Best Pontiac Powered Stockers

Another question: Truman got the C/S class win at the '77 US Nats. How quick did he have to run to get that win ?
I think he ran 11.50’s maybe 60’s

He set the record in B that year at an 11.31

Is there ANY source to find all/any of those old nat records & class win records ?

Old National Dragsters is you best bet.

[oldskool]

Originally Posted by Todd Hoven

Another question: Truman got the C/S class win at the '77 US Nats. How quick did he have to run to get that win ?
I think he ran 11.50’s maybe 60’s

He set the record in B that year at an 11.31

Is there ANY source to find all/any of those old nat records & class win records ?

Old National Dragsters is you best bet.

Thanks for all that info Todd !

Yeah, I wish I had access to the old ND papers. I had a few years worth, back in the '70's. But, having no foresight, I threw 'em all away. Most young folks don't realize what may be important to 'em later in life.

So 11.31 was the B/S record in '77. A B/S record of 10.05, was set in 2017. So that means that the quick B-Stockers can now run 9's. I assume those would be some of the higher hp BBC cars, & maybe some late models. Looks like this record was held by a 2000 model Bird.

https://www.nhra.com/stats/14-mile-r...ock-eliminator

No B/S Pontiacs running now. I suppose one of the RAIV cars would be the only Pontiac that could make B/S. C is the highest class I've seen one of the RAII Birds in, in recent years.

I thought that 11.31 sounded familiar. That same year, H-O set the SS/KA record at 11.31.

[oldskool]

I'd seen this video. But I suppose it just didn't register on me, at the time.

John Clegg bought his '73 SD455 Bird, brand new. He then took it to the '73 US Nats & won D/S with it. So, that means that at the same race where Truman fields won Stock & set a new nat record, John Clegg was the D/S champ. Those are 2 of the big names in Pontiac drag racing history.

http://missiongarage.com/photos.htm

[Cstockbird]

Originally Posted by oldskool

As mentioned, there were a lot of Pontiac dealers that fielded drag cars.

That Stephen Pontiac car reminded me of a couple of pics I have.

One is a chrome bumper '68 GTO Stocker. The other is what I think was a poor attempt at a Pro Stock car. Anybody know how quick it was & how much it lacked being competitive ?

When I 1st saw it, I thought the "Pro" was for the Pro bracket, at a local bracket race. But, I think I read that it was actually an attempt at the Pro Stock class. That was obviously in the very early days of Pro Stock. Never knew of a dealership sponsoring a bracket car.

"...Following a 1973 NHRA rule change to allow records to be set at any national meet, at the 1973 NHRA Winternationals, "Dyno Don" Nicholson set the first official Pro Stock e.t. record with a 9.33, while Bill Jenkins turned in a record 148.76 mph (239.41 km/h) speed; later at the same event, Nicholson made a 9.01 second/150.50 mph (242.21 km/h) pass, breaking both his and Jenkins' records..."

Anybody know how the Stephen Stockers did ?

The 68 and 69 cars we’re very competitive at least regionally the pro stock car suffered from a lack of good connecting rods as the company that made them for Pontiac for the Ram
Air 5 program
Went belly up. Many feel The ram air 5 would have dominated SS which is what it was designed to do had it made it into cars and showrooms, it was connecting rod shortage that stopped that from happening. The blocks were even stamped with codes for production cars, there was NO aftermarket support for the RAV cars and pretty much what they raced pro stock with came directly out of the factory engineering dept. the Intake had a developmental part number.
I am friends with the original driver Bill eckstrom. And I own the engine that was in that 70 pro stocker. It was dyno’d and without the 2 inch spacers it made 634 hp at 6500 rpm where we cut it off, these heads made HP much higher than that RPM. It also made good torque through a very wide RPM range, But due to its obvious rarity I didn’t want to push it. The car ran 10.30s The headers are very heavy built like a brick $&it house as was the ram air pan which I also have. The car likely suffered from weight placement issues as well as lack of good rods .competing against aluminum engine variants of other brands. There’s a good article on this in rodder and super stock in 73 where they reference aluminum blocks, I have some good video of the car being run and half track it was still side by side w the top qualifying, hemi car , and it was the ONLY Pontiac still in the pro stock field in 71 trying to compete and making a go of it.
The 69 RAIV bird ran 11.93 which was right on the record as far as I can tell. The 69 car was also driven by Tom Mc Innis at times .
68 car I don’t have any numbers on but it was a ram air II 4 spd. Bill Eckstromi was an amazing 4spd driver and could cut a great light but you had to have the HP and support to compete in pro stock or it just didn’t matter .

We all know how brutally powerful the hemi cars were and are still today. Especially against an all IRON (even the heads) pontiac w only 400 cubes
to work with... had there been a 455 variant with aluminum heads and great rods may have been a very different story .

Much of the RAV parts including complete engines were crushed (racks and racks of them) by Pontiac because they weren’t going to be put into production cars due to the connecting rod shortage. Some 80-200 made it out and either to dealers, racers or over parts counters .


Most (not all) of the pictures you’ll see on line of these cars came directly from Bill eckstrom, Tom Mc innis, tim bishop. I obtained them During research I did on these cars.
I’ve spoken with most of the drivers mechanics and freinds of them associated with these cars and I’d
Like to thank
all of them for help they’ve given. Special thanks to Howard block who helped me get important parts and pieces back together in one place . Many of the photos were on my web site which is down right now but may be back up
Soon. I also raced the 69 car myself for 15 years mostly in brackets, Pontiac events as well as NETO.

I am especially looking for good pictures of the trunk area of the 69 car.

[HP HUNTER]

I have a question: Performance wise how did running a Super Duty 421 in D/SA - ESA turn out for you Carol Wharling? I was very curious waiting to see this run, but never paid attention after the wuhan virus. The intake valve size seemed like it could be a problem.

[SS/Pontiac]

Norman Warlng is running the 1962 Catalina. The car ran .13 under the index at Great Bend in ES/A .

[Spyphish]

I know little about Pontiac but spotted a 62 Catalina post car in the weeds last week at a high school buddies place. Had a roll-on get it in the dry the next day. Original 421 driveline was inside a building with 2 4BBL carbs. His old book showed it as #105 of the 172 Super Duty cars. The front cap is steel so we are going to restore it in Smokey Yunick theme and run in the Great Race. Then sell it. Ugly but cool car. No radio/heater etc. Phish