPM's in a 400 or 5500 RPM's in a 428-455 indefinitely at 500 HP. But at high HP levels, when something fails, it will be the connecting rods, I agree with that. Is that the reason the aftermarket abandoned Pontiac? I don't know. I think Tony's conclusion is mostly speculation. If the rods were the single problem, that was so easily fixed, with you guessed it, a good set of aftermarket connecting rods. And they were available too. Pontiac people were just too cheap to buy them. Or the prices were just out of reach, and didn't need to be. Carillo, Manley, Crower, Oliver, Childs and Albert and many other AMERICAN companies were in business in the 1960's and could have very easily made rods available for Pontiacs. So just not sure the whole theory really makes sense. Pontiac cast rods were among the worst ever installed in a performance minded engine package. I will concede that.
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