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 We were hoping to find unpublished photos of the '62 Catalina Super-Duty to share with our readers.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.
Here's an authentic "Bobcat"...
Here's an authentic "Bobcat" Catalina on Royal's showroom floor. It started life as a factory 389/348 Tri-Power, four-speed coupe, and then received performance and appearance upgrades, including a custom "tune," an identifiable paint treatment, special call-out letters on the tail panel, and a Royal-specific eight-lug wheel/tire package with spinner-style center caps. According to Wangers, this super-rare Catalina still exists and was seen by him at the POCI Convention in Tulsa in 2007.
How did Royal Pontiac manage...
How did Royal Pontiac manage to spell "Bob Cat" on the Catalina's tail panel? According to Wangers, the service department ordered two B's and one O in block letters as they appeared on the Bonneville and the three letters C-A-T from the Catalina. Voil! The Bobcat was born.
The Tempest's 195ci Pontiac...
The Tempest's 195ci Pontiac four-cylinder engine received the Royal treatment: richer jets, a more aggressive distributor curve, and a custom air-cleaner to top its Carter AFB four-barrel carburetor.
Royal installed a Sun tachometer...
Royal installed a Sun tachometer on the column, to augment the sporty flair of the factory Inland Manufacturing four-speed shifter and gauges. Look closely and you can see the dealer-added FM radio mounted underneath the dash.
One look under the hood of...
One look under the hood of the Bobcat Catalina and you can easily differentiate this big-car from its factory siblings. Royal used this specific air-cleaner setup on its Tri-Power Bobcats, and progressive linkage on the carburetors, three years before a similar system was introduced by the factory on the '65 GTO. In addition, the Bobcat Catalina's custom "tune" consisted of cc'ing the heads and equalizing the combustion chamber volume; milling the heads and installing thinner head gaskets to raise compression; truing the valvespring installed heights; adding locknuts for the rockers; installing blocked heat-riser intake gaskets to cool the intake manifold for a denser charge and screwing in richer jets and colder heat range spark plugs, and recurving the distributor with a faster advance to complement the other upgrades.
Royal offered its own wheel/tire...
Royal offered its own wheel/tire package on new Pontiacs, as well as over the counter. It consisted of a color-matched eight-lug with polished-aluminum blades accented with chrome lug nuts (shown here), and occasionally an optional spinner-style hubcap (shown earlier). Royal's eight-lug wheel was paired to a "double-sidewall" Firestone 8.00x14 bias-ply tire. It offered buyers a custom look, and supposedly, a better grip for cruising Woodward Avenue.