Chris's '59 Pontiac Catalina was special-ordered by a North Carolina moonshine runner because he heard about the NASCAR Pontiacs that were winning races on the Daytona Beach Road Course. After contacting NASCAR/Pontiac champion Cotton Owens to order a brand-new '59 with the 389/345hp NASCAR Tri-Power engine, the original owner was referred to NASCAR legend Tiny Lund, who told him what to tell the Pontiac salesman at Kincaid Pontiac in Bessemer City, North Carolina, to have the stockcar built and delivered.
This '59 Catalina is a factory-freak because it's believed to be the only '59 Catalina NASCAR-engine four-door sedan produced by Pontiac. After accepting the sales order from the dealer, Pontiac refused to build the car, stating that the NASCAR engine was only for two-doors. Eventually, they relented, and this car was delivered new on May 10, 1959.
Why did the original owner want the Pontiac/NASCAR motor in a four-door post sedan? When running moonshine through the hills of North Carolina, he needed an inconspicuous Pontiac, and a two-door might have been too flashy, especially when pegging the speedometer with the trunk full of full-throttle whisky, at a mind-blowing 100-plus-mph.
To this day, it's still numbers-matching, with only 101,000 miles on the odometer. It underwent a restoration from 2005 to 2008. (Thanks to Tom Viani Restorations of Orlando; Junior's Trim Shop in Venice, Florida; Roland Restorations in Northport, Florida; and Florida Pontiac in Stuart, Florida, for the restoration work.)
Factory Freak: '59 Catalina
Why It's a Factory Freak: Pontiac's stockcar "NASCAR" engine in a four-door sedan
Owner: Christopher R. Phillip (High Performance Pontiac senior associate editor)
City/State: Clearwater, Florida
Dennis special ordered his Formula SD-455 in August 1973 for one reason: "To race in the NHRA stock classes in Division 5," he says. It's a factory freak because of its specific lack of options matched to its seldom-seen-on-an-SD455 Fire Coral Bronze exterior color. He ordered it from Schoon Motors in Luverne, Minnesota, and switched his preference from a four-speed to an automatic to get past a factory constraint on manual-equipped SD-455s. It was delivered in March 1974.
There are only five options on this factory freak: SD-455 engine, M40 automatic transmission, 3.42 Safe-T-Track differential, Soft-Ray glass-all, and power front-disc brakes (mandatory). Though Dennis wanted manual steering, the Firebird came standard with power steering and couldn't be deleted from the order. However, it did come radio-delete.
After campaigning the SD-455 from 1974-1977, Dennis pulled the motor and trans and sold the body. After 25 years, he found it 140 miles from home and reunited the original drivetrain with the body. Amazingly, the original Y8-code block has less than 1,000 miles on it, and the PQ code transmission only had 150 miles on it.
In 2007-2008, Dennis had his SD-455 restored by Kustom Restorations in St. Lawrence, South Dakota, to how it looked when he bought it new and it remains that way today.
Factory Freak: '74 Formula SD-455
Why it's a Factory Freak: SD-455 in Fire Coral Bronze Formula special ordered for NHRA racing
Owner: Dennis Leiferman
City/State: Kimball, South Dakota