[SD421]

Originally Posted by spinninmywheels

First of all, "Who is Pete McCarthy?" Well maybe I should have asked this question more like this. I have heard the name on and off for a while and decided to find out who he is or was. I found that his name is out there but there isn't really anything with it. Just like this Thread. It starts out as if it Pete built something yet did he? So I started to research who Pete was. I did find that he raced a GTO but could never get it under its index and wrote an editorial blaming the NHRA??? Who picked the combination??? Oh well, that is what I found. I saw that he has a book out there, and haven't seen it in person. If the above is all there is about Pete (and most of what I have found in the Magazines are always someone else’s ideas in his words or that is the way that it appears) I would feel much better reading something from somebody else..but that is just an opinion from a Gear Head Cop that went to one to many statement analysis and interview interrogation schools.

I'll tell you who Pete McCarthy is: Pete was the guy who reponded to my letter with an invitation so that a 23 yr old kid could come down to SoCal back in 1994 to visit him at his HOUSE. I got to meet Jerry Goodale of Specialized Motor Service where all the R&D for Pete's book took place. I got to meet late Brad Urban of The Carb Shop. I got to see them work on JD Minnicks Chevy that had a Pontiac motor in it. I got to meet Craig F.with the Green Firebird. He was Pete's new son-in-law. I got to ask Pete all the questions I wanted about Pontiacs. I got to see Pete's private office in his home where he wrote his books. Saw all the pics he had too. Got to have pizza and watch home videos. HE has always been the nicest, most generous guy I have ever met.

Now onto you MR SpinningMyWheels. Is this the way a cop goes onto a message board to find answers?? I can see that you are a **** disturber. Your "tone" in your question was way outta line. In the Marines we "square away" people like you really quick. I see that you have apologized to others on this thread but since I just happened on here today to see this, Im responding to you. Evidently, you need to brush up on your people skills.
-Don Schiller
USMC-Retired

[Tom Vaught]

Interesting Thread.

Tom Vaught

[Tom Vaught]

Interesting Thread.

Pete actually wrote 3 books (according to Pete), Mr SpinningMyWheels. I know this is true as I have all three of them.

I had him sign Book 2 and Book 3 for me years ago. Book 2 had some bad binding and came apart. Pete made good with people that received those books.

Book 3 was bound better and had some updated info based on conversations with people after he wrote and released the Book 2.

Book 1 was one of his first efforts with writing (again according to Pete). Pete sent me a copy of Book 1 after I showed an interest in getting a copy of Book 1 for my collection. He said it had a lot of errors in the book but in reality I found very few that mattered. This book was never published in volume. A lot of the correct info went into Book 2.

Pete did a great deal for the Pontiac Community in a variety of ways:

He picked up where Craig and Kern (HO Racing) left off in their articles/newsletters. He acquired a great deal of early SD Info for Book 2 which he passed on the everyone.

He worked with the magazine people early on to get some of his Pontiac articles in print nationally.

He attended many of the Butler "Memorial Day Week-end" race events at Jim Butler's track and POCI events to promote his Pontiac Enthusiast magazine venture with some of the other people in the Pontiac world. He put a lot of PY members cars in his magazine.

He was involved in the "Tiger GTO" racing efforts with Jim Wangers, Jim Butler, and others who stepped up with parts for that project.

Yep, Pete did a lot of good things for the Pontiac world beside writing three books and racing as a Super Stocker in California.

Tom Vaught

[David Holmberg]

It seems that Mr Spinningmywheels only posted in this thread (About Pete) and a thread about Fulper... Hummm...

And he's not posted since this thread.

[Alvin]

Originally Posted by Skip Fix

Most of the time the Hatari SS car ran a 78 6X combo.

A further comment on Pete -he was one of the first guys publishing a Pontiac only magazine that had actual tech articles based on measuring, comparing differences between parts and was race related. Not advertising fluff like most commercial magazines. He had some good indepth stuff. He was happy to share it and would talk on the phone to anyone to help with their Pontiac motor, not keep things a secret like some builders.He did alot of research and published casting numbers for Pontiac factory stuff.

Sometimes he was opinionated, but heck most of us here are!

Wow! Am I glad that you asked who is Pete McCarthy!??
Your question helped me to recall the Pontiac memories and Pete’s personal manner in dealing with me: A Pontiac unknown, especially to him. Pete was and always has been very cordial, accommodating and encouraging with to me and the Pontiac followers. And upon finding that I was a True Pontiac Enthusiast, he (Pete) personally introduced me to the likes of Jim Wangers, Steve Ames, Steve Barack, etc. at the local and national shows I was present where he, Jane and Heather traveled coast to coast attended and promoted the Pontiac sport and hobby when Pontiacs were not popular or sought by the masses as they are again now. Pete was more than one of the "Show and Shine" guys, he loved to work on and race his Ponchos.

Pete McCarthy to me was the Real Pontiac Guy who answered the phone back in the Spring of 1996 when I called to find out information about subscribing to the then new to me Pontiac Enthusiast magazine which had transitioning from “GTO Enthusiast” to Pontiac Enthusiast magazine. My phone call to PE was answered by Pete in their Orange California offices. It was Pete who answered my questions about the status of the Pontiac hobby and his encouragement about the upcoming DAPA Pontiac Southern Nationals was why I attended that show and met some of the “core” Pontiac Restorers, Racers and enthusiasts in 1996- 99. Over the years we have met Pete and company at the Trans Am Nationals - OH, PSN - TX, Tour De Wangers – CA.

Lookup a few resellers of GTO/Pontiac Enthusiast magazine, buy an issue (or all of them you can find) and note the magazine transformed into Pontiac Enthusiast Volume 1 Number 1 in 1993 and you will see that the bulk of Pontiac engine/suspension/drive train tech is from Pete and his partners.

Perhaps it's a "Coastal recognition issue" as they were all SoCal Pontiac'ers and most other publications were based in the Northeast or Southeast. Like Floridian Garlits showing up at Pomona California back in the day. Tennessee has a lot of fine Pontiac's, clubs and enthusiasts that could bring you up to speed about Pete and the other Pontiac old school people.

Here’s my brief Google search for Pete McCarthy:
http://www.petemccarthy.com/
http://www.automotivetraveler.com/in...c=0&Itemid=131
http://www.highperformancepontiac.co...ii/larkin.html

Thanks for the Q. 1st time I’ve drug out the old archive issues of PE Vol. 1 No 1 to present issue in some time.
Who is Pete McCarthy, Nunzi, Jim Wangers, Steve Statham, Paul Zazarine, John DeLorean, Don Keefe, Arnie Bezwick, Jim Hand, et al!??

To me- pure and simple – they all, like us here at this forum, are simply Passionate Pontiac People! And like Skip said: Sometimes he was opinionated, but heck most of us here are!

[GonicGM]

My personal involvement with Pete was limited to one letter I wrote him regarding some racing tech. This was long before public internet and I cannot remember if before or after his 55-79 book publication. Regardless, he did respond via mail with regard to being busy but recognized merit in the content of the questions and took the time to respond. I own the book and have for a very long time. It is actually one of the printings with the loosening binding. I believe that book was a major undertaking and was probably published for the sake of spreading the wealth of knowledge. I'm sure that there was some monetary benefit to publication but for the sake of making all that research publicly available, I'm thankful.
Most people would not have the initiative, vision, skill, guts, patience to publish something like that. I admire that. Twenty years later we are all quite advanced past the tech of that book however I believe we have all taken a little from it to be where we are today. Publicly write something and you set yourself up as a target for anyone. Bruce Fulper regularly took shots at Pete in his own articles and publications. I don't know why. What can it gain you? Pete was a major contributor to where the Pontiac community is today. To compare the level of performance and technological expertise of his aged publication to today is unfair. Pete is a class act and contributed to where we all are today. Okay, so now I've written something, take some shots at me.

[goatasaurus rex]

he must still be shaking in his shoes because of my "mighty" 11:66, he he he

[pro-tour79]

I did notice also that he knew something about Pete's relation with Angels and also knew something about Fulper, seems odd to me....

[fastgto]

Originally Posted by David Holmberg

It seems that Mr Spinningmywheels only posted in this thread (About Pete) and a thread about Fulper... Hummm...

And he's not posted since this thread.

He sure sounds like the Foolper. Yikes it is the Foolper.

[hectore3]

Great tech article. Now I will have an idea where to go with this spare 400 I have here.

[Motor Daddy]

Originally Posted by Tom Vaught

Interesting Thread.

Pete actually wrote 3 books (according to Pete), Mr SpinningMyWheels. I know this is true as I have all three of them.

I had him sign Book 2 and Book 3 for me years ago. Book 2 had some bad binding and came apart. Pete made good with people that received those books.

Book 3 was bound better and had some updated info based on conversations with people after he wrote and released the Book 2.

Book 1 was one of his first efforts with writing (again according to Pete). Pete sent me a copy of Book 1 after I showed an interest in getting a copy of Book 1 for my collection. He said it had a lot of errors in the book but in reality I found very few that mattered. This book was never published in volume. A lot of the correct info went into Book 2.

Pete did a great deal for the Pontiac Community in a variety of ways:

He picked up where Craig and Kern (HO Racing) left off in their articles/newsletters. He acquired a great deal of early SD Info for Book 2 which he passed on the everyone.

He worked with the magazine people early on to get some of his Pontiac articles in print nationally.

He attended many of the Butler "Memorial Day Week-end" race events at Jim Butler's track and POCI events to promote his Pontiac Enthusiast magazine venture with some of the other people in the Pontiac world. He put a lot of PY members cars in his magazine.

He was involved in the "Tiger GTO" racing efforts with Jim Wangers, Jim Butler, and others who stepped up with parts for that project.

Yep, Pete did a lot of good things for the Pontiac world beside writing three books and racing as a Super Stocker in California.

Tom Vaught

Being serious, not sarcastic, you impress the hell out of me.

[stobin]

It really is great to see so many people on this site giving Pete the tremendous respect he deserves for his accomplishments for our Pontiac hobby. Most of all his research was done well before the aftermarket even considered producing parts for Pontiacs. I was able to be lucky enough to have become a friend of Pete's back in 1992 when he was writing these articles. The amount of "buzz" these articles created was huge. Pete was teaching a few lucky individuals how to port cylinder heads back then, including one very well known shop owner that is a very successful Pontiac engine builder now. I was invited by Pete to watch him port my 6X castings back in 1992 at SMS in Riverside Ca. Pete was always willing to answer all of my questions and showed me many of head porting techniques used to blend and shape the ports properly. The car those heads went on was a POS 4-speed Formula Firebird, but it was very fast, and I appreciated the advise he gave me. He always was willing to share the information with others as seen in his books. I also had an opportunity to have Pete give me a ride in the green '67 Firebird mentioned earlier. That car was very fast. So for anyone else that needs to know who he is, that is my version. Maybe "spinning your wheels" is a good name for you sir. I hope that this has added to your Pete McCarthy education.

[Dragncar]

If spinny does not know who Pete McCarthy is he is not much of a Pontiac fan or has not been doing it very long.
I have never liked cops or the way they think. It must suck having to go through life with everyone being a suspect.

[bobzdar]

Originally Posted by hectore3

Great tech article. Now I will have an idea where to go with this spare 400 I have here.

I found the cam test results interesting, just wish they had repeated them with the ported heads and provided graphs.

Pay attention to which cam made the most HP with unported heads...

[Motor Daddy]

What does Pete mean when he says, "Closing the lobe separation angle (paradoxically, spreading the lobes apart) increases the overlap but also closes the intake valve sooner, resulting in higher cylinder pressure?"

Closing the lobe separation angle spreads the lobes apart???

[gtofreek]

Originally Posted by motor-daddy

What does Pete mean when he says, "Closing the lobe separation angle (paradoxically, spreading the lobes apart) increases the overlap but also closes the intake valve sooner, resulting in higher cylinder pressure?"

Closing the lobe separation angle spreads the lobes apart???

Yeah, I also would think it means tightening them up, no spreading them apart.