How We Got Our First Pontiac:
As I mentioned earlier, Dad was racing Fords in the early 60's (a 60 Ford Convertible, with a Paxton blower on it, you might recall). As the '62 model year progressed and '63 model years drew close he knew that Ford was going to continue to do lightweight packages (fiberglass fenders, etc) for the Galaxie and he wanted one. He started asking his contact at Ford Racing, Dave Evans, about the availability of one of these cars and for factory sponsorship. Dave said "yeah, we are going to do (some certain number) of builds and maybe you can get one of those". Well, the time came and went and....no car. So Dad would call Dave back and Dave would say "yeah, those all had to go to the big name racers....maybe we can get you one from the next batch". The next batch came and went and...no car.
Dad had already met Dick Jesse by this time (another story). Dick, always the consumate salesman, had offered that when Dad was ready to "step up" to a Pontiac to come see him. Dad felt like he was getting the "run around" at Ford* and figured there was no time like the present to make the switch.
His original plan was to buy a used or a leftover '62 Catalina with the aluminum package but Dick persuaded him that he might be able to hook Dad up with a '63 with what he called "the carryover package", at a better price. A few days later Dick called and told Dad to come on down, that he had a car picked out.
They met at Royal and walked out to the Service area. Past the last bay there was a fairly nondescript white Tempest/Lemans coupe and a wagon sitting there - nondescript, that is, until Dick fired the coupe up. The front fenders shook, and the windows shook (and Dad shook!). Dick shut the car off and Dad said "Dick, you know there is no way I could afford a car like that". Dick laughed and said "You're not a big enough shooter to get a car like this. I can't sell you that car anyway....that's George's car" (meaning George Delorean's '63 SD coupe).
Dick also confided that the wagon was to be his own racer. "At least it's an automatic so that YOU can drive it" Dad teased.
Dick admitted that Dad's car was actually over at the Engineering Building on Joslyn Avenue, so they loaded up and headed over. The necessary clearances to get through the gate had already been arranged; they turned the corner and behind the building was a beautiful dark blue '63 Catalina. He learned it was spec'd as follows: Built as a Super Duty car, it was converted over the counter to an "HO" car so that Dad could run B/Stock with it**. It had aluminum fenders, hood and decklid; doors were steel as were the rad support, fender inners and bumper brackets. It had a regular production (ie, "non swiss cheese") frame. Probably the most notable feature, however, was the paint scheme: it was the car that Wangers developed the "Bobcat" appearance package on***. Nocturne blue with the tri color Ventura interior, it had an extra silver stripe around the spear side trim, and silver around the rear face of the deck lid. Eight lug aluminum wheels, with the area between the fins painted blue, the top of the fins painted silver and part of the cap painted blue too (I believe, by looking at the old photo below). Add some wide whitewalls and you have quite a stunning automobile.
Dad was beginning to think that this was too good to be true; another "lark" like the Tempests he had just seen. However, Dick quoted him a price the deal was struck. They headed back over to Royal and within the next few days Dad plunked down $3100 of his hard earned cash and drove home in his first Pontiac racecar.
This is currently my only photograph of the car. I do have some images from old home movies that I am working to recover:
(1/2/2019 - video has been posted to youtube here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lvpCR07taY)
*In retrospect there may have been some hesitancy from Ford management to give a special car and full factory sponsorship to a Chevrolet diemaker. Dad tried Chevrolet as well but without success. For him to be competetive for 1963 the choice came down to either Dodge or Pontiac (...not a very difficult choice!).
**Not long after this Dad noticed a complete SD top end sitting on the counter at Royal. He started to grab it with the intentions of converting his (supposed) HO car to a Super Duty, but Jesse stopped him. They already had cars running in the higher classes and specifically wanted Dad's car to compete in B/Stock. We could go so far as to speculate that the parts he started to use were the very same ones removed from his car in the first place.
***Jim had taken a special interest in this car while it was in the Royal paint shop. A second car followed, a green one, as well as a third red car.
The "green car":
