Remember when cars were big, flashy, and full of style? Nowadays you can hardly park a GM B-body in a modern parking space. Still, there is a certain allure to these large Pontiacs that we find irresistible. For 44-year-old Jeff Raff, the idea of a Big Car with big tires and a big engine was too cool to ignore, so he set out to build an over-the-top Pro Street '64 Grand Prix.
Where It All Began
Jeff's interest in Pontiacs really took flight in the summer of 1982. "I was driving to my friend's house, and I saw a killer '64 GTO sitting on the side of the road," he recalls. At the time, he owned a '74 LeMans and it seemed like everyone he knew had a Chevelle or a Camaro. In a dare-to-be-different move, he pulled the trigger on the Goat. That project snowballed into a race car that brought him plenty of victories and happiness.
In 2005, Jeff began looking for something completely different-a full-size Pontiac.
People ask Jeff all the time...
People ask Jeff all the time how he modified the fenders to fit the tires so nicely. He says, "That's the way the wheel arches came from the factory. I didn't have to modify them at all, I just had to push the rearend back an inch.
"I really like their style, so I put feelers out for a '61 Catalina. My friend Wayne Garrison knew I was looking for a big Cat and informed me of a '64 Grand Prix in Dulles, Virginia," he recalls. The two eventually made the two-hour trip south from Jeff's home in Westminster, Maryland. "When we got there, I looked the car over," says Jeff. "I really liked it but I knew I had my work cut out for me. I forked over the $1,200 and loaded it up.
"It didn't look too bad until I removed the seven layers of paint on the body and revealed tons of rust and bad body repairs."
Jeff's work was made even tougher when he realized that no one made replacement panels or patch panels for the '64 GP. "I had to hunt down everything I could to make the car complete," he says.
Parts cars were slim-picking locally, but he found another '64 up in York, Pennsylvania. The salvage yard GP was nearly disintegrated, but the trim was in decent shape. "The brightwork was stainless, and it looked like nobody had even touched it, so I carefully removed it," Jeff says.
It's hard to believe but the...
It's hard to believe but the 8-71 had no trouble fitting under the hood. However, it couldn't contain the twin Holley 750 carbs that were modified by Jeff's friend Bernie Day.
The condition of the salvaged GP didn't help him with his rusted Pontiac back home, however. "One day I got fed up, so I fabricated my own driver-side lower quarter by hand," says Jeff. "I also had to get creative with the floors. Patches for the floors weren't being reproduced either, but these were similar to the '64 Impala, so I grafted a small section of that floor onto the GP. Most of this was pretty easy since I was used to working on cars and performing bodywork.
With the bodywork becoming more manageable, Jeff directed his focus toward his main purpose for building the car-installing a big tire. The GP was stripped down completely, and a quick look through Hoosier's latest offerings led him to select the company's largest Pro-Street tire, a 33x21.50R15 steamroller. "The tire hadn't come out yet; I had to wait three months before it shipped," he says.
In the meantime, Jeff tubbed the Pontiac to accept the large Hoosiers. When they finally arrived, he mounted them to American Racing 15x17 Pro Series wheels and bead locked them to the rims. Up front are matching 15x4 wheels with 28x4.5 Mickey Thompson Sportsmans.
Jeff knew that he couldn't just mount some big tires onto his GP and call it a day, so he built the car to perform just as good as it looks, starting with the engine. Having worked on a Pro Mod team with some of his buddies, he quickly learned the difference between street and strip. He talked with his friend, Bernie Day, about how he could get a Pontiac to run reliably on the street with an 8-71 blower. "Everyone I knew who went with an extreme setup, like an 8-71 blower, couldn't drive their cars very far or they had heat issues," he says.
Bernie suggested that he have the BDS case hard-anodized. It's a trick that many racing teams do so they can run methanol. It also keeps the blower cooler on the street when using pump gas. Jeff claims that the coolant temperature never gets above 185 degrees now.
It's a bit scary to think...
It's a bit scary to think that you could see this sitting behind you at a light in the Westminster, Maryland, area.
With 21 inches of width per...
With 21 inches of width per tire, Jeff's GP truly is a steamroller.
The BDS 8-71 Stage II Supercharger...
The BDS 8-71 Stage II Supercharger forces 8 additional psi of air into a built 462 engine. Nothing says Pro Street like a big blower.