[Elarson]

I got to thinking about the people that did things with Pontiacs that caused me to drastically expand my idea of the potential of that engine family. It's not a list of everybody who has had accomplishments...just the ones that triggered step-changes in my personal thinking. So here's my list...roughly in the order that they affected me:

HO Racing & Nunzi - the ones that made me realize that there was something special about Pontiacs.
PJ Heck - the ride in his '63 aluminum SD Catalina was life-altering
Arnie Beswick - everything he did was ground breaking
Jim Mino - proved that you could go faster with an optimized combo of ordinary parts than with chrome plated gee-whiz stuff (Quaker City Dragway, a long time ago)
Marty Palbykin - twin turbo GTO was shockingly fast for it's time
Steve Barcak's nitro-fueled FED...hmmmm, nitro
Rodney Butler/Travis Quillen twin turbo '63

Who's on your list of major influences?

Eric

[Tom Vaught]

Norman Curl, my Brother-in-Law who was an outstanding Mechanic and helped me early on with my 64 GTO when I blew the first 10 bolt rear end out of the car. He owned a 1965 Olds 442 at the time. Later a 1965 Catalina with the 421 HO engine as a "family" car.

Roy Engelbrecht (Pontiac Dealer for 67 years and my Uncle). He gave me hands on experience with Pontiacs both in the Service Bays and in the Parts Room. He was very good friends with a National Parts and Service "Brass Hat" John Londick, who drove my 64 GTO Convertible for a few months prior to me buying it from GM with a special deal.

HO Racing & Nunzi, read all of their Newsletters, Books, and Magazine Articles and later became friends with Ken Crocie, Craig H., and the Nunzi Romano family. Sadly I never met or talked with Kern O before his passing.
Ken C. still helps me on many things.

Marty Palbykin, his wife Mary Palbykin, their daughter Mary Lamb who allowed me to stay at their home in Michigan many times when we were working on the different Pontiac vehicles they campaigned at the drag strip. Tom Earhart was part of that group too. The first really fast Turbocharged Pontiac effort.

Bill Klausing, a giant of a man, who tried to help me learn about machining, racing HEAVY vehicles (63 Pontiac Catalina) and I taught him stuff about Holley carbs.

The Butler Family, Jim, Joy, Rodney, David, and the people who worked with them at Jim Butler Performance.
Their Cousins: the "Tankerlees", and one of their customers Billy Cobb who street raced in Detroit.
They also helped my Pontiac Friends: Jim Brady, Mark Schottler, Glenn Schottler, and the Poe Family.

There are others in the Pontiac Family but I will move on to the other guys.

Homer Perry, Ford Racing Manager who had direct responsibility for Ford winning Le Mans 4 times for the Ford Family. Shelby and the rest of the racers reported directly to Homer. Homer hired me, from Holley carburetor, to work for him in 1978 on the 1979 Turbocharged Mustang. He saw Ford win again 50 years later with a state of the art Race Car with Twin Turbos, He personally hired the "Research Senior Engineer" for boosted engine programs for the 2016 Le Mans program many years earlier, see above. He was quite a leader.

So I have Pontiac Guys who got me started in the performance game, Holley Guys who taught me real engineering, vs book smarts, and Ford guys who gave me a chance to work in 5 different areas of engineering: Emissions, Truck Operations, Aerodynamics, Performance Evaluation (Testing: (Bonneville, Baja 1000, Drag Racing, Road Racing, and Off Shore Racing), and finally Research (primarily boosted engine programs). So I made use of GM and Ford Knowledge in my life. But the Pontiac world got me started in the game. Keith Seymore was a GM friend and still is.

Tom V.

[GTOGEORGE]

I wont go into my life story (that isn't Race related) for this is a RACE section so ill keep it race related.........MY BROTHER, he's the one that got me into racing.....plain and simple! He inspired me, he had a 63 Ford with a 289 HiPo engine (which got me into FORDS) he raced at the track (Detroit Dragway), then he bought a 69 Cuda with a 340 that he raced at the track and Street Raced (yes before the street outlaws) out on Northline Road by the Airport! I bought my first race car a 1969 Plymouth with a 383 magnum engine after I Graduated in 1971, but still liking Ford race cars. Everything CHANGED in 1974 when I bought my FIRST Pontiac a 1974 GTO and the rest is History! So I blame my BROTHER.....Thank You Robert!


GTO George

[67Fbird]

Jim Hand, The Butlers and Nunzi....in no particular order. And probably Burt Reynolds! I've always leaned toward PONCHO's (except for my Buick GN years) and am typically anti-establishment kinda hot-rodder (i mean really who the hell puts a Buick v-6 in a Chevette...to be sneaky).

[Tom Vaught]

If I wasn't a Pontiac Guy, I would have owned a 231 CID Grand National many years ago.
Do you still have that car as well as a Pontiac? Some people keep GM cars, not just Pontiacs. Tom V.

By the way George, it is not just a TOPIC about RACE CARS in a Race section.
"It's not a list of everybody who has had accomplishments...just the ones that Triggered Step-changes in my personal thinking. So you went from being a Ford Guy to a GM GUY in 1974.......I went from being a pure GM Guy to being a GM and Ford Guy in 1978. I Bought a 1978 Trans Am new.
Tom V.

[PAUL K]

Great thread. I'm with you on a bunch of the above but would have to throw Jim Hand and Pete McCarthy in the mix. Along with Boss Bird guys, Big Chief, John Langer and Bruce Miachles for currently/recently showing us Pontiacs can run some what competitively today. There are also to many to mention that kept things going all the years I've been doing this. I can't list them all but I was always impressed with Dave Johnson and his White Warrior. I'm glad we became friends. I remember seeing him at events with his open trailer and Astro van he used to tow with. He would be sitting on a foldable lawn chair relaxing between rounds while most of the rest of his class had big motor homes, enclosed trailers, crews running around with matching shirts all working their butts off trying to keep up. RIP DJ

[67Fbird]

Never owned a GN....but the day i rode in my friends MOM's Regal T-Type...i envisioned a blacked out lowered version with a little more boost and gear!!!
Low a behold...the Buick gods delivered about 1.5 yrs later. I was 10000% Buick v-6 dork. Ken Duttwieler , Ruggles....I had to have THAT. All i had a was a Shuvit...lol a small bolck really wouldn't fit (I was only 17) but a V-6 WOULD
Upon the death of my daily driver Shuvit I purchased my first REAL car..1978 TA 400 auto (circa 1988..ish). Been poncho ever since.(f- body) Chevette was good for 8.20 in the 1/8 after the shuvit rearend scattered (2nd day) and a 9" and ladder bars and cage were installed..

[Sirrotica]

First of all my father, although he never raced, he followed dirt track racing. My father and grandfather both worked as line mechanics at the local Pontiac dealership in my home town, Erie PA.

A local dirt track racer named Jim Scott, that started running Pontiacs beginning with a 64 GTO (Late Model division at the time,1964) and he updated his cars through 1966 running GTOs in the late model division. He later got sponsorship from a ford dealer, and he ran fords after 1966.

Another local GTO dirt track racer was Dave Turner, he raced GTOs in 1964 and updated the car to a 1965 GTO. He switched from Pontiacs to chevys after 1965.

Don and Roy Gay, I saw their 65 and 66 GTO funny cars in 1966 at the local Pontiac dealer before they ran a match race on Sunday against each other.

Fireball Roberts/Smokey Yunick car, won the Daytone 500 in 1962.

Arnie Beswick of course, but I never saw him race a Pontiac. I did see him at Thompson Dragway with the Coca Cola Calavalcade of stars, but he was running a mopar hemi powered car at the time.

Those are the most influential names in my commitment to Pontiac Stratostreak powered race cars.

[Half-Inch Stud]

Edmund Windeler for designing the PMD V8, with forsight to 470 CID in 1948 thru 1954. John DeLorean for Euro OHC inspirations applied to the OHC-6 into Production, and OHC V8 developments. And DMC car company.

Spotts enthusiasm and forsight in the early days with Rare Bird parts then PY, of course Chris Carperson was key to join forces with Spotts, and build their catalogs. Steve Ames was their cooperative competitor; safe to say now that they purposly didn't step on each other back them. So many repop efforts, so little margin, so they communicated their development on-ramps. Low pressure zinc cast emblems grew to Cast iron exhaust repops!

HO Racing monthly newsletters. Equations plotted even before PCs.

Tom Slawco porting PMD iron. I should have bought his early sheet metal intake.. L. Wensler and his Dual Quad manifold.

This PY croud for typing development thoughts out loud. Younz know who you are.

The Langer Rex squad growing into an ECM.!

[PontiacJim1959]

No one inspired me as I lived in a small rural town and didn't know anyone who was into fast cars. Sure we had them, but I did not know or were friends of any of these guys.

My inspiration was getting my driver's license in 1975 when I was 16 and the joy, peace, and fun of taking to the roads in my dad's 1965 2 Dr Ht Impala with 283/ three-speed on the column. It would take me back and forth to work and as I became more at ease.........I found I liked speed. I learned how to burn rubber with that car and learned the tricks of speed shifting that column shift without locking the fingers up at the base of the column and having to pop the hood and manually re-align the shift fingers. Second gear in the car was awesome and that 283 would sing when I revved it out. On the highway doing 80 MPH with my younger brother in the passenger seat I can clearly recall seeing the sheet metal of that long hood just vibrating and dancing up and down - we were both smiling and amazed. (my brother got his turn with the car when he got his license. He blew up the 283 and slipped in a Corvette 327 without my dad knowing it was a 327, then blew the 3-speed and in went a Muncie with floor shift. My dad never complained because he really like the power and 4-speed - it was hard to get it away from him at times! We finally told him about the 327 and he just smiled and said "don't ever tell your mother.")

Shortly after getting my license, my parents made it clear that I was not going to be using "their" car to keep going back and forth to work and driving around in it. I had become interested and hooked on classic cars - had to be original oldies, and the 1950's cars (later customs). I would go to some local car shows and walk right past a hot rod or muscle car and go for the 1948 Lincoln, Packards, Model A's, etc., and original 1950's cars. I purchased several magazines regularly like Auto Weekly and others having Classics in their pages. I built model cars and the 1932 Duesenberg Model J Phaeton with its supercharged straight 8 and those chrome exhaust piped pouring out the hood sides was my all time favorite car (still is) as are the boat tail Auburns and the big elegant 16 cylinder cars of the day.

I woke up one day to the culture of hot rodding. I was at a car show in Sturbridge Village looking at the classics with my dad when I heard this loud wide open pipe exhaust sound rumbling down the long drive into the show parking lot. It was a black T-bucket, orange upholstery, with cut down front windshield and canvas top, polished & chromed supercharged big block engine with 3-four barrel carbs sitting on top and 3- chromed velocity stacks pointing to the sky. The engine was boxed in by a set of long chromed header/zoomie pipes that reached down to the ground and then turned up. It had small narrow front tires on chrome spoked bicycles rims, and these super huge wide steam roller rear tires. Man what a sound and everyone at the show began to walk over to meet the car as it came in. It was featured in a car magazine that I have and it survived with a new owner many years later and was again in a car magazine in different paint. I still have my Kodak photos of the car.

But the interest in 1950s cars took hold of me and those customs by Barris, Winfield, Roth, and others and the pinstriping of Von Dutch. So naturally I wanted a 1950's car and my first car at age 16 was my 1956 Pontiac Chieftan, 316/Dual Range Hydramatic, 4-Dr Ht, green/white, purchased through the court as an estate sale for $150.00 and the Judge drove the car to my home to drop it off. I then proceeded to get it safe, added a 1957 Buick grill, paint it, re-upholster the seats, added Porta-Wall white walls, dual antennas, factory fender skirts, and a factory sunvisor. I got it running good, and the harder I ran that engine, the better it ran - clearing out all the carbon LOL. I had a hill I could take the car on and just flat out smoke those bias tires into a frenzy. I'd race other cars as it was surprisingly fast and on the highway doing 55 MPH, I could get over 18 MPG's. Then one day my brother borrowed the car and it came back totaled out because a car had pulled right out in front of him without looking and he T-boned the car.


The need for speed was still there, BUT, now it was this Pontiac that had me hooked. My dad's first car was a 1946 Pontiac, and ultimately, my younger brother's first car at 16 was a 1968 Bonneville. But my next car sealed the deal when I purchased a red 1967 Firebird, red interior, that had the 326 replaced with a warmed over 350CI, and the factory 3-speed on the floor with console. It was in great shape sans a big dent in the front fender where a previous owner kicked it in because he did not win his class race at the nearby Thompson Speedway. My work buddy sold me the car for $300.00 because it had a nasty oil pan leak. It was the first engine I ever pulled not knowing how to do it, and then installed all new pan gaskets using the aide of a Chilton's manual. Never did leak again. That car was all about fast. I could smoke those tires long time in first, catch a good solid second gear power shift, and keep on hauling. Raced anyone who would gave me a go - ' a 55 Chevy who beat me o top end as 6,000 RPM's was all the engine would do, a 1965 GTO with a 350/4-speed down a main city street side by side (could NOT do that today), and a few other locals. That was my introduction to muscle cars. Then on to my 1967 GTO convertible, my 1970 GTO Judge, my '68 GTO, '65 GTO convertible, and then the 409 Chevy phase. I have probably owned over 50 cars of differing makes and years in my early 20's as I would buy some, sell some, and junk others.

So for me, there was no person who inspired me, but rather, the Pontiac line of cars themselves and my experiences with them. I learned on my own how to work/fix/tune them and did a lot of reading from many of the magazine stand car magazines and some of the Pontiac booklets that used to be offered through these magazine ads.

I got a lot of tickets, many of which I still have, but I would not have traded those times for all the money in the world - great memories that will never be replaced nor happen again.

[Jack Gifford]

Easy answer for me... Mickey Thompson.

[hurryinhoosier62]

My inspirations? Easy, first my dad, my uncle Bill and my “uncle” Bud. All three were Pontiac men until the day they died. What sold me on Pontiacs were a few full throttle blasts in my Uncle Bill’s ‘69 RAIV and his ‘71 455/three speed GTOs.
Next, my good friend and mentor Warren “Bud” Brown, who taught me every thing I know about engine building and tuning. I would have to put Malcolm “Mike” Keown in with Bud. Learning from men with two USAC national sprint car championships and an NHRA Super Stock World Championship between them was definitely a blessing.
Next, Nunzi and Ken Crocie who answered even the most inane Pontiac engine questions with patience. I wouldn’t know squat about Pontiacs without them.
Lastly, Smokey Yunnick for having the “balls” to tell PMD engineers they were wrong about the 3.25” main 421( main bearings would fail due to bearing speed), then building his own 3” main 421 that “kicked” the PMD 421 to the curb.

[adam woodmancy]

1) My father Scott since day 1,
2)Wayne and Mike LLoyd's 72 GTO Pro Street car
3)The Tankersley's 70 GTO's

[RocktimusPryme]

This is probably a little counter to you guys, but for me its Burt Reynolds with that black and gold trans am. If Im being honest nobody else is even a close second. I saw that movie on afternoon cable in the late 80s as a kid and it sparked a love affair that has lasted my whole life. After that my favorite Hot Wheel was a black and gold trans am. I would sabotage the other cars on my Hot Wheels Drag Strip track so the Pontiac always won.

Now of course as Ive gotten older and more involved in the hobby I have come to appreciate the rich history the brand has with its many names. But for me as an initial influence nobody holds a candle to The Bandit.

Ive not owned one yet, but I would like to get my hands on a 77/78 at some point. Ive even kicked around the idea of trading my first gen for one.

[Elarson]

Originally Posted by RocktimusPryme

This is probably a little counter to you guys, but for me its Burt Reynolds with that black and gold trans am. If Im being honest nobody else is even a close second. I saw that movie on afternoon cable in the late 80s as a kid and it sparked a love affair that has lasted my whole life. After that my favorite Hot Wheel was a black and gold trans am. I would sabotage the other cars on my Hot Wheels Drag Strip track so the Pontiac always won.

Now of course as Ive gotten older and more involved in the hobby I have come to appreciate the rich history the brand has with its many names. But for me as an initial influence nobody holds a candle to The Bandit.

Ive not owned one yet, but I would like to get my hands on a 77/78 at some point. Ive even kicked around the idea of trading my first gen for one.

You hit on my theme exactly...,people who triggered a step-change in your thinking about Pontiacs.

Eric

[Elarson]

I realized that I left an important one off my list:

Herb Adams - his Fire Am project car (and the resulting parts and knowledge) were a huge factor in appreciating the handling potential of the 2nd Gen Firebird.

Eric

[twooldgoats]

My older brother was the one who reinforced my love of cars in general. We grew up in the 50's with a wonderful single-parent mom, but she didn't appreciate cars and didn't even own one for years. She never remarried, so it was my brother who talked cars with me and set an example by hot-rodding and street racing (I didn't say it was always a good example ).

As far as Pontiacs go, I didn't come over to them---they came over to me. In the mid-fifties, flathead Ford hotrods and Oldsmobiles were the cars to have. I had several Oldsmobiles growing up. But then, in the 60's Pontiac decided to become a performance car, instead of an old man's car. I remember seeing a brand new '65 GTO on the streets of Minneapolis and, after that, the Pontiac was the performance car for me.


Several friends and acquaintances liked Pontiacs and reinforced my love of the Pontiac, but it was the decision of PMD to go for performance that was the critical influence.


Jim