1963 Tempest Dealer Built Super Duty #6 of 6.

[biomedtechguy]

My wife's 421 Tripower 65 GTO:

The night I had installed the modified Rochester 2bbl carbs. I was still working on the tune and idle speed..

 

[F4R/T]

I like a little tin Indian ...421 was pretty torquey, put a Muncie behind it and the 421 will eat the Muncie... I have dads input and cluster gear shaft to show, the case was repaired then finally destroyed. Rock crusher my butt.

 

[biomedtechguy]

I like a little tin Indian ...421 was pretty torquey, put a Muncie behind it and the 421 will eat the Muncie... I have dads input and cluster gear shaft to show, the case was repaired then finally destroyed. Rock crusher my butt.

There's a 4 speed in the GTO, I believe it's a M20 or 21, although I did have someone else say it was a M22, I doubt that...
The first thing to go on it was the 8.X" open rear axle, but I had already planned for a Quick Performance 9" based rear axle assembly which has been in it for a few years. Lots of optional upgrades and went from a 3.3 to a 3.80 ring and pinion gearset. Next is the TKO600 5 speed that's been sitting in its box for 1½ years, and a hydraulic throwout bearing setup because I think I'm going to want one of @weedburner (Grant)'s HitMaster launch control systems for that car too (as soon as I can try the one I've got installed in my Roadrunner). I also have a coilover rear axle housing from QP that I'm swapping it over to.

 

[Endangered Species]

I love old Pontiac's especially the early 60's like you posted. One of these day's I'm going to own one.

 

[F4R/T]

The wide track was pretty cool in my book, the stack on headlamps always caught my eye.. Goat, Bonne, Cat were the finest up to 67 imo. I always thought Pontiac and Buick were much better than a Chevy even though they have a lot of similarities. I really like when guys keep the Pontiac and Buick engines in them not a LS this or Lt that..

 

[super-bee_ski]

Oh my GOD!
I'd die for one!

 

[Ron H]

Coming from a family with several Pontiacs including 5 GTO's and '63 GP tri-power that I took my driver's test in (1st car I bought was a '67 GTO) I have a never ending affection for them. Much as I'm a mopar guy, there's an ultra-thin line btw my like of the GTO's and mopars.

 

[biomedtechguy]

I can't find the video that I thought I had from Mecum Kissimmee where they sold some "Swiss cheese" 421 SD 2x 4bbl cars, and I think there were a few 421SD powered cars there. The SOUND of those 421SD engines idling was as good as I've heard. Really cool cars.

 

[65Fury440]

I raced one of those Pontiacs at Drag Strip Riot a few years back....

Dragstrip1 - YouTube

 

[biomedtechguy]

I raced one of those Pontiacs at Drag Strip Riot a few years back....

Dragstrip1 - YouTube

Very nice video, and one heck of a race! Looks like the Pontiac may have done a little better if he power shifted, I'm guessing by the sound and appearance that he lifted each shift.
Keeping my 440 6bbl matted for the whole 1320 definitely helped my ET, but I wouldn't do it without the rev limiter for insurance.

 

[Ron H]

Very nice video, and one heck of a race! Looks like the Pontiac may have done a little better if he power shifted, I'm guessing by the sound and appearance that he lifted each shift.
Keeping my 440 6bbl matted for the whole 1320 definitely helped my ET, but I wouldn't do it without the rev limiter for insurance.

Off the rails a bit; but your speed-shifting comment reminds me of a hot summer night sitting with some car buds in a parking lot in ’71. Every so often guys would come from da city to want to race. This night up drives a gorgeous brand new Challenger with the window sticker on and a dealer plate…383 on the scoop, auto. This guy looked real young to have bought this car and had his girlfriend along. He asks us if anyone wants to ‘run’. Bud had a ’68 GTO 4spd and makes the first yes. Off we go. My bud’s shifting abilities left a lot to be desired; like pretty bad, and lost. 2nd race after a little lesson on shifting and mild improvement, lost. Go a 3rd time and the Dodge shuts down mid-race pulling off to the side of the road. I walk back to the guy and his car is clacking and smoking. Come to find out it had some 60 miles on the OD! He was upset almost panic-like. I had to say, though not too helpful then, you ever hear about new vehicle break-in?

Always wondered if he was telling a true story…meaning maybe if his dad was a sales guy at a mopar dealership some 10 miles away…having took this car home for the night and his kid took it for a spin or something. Anyway, something didn’t smell right on the story and that Challenger’s exhaust didn’t either..

 

[biomedtechguy]

I really enjoy the "stories of the streets" and while it wasn't "Woodward Ave" there was some great street racing in the New Orleans area, in my dad's teen years and mine, and still today, although my and my dad's experiences are WAY closer to each other than what goes on now.
Before I forget, I see Dream Car Giveaway has a 425HP 396 Vette as a prize, and that story of the 383 Challenger makes me want to say again: ANY story or experiences with the MOPAR 383 in a performance scenario is welcome to me to read. What I'm saying is that I want to read about VICTORIES and successful 383 builds, because being a MOPAR fan since I was 7 years old, riding in the back seat of my parents new B5 Blue basic 69 Roadrunner, auto, riding up the High Rise Bridge on I-10 and having "some car" speed past us (I'd guess we were doing 65 mph or so) and my LEO Dad putting the magnetic base Blue light on the dash, catching the speeder in about a half mile....
THAT is an experience I'll never forget.
My best friend getting a 70 383 N96 4 speed Roadrunner via a connection I made for him, and it running mid 13s on street tires with basic weekend "shade tree" performance improvements, it was a constant winner of more street races than not.
I figure the 396 cost and displacement is the closest thing to the MOPAR 383, and I just want to know how they compare when properly and equally prepared.
The "scene" I was into in my teens was cruising around the lakefront in New Orleans which was THE thing to do for so many teens and young families even, bumper to bumper on the weekend, and Friday and Saturday night. About 12 miles to drive from one end to the other, making a loop around the nearest quarter mile of Wisner Blvd, the street 1320, with NO side streets and parking all down one side along the Bayou. The traffic light was the Christmas Tree and the flagpole in front of the public High school was the stripe at 1320...
Man Oh Man those were some GREAT times!!

 

[Ron H]

When I had my GTO, I worked evenings at a machine shop getting off of work at 10PM and would take a cruise through our town before heading home. At that time the town was pretty much locked down very little traffic. Well, for a span of a couple weeks, when I’d get to one of the first stoplights heading back toward home, a guy I didn’t know, likely from the city (my guess) would pull up alongside at the light in his GTO, same year as mine. It was weird like clockwork with this guy finding me at the light or the next one heading out of town. From here, there were two more lights before coming to the stretch I mentioned with the speed limit increasing along the way. We’d play keep our car just ahead revving then backing off all the way until we approached the last light, timing our arrival when it would be red, as after this it was full out go time to the fork. Anyway, on one occasion, there was a car that came out from a frontage road pulling in my lane. Geez I started braking hard and looked at the speedo close to buried and brakes were fading then downshifted. As the other goat kept going I was able to switch lanes around the guy.

Anyway, speaking of that fork, a guy I knew lost his life there one night in his Torino rolling it over at the start of the on-ramp. He came out the left door or window and the car rolled over him. He was the brother of a gal I had dated in HS. That area today is all built up with office complexes and homes; all that still looks the same is the boulevard..

 

[Davefinan]

The wide track was pretty cool in my book, the stack on headlamps always caught my eye.. Goat, Bonne, Cat were the finest up to 67 imo. I always thought Pontiac and Buick were much better than a Chevy even though they have a lot of similarities. I really like when guys keep the Pontiac and Buick engines in them not a LS this or Lt that..

Yessir…..the early muscle pontiacs and Buicks were nice. They seem to be a bit under rated

 

[Budnicks]

I grew up in a Pontiac household my stepfather Bob
married my mom when I was 6, he had some cool cars
(35 PU HotRod, 53 f100 FE Build & 67 Ford truck,
his 67 Farilane GTA 390, Ford 57 DelRio Ranch wagon 2 dr custom,
& my moms ordered new 1968 Sport Satellite 383/4bbl 4 speed)
Bob was a diehard drag racer, I wish I had photos of his 1st 64 GTO
389 4bbl 4 speed H/S, IIRC like 12.49 was his best
he had many, Firebirds, Formulas, Tempests & GTOs/Judges

some cool Tin Indians, Ponchos, Pontiacs
I've had my share of Trans Ams, 2 as racecars a 92 & 97
my 92 TA best of 6.69 @ 217 T/S or Outlaw Pro-Stock/N2O Door slammers
sorry shitty digital photo of a photo

540 Big Cheif Heads, GM Corporate/GM Performance PS/TS big cid Combos

SLP Firehawks/Trans Ams, & Anniv. editions
89 20th Anniv., 92 SLP, 94 25th Anniv., 97 T/S, 01 SLP
(pretty much all Chevy drivetrain by then),
a couple 67-68 Firebirds, a couple early 70's Formulas,
70 White with blue stripe, 73 SD 455 Blue with white stripe,
74 HO 455 Trans Ams, all the streetcars were 4 speeds
mostly from 1970-2001, I may share in a different post

Pontiac Hemi headed

youz' guyz' all probably recognize this car

I have a crapload more too

 

[biomedtechguy]

Thanks Budnicks, nice pix and you have a great depth of experience with American Muscle Cars.
It was my dad's "GTO story" that I count as one of several things he did, accomplished, shared the story of, or in the case of the B5 Blue 69 Roadrunner-I was a part of the "story" having had the first hand experience of being there for the ride...
He had been street racing in my grandfather's (his dad's) 1957 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 that had the J-2 option 371 Tripower. Now that car was a heavyweight, around 4,400 pounds, but with 300 HP and a good chunk of torque, and he was making a name on the local scene, for what it was...
That is until he came up against a 1956 Chevy 210, 265 V8 4bbl and a manual transmission. The 265 had a little work done, and was probably 1,000 pounds lighter that the "family car" and my dad lost 2 in a row and knew he had to find a way to regain his "rep" so...he bought the 56 Chevy! My dad related a few stories about it, like selling blood to a blood bank to be able to get his transmission fixed, and he stroked the 265 out to a whopping 292. He said the "¾ cam" was so radical the car would "bounce" at idle at a red light. By the time 1965 and his 65 Tripower 389 4 speed GTO joined the stable, I was 3 or 4 years old. He had bought the "mail order" Royal Bobcat kit from the renowned Royal Pontiac Pontiac performance parts through the locally famous Jake's Speed Shop. "Transistorized" ignition, thinner steel head gaskets to bump up the 11¾:1 CR, fatter jets, a set of colder spark plugs, weights and springs for the distributor advance, and "poly locks" that he said "stabilized" the Isky hydraulic lifters, allowing another 300 RPMs over his top competitor, another 389 Tripower 65 GTO. I don't know what width "cheater" slicks he ran, but 7 or 8 inch wide is a good guess, and he had put in a "short throw" shifter too. HE STILL HAS the roughly 3½ foot tall trophy he won proclaiming his FIRST PLACE VICTORY in his class at LaPlace Dragway, the same race track that I ran my first legal ¼ mile race at 16 years old in my 71 Charger R/T 440 4bbl. He ran a 12.8 in that GTO, and THAT is the goal to beat in my wife's GTO. Even at a lower 10:1 CR, there is SO MUCH more performance available in the .035 over 421 (428) in our GTO, with all the mods it has, I should be stomping a hole in the *** of that 12.8!
I knew I'd need a posi to get there, and it now has the 3.80 geared QP 9"
Once I manage to find the time to tweak, tune, EVEN TURN ON AND TRY for the first time the PILE of performance stuff I've had added on my Roadrunner for a year and a half now, THEN I'll move on to a major tweak and tune of the GOAT. Quicker than 12.8 is the goal, and neither my dad or I am getting any younger...