Top Pontiacs To Leave The Side Door

[old5.0]

Oh no, I'd never forsake that car. I'll be honest, when I was younger I was ambivalent toward 69 Firebirds; I didn't dislike them, I was just sort &quot;meh&quot; on them. But that Royal car made me a believer. Now I want a 69 R/A IV 'Bird so bad it hurts a little. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/burnout.gif[/img]

[Steve_Hoog]

I owned one 69 Bird back in the day; I thought I didn't like it at that time, I would like to re evaluate that that today. Having the same car back would be fine [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/wink.gif[/img]

[StealthBird]

old5.0, here's a page full of 1969 RAIV Firebird convertibles. http://www.musclecarfilms.com/1969Po...vertibles.html

I'll have some more pics of the Warwick Blue 1969 Bird in the next couple weeks when I go to the shop.

It's amazing all the interest in these cars in the past few years, and all the ones that have been or are in the process of being restored.

Interesting that you were sort of &quot;meh&quot; on the 1969 Firebirds back then. A lot of people were. Some just never liked the front end. Oddly enough, the 1970 GTO front end was based on the 1969 Firebird (sans Endura bumper). Pontiac styled the 1970 GTO front end with Frenched-in headlights, grilles, and &quot;bullet&quot; parking lights off the 1969 Firebird.

As far as factory built Pontiacs that came out the back door, I'd say the 1963 Tempests (and LeMans's) were the most over-the-top. One ended up with Paul Goldsmith who raced it at Daytona, and the accompanying photo is proof that Pontiac had definitely rattled some cages in the racing world. It was on pole and won the race. This car was so fast that Mercedes-Benz reportedly bought the car after this race and had it shipped back to Germany where it was dismantled and analyzed by their technicians. Mercedes tore down the SD421, they were far more curious about the way Pontiac had mated two 2-speed automatic transmissions together for this very special car, and of course Pontiac's gratuitous use of aluminum parts from nose to tail, including drivetrain parts.

[Steve_Hoog]

Stealthbird

I wouldn't mind having several of the cars in the photo [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img]

I lost my web presence at my old work and am trying to get some of the stuff on the old empgmc.com server back up.

Here are two pages I have on the 350 HO Firebird:

http://www.428gto.com/magazines/flor...dragracing.htm

http://www.428gto.com/magazines/florida/PICS.htm

[Steve_Hoog]

It was just this type thing that George Delorean an Milt Schornack did that spawned people like Tulsa's own Terry Drenner just shortly after, literally.

[Steve_Hoog]

Astock

Forgot that I managed a single pic while it was in Oklahoma, looks like someone had paid attention to the RAV Ignition install GM Print.

[olredalert]

----I would love to see a real picture of that ignition box. In the drawing it looks very similar to the 67/68 optional Transistor Ignition available on Oldsmobiles (mainly W-30s).I have a complete Olds NOS T.I. set-up on my 67 W-30. Now if I could just finish the car!.....Bill S

----And,,,as a follow up, what did the distributer innards look like. Corvette T.I.???

[Steve_Hoog]

Here you go [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img]

[old5.0]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: StealthBird</div><div class="ubbcode-body">old5.0, here's a page full of 1969 RAIV Firebird convertibles. http://www.musclecarfilms.com/1969Po...vertibles.html

I'll have some more pics of the Warwick Blue 1969 Bird in the next couple weeks when I go to the shop.

It's amazing all the interest in these cars in the past few years, and all the ones that have been or are in the process of being restored.

Interesting that you were sort of &quot;meh&quot; on the 1969 Firebirds back then. A lot of people were. Some just never liked the front end. Oddly enough, the 1970 GTO front end was based on the 1969 Firebird (sans Endura bumper). Pontiac styled the 1970 GTO front end with Frenched-in headlights, grilles, and &quot;bullet&quot; parking lights off the 1969 Firebird.

As far as factory built Pontiacs that came out the back door, I'd say the 1963 Tempests (and LeMans's) were the most over-the-top. One ended up with Paul Goldsmith who raced it at Daytona, and the accompanying photo is proof that Pontiac had definitely rattled some cages in the racing world. It was on pole and won the race. This car was so fast that Mercedes-Benz reportedly bought the car after this race and had it shipped back to Germany where it was dismantled and analyzed by their technicians. Mercedes tore down the SD421, they were far more curious about the way Pontiac had mated two 2-speed automatic transmissions together for this very special car, and of course Pontiac's gratuitous use of aluminum parts from nose to tail, including drivetrain parts. </div></div>

Funny you should mention that convertible list; I was just looking at it yesterday, as a matter of fact.

Not sure why I didn't pay more attention to the 69 Birds back then. I think maybe it was because it seems like they were overlooked somewhat by the hobby at large. When I was a kid in the 80's, I read all the musclecar mags religiously and I recall that you'd see about a hundred 69 Judges (and about a million 69 Z/28's) featured for every 69 Firebird. Oh well. Now I'm older and (hopefully) a little smarter. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/rolleyes.gif[/img]


I've heard about the &quot;Mercedes&quot; Tempest before. Anybody know if it still exists? I still wanna know what happened to the spare Powershift that disappeared out of Dale Sharp's parts room over here in Topeka. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/dunno.gif[/img]

[Lynn]

Which race is that in 1963?

Obviously not the Daytona 500. No stock cars, and that race was won by Tiny Lund (sp?) in a Ferd.

Not the International GT Championship as Paul Goldsmith finished 3rd in that race.