[70Steve]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Thank you; the horizontal surfaces are pretty crackled, and there are hairs in the paint and fingerprints on the hood - but - it does look pretty good in photos!



Let's put those in the old dealer thread....

K

No probs, just posted them there.

[Keith Seymore]

I've commissioned Eric White (gtoric) to do a little project for me, so we were out yesterday gathering some documentation. Mike Morrisey's beautiful '63 HO Catalina shown here (as well as a shot or two of the car that was used to develop the Roush aluminum wheel/disc brake setup).

K

[brut4s]

Beautiful '63!

[Old Blue 66]

Beautiful Cat!!! And I used to have the same 64 Bonne vert before I had my LeMans. It just wasnt as nice.

Great pics. Thanks for sharing.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Thanks to Mike Noun I now have the video footage as mentioned in post #3 of this thread. You will see a fairly decent walk around of the car; there is a second walk around of very poor quality but (to make up for that) Mike also included some home movies of drag racing at some local tracks here in the early 60's. Thanks Mike!

YouTube video of '63 Catalina: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj0M4DQhXKE

This car was scrapped in 1964 after the front end was removed to repair Jim's Swiss Cheese car (which had been involved in a towing accident).

K

We had to update the link to the aforementioned video; new link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lvpCR07taY

Again, thanks to Mike Noun for keeping this current.

K

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Today is my GTO's "birthday"....

It was 45 years ago today that Dad and I headed down to Royal to pick it up.

Incidently, September 11th of 1964 fell on a Friday, just as it does today.

K

Two years have passed since this post? It's hard to believe. That takes us to 47 years....

Happy Birthday, lil GTO!

[GT182]

Great photos Keith. BTW... is that you they took photos of taking the photos?

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by GT182

Great photos Keith. BTW... is that you they took photos of taking the photos?

Thank you; no - that's Eric White (gtoric) - me taking pictures of Eric taking pictures....

(lol)

K

[GT182]

Ok... but next time get yer mug in some photos too. LOL

[Alvin]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

September 1963:

"It was now September and time for the Nationals. Because Pontiac had pulled out of racing the Super Duty cars had to run FX [ie, "Factory Experimental"] and they put ballast in the Catalinas to run B/FX. My car was entered in B/Stock until [NHRA Tech Inspector] 'Farmer' Dismuke walked by, but he had a ring with a magnet in it that he would use to check cars for aluminum or fiberglass. When he put it on the fender of my car he said 'no way. This is an FX car'. If I ran, it would be B/FX and I sure didn't stand a chance against a Super Duty, and I think that was the year Doug Nash ran C/FX with his Bronco so I couldn't add ballast and run C/FX. So my car sat on the sidelines and didn't run.



"Our other car was a 1960 Corvair, so we did all our traveling in our Catalina,....

Keith/All,

In case you missed it, isn't this 1963 Pontiac Drag Car(?) shown (in color video) drag racing in the American Icon: Muscle Car episode mentioned below.

BTW: Great Thread here, please know no Hi-Jack intended!

Did you see the premiere episode of the Discovery - now known as Velocity - channel’s show;

American Icon: Muscle Car?

The programming with Chip Foose highlights a lot of Vintage DRAG Racing and NASCAR Racing; including color footage from the 1960’s racers.

Rick Treworgy’s pristine Bristol Blue, 4-spd, 1961 Ventura Bubble Top and his Muscle Car City Museum collection is shown.

www.musclecarcity.net/
Location: Muscle Car City • 3811 Tamiami Trail • Punta Gorda, FL 33950 • 941.575.5959







Check it out if you missed it! It is a great program and a great episode showing early muscle car warriors from the Big 3.

[Alvin]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

September 1963:

"It was now September and time for the Nationals. Because Pontiac had pulled out of racing the Super Duty cars had to run FX [ie, "Factory Experimental"] and they put ballast in the Catalinas to run B/FX. My car was entered in B/Stock until [NHRA Tech Inspector] 'Farmer' Dismuke walked by, but he had a ring with a magnet in it that he would use to check cars for aluminum or fiberglass. When he put it on the fender of my car he said 'no way. This is an FX car'. If I ran, it would be B/FX and I sure didn't stand a chance against a Super Duty, and I think that was the year Doug Nash ran C/FX with his Bronco so I couldn't add ballast and run C/FX. So my car sat on the sidelines and didn't run.

On the racing video it was reported at the time as:
“…a B/FX Pontiac Driven by Jim Wangers.”

Blurry images of the car on the strip below

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Alvin

Keith/All,

In case you missed it, isn't this 1963 Pontiac Drag Car(?) shown (in color video) drag racing in the American Icon: Muscle Car episode mentioned below.

BTW: Great Thread here, please know no Hi-Jack intended!

Yes - that is the same car. That is THE main Royal car, and a Swiss Cheese Cat.

In fact, in the photo you show in the quote, my dad is driving Pete Seaton's car in the far lane.

Thanks - I'll have to check the video out.

K

[sdbob]

Thanks Keith and all, love the 63's. As the song went' those were the days my friend we thought they would never end'.

[Keith Seymore]

Thanks Bob -

Here's another pic of that same run (Dad driving Pete Seaton's car):



And here's how the day ended -



K

[Dr. Eric M. Schiffer]

Here is a resent picture of the Royal car restored. I also included a picture of Jack "Doc" Watson with his restored SSJ Grand Prix at the same event.
Somewhere amoung my pictures I have Win Brown at the event too.

Hey, Keith I see you where driving the Opel "Volt" to see the new 8 Lug wheels. Is that Mike Tiffany's '67 GTO convert?

[Dr. Eric M. Schiffer]

Here are some pictures of oldies. Joe Pepo on of the original Detroit "High End" racers, Scott Tieman, Jack "Doc" Watson (Hurst Shifty Doctor) and Win Brown, (Royal Pontiac/Royal Race Team) That is the '64 Car and Driver red GTO to the left and Jack Watson's Hurst Olds convertible pace car to the right.

With the Monkee Mobile.
Left:Me in a yellow over T-shirt
Middle: Buck Mook, Retired head Ford Designer who designed the Monkee Mobile when a student on the west coast. He worked with Dean Jefferies on this and the original Green Hornet car.
Current owner: Mel Guthery, bought the car at Barrett Jackson a few years ago for around $340,000. Mel drives it every where. It is not a trailer queen.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Dr. Eric M. Schiffer

Hey, Keith I see you where driving the Opel "Volt" to see the new 8 Lug wheels. Is that Mike Tiffany's '67 GTO convert?

Good eye - that was my daily driver for the last four months, so I drove it everywhere; gave it back on Monday of this week (26Se2011).



The GTO belongs to Eric White, who drove it over from Lapeer to snap the photos.

K

[brut4s]

Mr Seymore, I was re-reading this article and post #8 caught my eye. My '65 GTO also was built with out Rally gauges or a tach. It also dose'nt have the GTO emblem on the trunk. It is the trunk that came with the car and has'nt been in a rear accident. I bought it from the orignal owner. The only damage was to the front fenders. I thought it was odd, but didn't think much about it.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by brut4s

Mr Seymore, I was re-reading this article and post #8 caught my eye. My '65 GTO also was built with out Rally gauges or a tach. It also dose'nt have the GTO emblem on the trunk. It is the trunk that came with the car and has'nt been in a rear accident. I bought it from the orignal owner. The only damage was to the front fenders. I thought it was odd, but didn't think much about it.

The rally gauges/tach were optional, so it is possible for a car (many of them) to be built without that option. The unique-ness in our case was that our car, destined to be a racecar, was ordered with the tach cluster but was still built without (as evidenced by the build sheet). Must have been a part shortage, or some other reason not obvious today.

Relative to your GTO emblem - do you know when the car was built, and what assembly plant?

K

[brut4s]

It was built at the Fremont plant. I'll have to l look for my PHS paperwork I don't remember the date.