Unlike the Z11, the CHEVY 427 MARK II MYSTERY MOTOR was not available in a car, or to the public. You had to have serious NASCAR cred to get one of the 20 built.
In the 1960s, Semon “Bunkie” Knudsen always seemed to be one step ahead of GM Chairman Fred Donner’s anti-racing missives. While running Pontiac, he had supported the Super-Duty Group that later, after he left, managed to get 421 Catalina Lightweights to drag racers before the axe fell. Then he moved on to Chevrolet in 1961 and...
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Mickey Thompson
PONTIAC TEMPEST MONTE CARLO
Built on a shortened prototype ’62 Pontiac Tempest convertible, the PONTIAC TEMPEST MONTE CARLO was a hit at auto shows and major road racing events. It shared the spotlight with GM design chief, William Mitchell’s Corvair Sebring Spyder.
One thing was a given at GM in the 1960s. Chevy’s Corvette was a sacred cow and no other division could bring a two-seat sports car to market. The only way Buick, Pontiac, Oldsmobile or Cadillac could reveal branded two-seat, high-performance sporty ve...
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ICONIC CORVETTE RACECARS
Hagerty’s Cameron Neveu blogs about eight ICONIC CORVETTE RACECARS you should know, including Zora-Arkus Duntov’s legendary ’63 Grand Sports, above.
In celebration of our first drive review of the rip-roaring new Corvette Z06, we got to cooking on a list of the coolest - and most unique - Corvettes to ever cross a finish line. After all, the package began as a low-profile effort to put competition parts in the hands of SCCA’s A-Production racers.
This was back in the 1960s when GM elected to...
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MARK II – CHEVY’S MYSTERIOUS 427!
The real 427 Mystery Motor, unlike the Z11, was not available in a car or to the public. You had to have serious NASCAR cred to get one of the 20 built.
In the 1960s, Semon “Bunkie” Knudsen always seemed to be one step ahead of GM Chairman Fred Donner’s missives disallowing factory involvement in racing. While running Pontiac, Knudsen had supported the Super-Duty Group that, after he left, managed to get 421 Catalina Lightweights to drag racers before the axe fell. In 1961 he moved on to Chevro...
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PONTIAC FLASHBACK: TEMPEST MONTE CARLO!
Built on a shortened ’62 Pontiac Tempest convertible, the Monte Carlo was a hit at auto shows and major road racing events. It shared the spotlight with GM design chief, William Mitchell’s Corvair Sebring Spyder show car.
One thing was a given at GM in the 1960s: Chevy’s Corvette was a sacred cow and no other division could bring a two-seat sports car to market. The only way Buick, Pontiac, Oldsmobile or Cadillac could reveal branded two-seat, high-performance sporty vehicles was to have Mitche...
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’63 PONTIAC SD-421: SWISS CHEESE LITE!
Production of lightweight ’63 Super-Duty Pontiacs was extremely limited, but high-profile racer Mickey Thompson got the first two. One of those featured here is in the Factory Lightweight Collection.
Roger Huntington writing in Hi-Performance CARS is often credited with first using “Swiss Cheese” to describe lightened Super-Duty Pontiacs. It came to him after he counted 120 holes drilled in the perimeter frame of Royal Pontiac’s Catalina, driven by Jim Wangers. A total of 18 aluminum body parts...
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