1960s Chevrolet & Pontiac Factory Race Cars You Couldn't Buy
In this video, we take a look at race-engineered versions of Chevrolet and Pontiac models from the 1960s that are known as factory lightweight and race car specials and are highly sought-after by present-day collectors. These Chevrolet and Pontiac factory race cars very special and very fast and not for sale to the general public!
In the 1960s, Detroit automakers conjured up some very special factory race cars that were generally unobtainable for most racers as they were rare, expensive, and available only to the most well-known and factory-connected race teams.
Chapters
00:00 Opening
00:30 Chevrolet Impala Z11
02:11 Pontiac Catalina Lightweight 421
03:31 Pontiac Super Duty Tempest
05:08 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport
07:01 Chevrolet Camaro COPO ZL-1
08:29 Outro
In high school my friend had a 326 Tempest man that thing was quick of course his father was a Master Mechanic and they did some trickery to it
Sweet thanks sir appreciate it 🙏 👍 🙌 ☺
This revived a memory from the late 80's, when I worked for a guy who had a GM pony car resto business. One warm summer day I heard the thunder of a very healthy open header car coming up the road. While I was (and still am) a Mopar guy, my draw dropped when he pulled up to the garage door in a nearly flawless, dust covered, barn find '69 427 4 speed COPO Camaro that had been hiding just a couple miles from his shop. If I recall correctly, the only change to the car from dealer delivery was cut sheet metal in the floor for a different shifter. At that time in my young life I had never heard of a factory built non-street legal race car, it was a thrill to see, and hear!
Those early 60s Impalas and Catalinas are beauties that make amazing power and sounds of an American V8
that pontiac is no joke, my mom had a loaner when her stang was being repaired early 70's square body convertible.. my sister was taking me somewhere and we had two table tops on a straight about oh 12 ft high then maybe 15 feet flat then back down.. they were like 1oo feet apart, she cracked it open going down the first one let off then hit it again going up the second, pinned us against the seats, air born then going down again, you'd catch air... crazy, anywho this thing was so torqy the hood came up and stay up blocked our view, she was screaming where am I going I grabbed the wheel and pointed us back in our lane peeking through the gap like 4" worth, made it but dang man... I believe it wasnt fully latched? we stopped, I closed hood and we left off at speed limit.. but goodness grief that thing was TORQY.. I went back there were dark posi marks on both grades going up, on 2nd grade just left the ground and contacted again before going down.. pretty popular table top in the area but man alive we both got nice big pinch of adrenaline that day...
2:12 that looks so slick and clean. In the early 90's I used to do low 12's in a street registered everyday driver yet in the 60's there were these beasts.
Yep, they're all good rides, but that Impala Z11 just like that in 2:13 would be a nice sleeper with it's low 11 seconds even today. Same silver but just needs some white walls.
Love those Ponchos!
Another great video!
Obviously from 58’ - 61’ there were some neat factory optioned GM stuff, but man from 61’ - 63’ would be the original muscle cars imo…. I mean a 409 Impala, SD421 Catalina would stand with many cars today- provided with modern tires, suspension, etc.
Great review of important history
The Garlitz museum near Ocala, FL has some of these ‘60s vintage production race powered cars. Looking at these a half century after they were built the term “insane” has additional context. All the technical attention of the era was about the 400+ h.p. for GO! Stopping was relying upon bias ply tires, and drum brakes that were fed by a single master cylinder. It truly looks insane to see how far behind the stopping-parts were compared to the go-parts.
Insane is kicking on the radio in 1958 and hearing Little Richard keep knocking coming thru the speaker, that hadda be heavier than Metallica to us 80s kids.
That’s Garlits….ala Don, Big Daddy Garlits.
Do any normal cars have multiple master cylinders? I've never heard of that. I have a 2016 Maserati and it only has a single master cylinder, just like every other car I've ever owned.
Awesome cars, blow my mind. Nice video guys. 👍👍
Thanks! 👍
Very cool!
Great video
Meanwhile Ford and Chrysler were doing about the same thing. Ford's lightweights '63s included the full-size Galaxies and Marauders and the mid-size Fairlanes and Comets. Chrysler was back-dooring the lightweight Coronets and Belvideres, some with factory-backed teams such as The Ramchargers. Later on, the lightweight Darts and Barracudas left their mark in the quarter mile and at auction.
Yea. ..and in terms of performance, not even the 1969 L88 Corvette was in the same zip code as the AC Cobras.
My neighbor had an early Tempest with a quick change rear end. One bad beast, strip to street in an hour or less.
Imagine if gm had left pontiac alone to continue engine performance engineering 😬
They would've skyrocketed GM to the front of the line in the auto indusrty. Pontiac had already designed 3 different types of overhead cam v8 engines and all of them were ready for production by the mid- late 60s. They had a dual overhead cam 4 valve 389, a single overhead cam 421 tripower engine, and a 428 3 valve single overhead cam engine. They say the 421 SOHC tripower engine made 620HP at 7k rpm. Had GM let Pontiac go wild they wouldn't have had to play catch up to the Eruopean and Asian car manufacturers in the 80s 90s and early 00s.
God why can't I find a "Swiss Cheese" Pontiac in a hermetically sealed container in Mint condition with this special full race equipment and the holy grail "4 Speed" model with locking diff. PLEASE MAN.....................
I had a 250 cu in OHC-6 that could keep up or beat most small V8s in cars similar size to my ‘68 Pontiac Tempest (A-body). I’ve always wondered what it would have been like to have that engine in a Firebird - especially a hi-po version of that engine.
I started looking for speed parts for that Pontiac OHC-6. I thought someone might make a hotter cam, headers, and intake, for instance. So far, I've found nothing. I even checked with Ames. Those OHC-6s were available in the Firebird and Tempest models. I think they had some great potential.
I know some guys that hop them up in many of the Pontiac Facebook groups I belong to however I do not remember their names. If you type in Pontiac OHC 6 groups will pop up for you to join. The sprint 6 was a real runner In it’s day. There are also guys who hop up the Pontiac slant 4,s(1/2 of a 389).
I understand that many people bought 6 cylinder Camaros for their drivability and road holding abilities. Too many of those vehicles seem to getting heavy modern V8 transplants that turn them into straight line vehicles (unless you stay below 40mph) 🙂!
There were Firebirds with that SOHC engine.
Arnie the ' farmer' beswick!!!
Please do more with the hemi race cars
So, what you're saying is these are the Type Rs of their era? 😅
69 Camaro Dana special ... VAAAAroooooooooommmmmmmmmm!!!!!! And like ever heard of the Cheetah ???
Pontiac got the best
Those Pontiacs were designed with curved driveshafts.
Lol lol
Pony geothermal best