Best Pontiac Powered Super Stockers

[Don Kennedy]

Originally Posted by Rory McNeil

If I remember correctly, the first of the new SS/GT cars that raced, were at the Winternationals (around 1984?), and they were Dick Henrys Camaro, and Len Schneiders Thunderbird. Len is still racing the same Tbird, I was talking to him at the Pomona Finals a few weeks ago. Schneider raced his Tbird with a 428 Cobra Jet at the beginning , but switched to a 351 Cleveland shortly afterwards, and that is the same engine he runs today. Here in Div. 6, I believe the first GT cars were Jim Gormans Malibu, and Steve Hahns Dodge Lebarron, which may have been one of the first FWD conversion Super Stockers.

Dave Danish NHRA Tech watched my car being built by Danny Davis in California every week until it was done. Danny Davis was very creative and Dave came over a lot of times to see the car being build to make sure the car was being built to The GT rules. Danny Ran the headers out towards the front. There is some Pictures in the Pontiac Musclecar Performance Book By Pete McCarthy of the car being built..I have the book somewhere and I will post some pictures of the Pontiac Trans Am . The Car is now in Sweden being raced. The present owner has won a lot of races with the car

[BRINK]

Originally Posted by oldskool

Wow, that's cool !

So, you basically wrote the rules, and had one of the 1st GT cars. I had no idea. Thanks for sharing that info !

So, GT cars became legal somewhere in the early to mid '80's ?

Also noticed that you won your the GT/EA class at Indy this year, with a 9.177. And, Todd Frantz won the GT/FA class with a 9.188, in his 428 powered Cobalt.

Also, it was an all Pontiac 350 powered final, in SS/MA. Bill Rink won & Mike Morgan was RU, for the 2nd year straight. Bill Rink's little GTO has won class at Indy a BUNCH of times.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...r2019#indextop

Robert Cruzen has also won the GT/AA class at Indy, more than once, with his 428 Cobalt. One winning time was an 8.90 ! That same year, Mike Morgan won SS/MA with his 350 powered '77 Formula.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...r2016#indextop

9 out of the last 10 years in SS.

[oldskool]

I'll list all the guys I can think of that run the 428. If ya'll know of others, please list 'em.

Scott Burton, Robert Cruzen, Todd Frantz, Leo Glasbrenner, Don Kennedy, Phil Monteith.

The McCarty's have 2 GT cars. Don't know what engines they'll run.

[Don Kennedy]

Originally Posted by oldskool

I'll list all the guys I can think of that run the 428. If ya'll know of others, please list 'em.

Scott Burton, Robert Cruzen, Todd Frantz, Leo Glasbrenner, Don Kennedy, Phil Monteith.

The McCarty's have 2 GT cars. Don't know what engines they'll run.

The McCarty's Lynn runs a 455 SD and Stacey runs a 428

[Ed Wright]

Several years back Gary & Ann Moore had some good running Pontiac Stock & Super Stock cars in Div 4.

[oldskool]

Originally Posted by Ed Wright

Several years back Gary & Ann Moore had some good running Pontiac Stock & Super Stock cars in Div 4.

The only Gary Moore I've ever heard of was on the "I've Got a Secret" TV show, many moons ago.


But, div 4 is my div. So, I am real interested in learning all I can about their Pontiacs. So, anybody with info/pics, please post.

That jogged my memory. Back when I had my Stockers, local tracks quit running class, & switched to brackets. But, one track kept a class they called Street Modified. A small cube Super Stock car would have worked good in that class. It was just a lbs per cubic inch class, using NHRA legal weights. Roller cams, Holley carbs, big tires, & ladder bars were legal.

It was a class designed for high rpm small cube engines. I had no chance, with a Pontiac engine. But, I couldn't run in Stock any more, so I decided to give it a try. Big mistake. I found a cheap(they were all cheap back then) '68 Bird 'vert & Put some roll bars in it. Got the 'vert because it could run at a heavier weight.

Anyhow, my engine builder, in Shreveport, did the machine work on lots of race stuff, including one SS Pontiac. He contacted the Pontiac guy, & got me one of his old solid roller cams. But, some new guys opened a machine shop in a small town, only about 30 miles from me. Their head guy was from CA, and supposedly had lots of experience. Hey, they even had a TF dragster.

So, I figured they knew what they were doing. WRONG ! They didn't know anything about Pontiac engines. I got it running, then had to take it back for new oil rings, and a sleeve, before even taking it to the track.

Anyhow, I finally got it to the track. Hey it SOUNDED good. It was my first roller cam engine. Of course it wasn't near quick enuff to run with the sbc engines, in the lbs per cubic inch class. It wasn't bracket racing. 1st car to the finish line won.

It did run quicker than our Stockers, but not competitive in that class. But we did make a couple of races, & TJ got to make a lot of noise & go quicker than she'd gone in the Stocker. Then "boom". Rod out the side. Discovered that it was the machine shop's fault. I think they only lasted one year. Must have messed up some other stuff too.

Hey, I won't charge ya'll anything for that little bit of Pontiac racing history !

[oldskool]

OK, back to 2nd gen Bird SS cars. I've seen quite a few '74 SS Birds. I think I've already mentioned the H-O Racing Specialties SD455 SS Bird. I'll have to call it my all-time favorite. That's because back when I started racing, the only 2 sources of Pontiac info I knew of were Nunzi on the East coast & H-O on the West coast.

I bought all the H-O material & some of their parts. They had helped me with info for my Stocker builds. Their '74 SD455 Bird set a new nat record in SS/KA. Their record time looks real slow, compared to today's SS cars. But, at the time, they had the quickest. Stockers now go quicker than the same SS combo did back then. But ya'll know that.

We saw the H-O car run, at the '78 Cajun Nats. Sorry that we didn't get any close-ups. Don't know why, since we did get a close-up of Sonny Ray. Sorry for the poor quality of the pics. But hey, it does prove that the car was there.

H-O also had a white '74. I've read that the red car is now the car that J.B. Clegg has. He has run well into the 9's with it, as a stick car.

[ss3011]

Originally Posted by oldskool

OK, back to 2nd gen Bird SS cars. I've seen quite a few '74 SS Birds. I think I've already mentioned the H-O Racing Specialties SD455 SS Bird. I'll have to call it my all-time favorite. That's because back when I started racing, the only 2 sources of Pontiac info I knew of were Nunzi on the East coast & H-O on the West coast.

I bought all the H-O material & some of their parts. They had helped me with info for my Stocker builds. Their '74 SD455 Bird set a new nat record in SS/KA. Their record time looks real slow, compared to today's SS cars. But, at the time, they had the quickest. Stockers now go quicker than the same SS combo did back then. But ya'll know that.

We saw the H-O car run, at the '78 Cajun Nats. Sorry that we didn't get any close-ups. Don't know why, since we did get a close-up of Sonny Ray. Sorry for the poor quality of the pics. But hey, it does prove that the car was there.

H-O also had a white '74. I've read that the red car is now the car that J.B. Clegg has. He has run well into the 9's with it, as a stick car.

Back in the old days , Super Stock did not allow ported cylinder heads . It is hard to race a SD 455 due to the ported head rule . Most of the cars in the same class have engines that have very common , easy to get cylinder heads . There are only around 3000 sets of SD heads even made, including service heads . The price of these parts is super high , and frankly there isn't a whole lot of head porters that can make them work . Much easier to buy a dozen sets of Chevy heads and experiment .

[Ed Wright]

Gary & Ann were from west Texas, close to Amarillo. My friend Carroll Caudle was doing some work for Gary & Ann when I met them. He had a maroon ‘61 or ‘62 (not very old then) “TriPower” when I first met him. Fine people. Went over to the Dark Side and built a Hemi Cuda latter. I would expect all old timer racers would know Gary. Bad-assed racer at one time. They don’t come any nicer. Hope he & Ann are still with us.

[oldskool]

Got pics of a 3 more '74's. Don't know a lot about the cars or drivers.

If you guys know something about any of these cars/drivers please share.

Wilbert Thornton was .795 under, on this Q-list.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...UMMIT#indextop

Billy Ingels was .673 under on this Q-list.

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...er=30#indextop