[Wareagle]

Lynn--it is a game of Politics--look when Pontiac was kicking butt in NASCAR in the early 60's with Their SD389-421 CATALINAS -Chevy could'nt stand losing --so what did we get--the 63 GM racing ban--Chevy got back into Nascar but Pontiac never did--I wonder why .

[theoldone]

Originally Posted by Wareagle

Lynn--it is a game of Politics--look when Pontiac was kicking butt in NASCAR in the early 60's with Their SD389-421 CATALINAS -Chevy could'nt stand losing --so what did we get--the 63 GM racing ban--Chevy got back into Nascar but Pontiac never did--I wonder why .

there's a lot more to it than that...the "racing ban" was actually a well propagated cover story because GM and specifically Pontiac had no competitive engine for the 1963 season.

The Ford 427 FE walked all over the Pontiac 421's at Daytona in 1963. And the Pontiacs were using the brand new "980" SD421 heads, which were just released in late Oct-Nov 1962 for the 1963 season.

If you read Pete Mc's book on the SD421 cars, quite a few were made during 1963, but they simply were not as dominant or competitive as previous years.

When Mopar released the 426 Hemi in 1964, the show was over- racing in the big leagues with a Pontiac in 1964 was like bringing a boy scout pocket knife to a gunfight. The Fords and Mopars of the time were making 150-200 HP more than the SD421- regardless if you watch the old NASCAR archive race films from 1963-70, you'll see a few Pontiacs in the race on the inside getting lapped terribly by Mopars and Fords. I watched a few.

Chevy snuck back in through the back door with the 427, which Smokey Yunick tweaked to lead the Daytona 500 in 1967, but it chucked a rod and that was it- the race was won by a tunnel port 427 Ford with a young Mario Andretti driving.

Pontiac DID race in 1963, if you look at the record book you'll see they won quite a few short track and dirt track races (NASCAR still raced on some dirt tracks then). After 1963, there were no more Pontiac wins.

There was also a guy running a Pontiac 428 w/RA V heads that ran in the 1969-70 time period in NASCAR, that amounted to nothing- then another effort with the Pontiac 366 engine with RA IV heads in 1972 in NASCAR. So Pontiac did indeed race long after 1963 with their engine- it simply was not competitive anymore.

Could GM have competed if they wanted to ? Yes, certainly. At the time Chevrolet alone was bigger in corporate size than Chrysler, Ford, AMC, and all other GM divisions put together ! Bottom line was, GM didn't need race wins to sell cars, Ford and Mopar did. GM still outsold Ford/Chrysler even though they did not "officially" compete in NASCAR. So GM figured, why bother ?

I believe had Pontiac been able to make a solid lifter valley 400-type block, and use the RA V or other hi-flowing head, and had factory money and big corp. sponsor support, they could have been competitive. Obviously the RA V head was up to the task. And in 1971 NASCAR rules allowed multiple carbs on 366 engines, but only one carb on a 427. So in effect a NASCAR racer could run a 366 w/2-4's and RA IV or RA V heads.