Royal Pontiac began campaigning...
Royal Pontiac began campaigning Pontiacs in 1959 for national and regional drag-race competitions. In 1960, its '60 Catalina (driven by Jim Wangers) won Top Stock Eliminator at the 1960 U.S. Nationals in Detroit. Two years later, Royal Pontiac moved into its brand-new building located at 400 North Main Street, Royal Oak, Michigan. This photo was taken some time shortly thereafter, as evidenced by the'63 Pontiac models seen through the showroom window.
Lead Photo Used With Permission Of GM Media Archives
In January 1962, Motor Trend asked photographer Junebug Clark to accept a very special assignment: Pontiac had produced its famous factory-built race car, the 405hp '62 Catalina 421 Super-Duty, and MT wanted it for its cover. In the middle of winter, the magazine dispatched Clark to the Detroit Dragway for a day-long photo shoot with the "hopped up" Catalina, and his work was published in its May 1962 issue.
Motor Trend also gave the young photographer a second project: A trip to Royal Oak, Michigan, to visit Royal Pontiac, one of the select-few dealerships to offer drag racers the Super-Duty and other high-performance Pontiacs, and home of the popular dealer-modifed Royal Bobcats.
In May 2008, HPP was preparing its reprint of the original MT "Road Test" featuring the '62 Catalina Super-Duty and asked Clark if he had any more film from back in the day. We were hoping to find unpublished photos of the '62 Catalina Super-Duty to share with our readers.
Clark said he'd be happy to go through his archives and, after some detective work, he determined that Motor Trend never returned his negatives. Fortunately, while going through his boxes, he found a second set of negatives.
Research by HPP has determined that these are his stored-long-ago photographs from Royal Pontiac in March 1962. No notes existed with the photographs, so we contacted Jim Wangers, who, in addition to being Pontiac's ad man, was the liaison to Royal Pontiac from 1959 to 1970, and was at the dealership on a near-daily basis. With his recollections, we were able to identify and caption the photographs.
So here they are-a day at Royal Pontiac in 1962. This is the first time these photographs have ever been published, and HPP is honored to present them to you. Follow along as we tour America's original high-performance Pontiac showroom and see a few of the rarest Pontiacs of all time, all of them brand-new, poised to be purchased, and of course, ready to go racing.
Special thanks to Jim Wangers for his invaluable assistance in making this feature possible. Thanks also to Robert J. McKenzie of Judge's Chambers Automotive for providing additional technical data.
 Ace Wilson Jr. was Royal Pontiac's...  Ace Wilson Jr. was Royal Pontiac's owner and had this Starlight Black '62 Supercharged Grand Prix created just for him. Three of these high-performance Grand Prixs were produced by the dealership, but it's unknown if any of them still exist. Notice anything unusual about the Grand Prix's exterior? At Ace's request, Pontiac trimmed this GP with a Cordova top, years before the option became popular with the public. |  For customers who wanted the...  For customers who wanted the smaller-sized Pontiac Tempest with a "hopped-up" package, Royal offered the Royal Bobcat Tempest. According to Jim Wangers, only 15 to 20 of these high-performance "half a V-8" road rockets were built. To differentiate it from a factory Tempest, the horizontal slats on the sides of the front grille were painted black. |  This Grand Prix was built...  This Grand Prix was built to live up to Royal Pontiac's slogan: "Home of the Hot Chiefs." Ace's team of high-performance specialists installed a McCulloch (Paxton) supercharger with a massive cold-air intake to increase the horsepower of the 389/333 Pontiac V-8. Here's how it worked: Air was ducted from a headlight opening to the belt-driven blower, which forced cold air to a Carter AFB four-barrel carburetor through a second air hose. The amount of engine boost was only 5 psi, as the compression ratio remained a factory-stock 10.75:1. |