Got an email from a friend who just purchased a 1961 Pontiac that was raced by Royal Pontiac from Royal Oak Mi. Says it has the aluminum front end and a 400 in it. I haven't seen the car yet, asked him for pics and will post them. He is looking for any info on the car and what it looked like back in the day. Told him I would reach out here for some help, or a good site that he could research. Thanks, Dan
He may not even know what the exact specs of the engine are. "The car has a 400" could easily be a guess or just what someone told him.
Just finished reading Robert Genat's book, "Woodward Avenue", there's a lot of Royal Pontiac info., and pics!
Would need more information and pics of the car, for a proper ID, in 61 the "Super Duty" package only had Aluminum Bumpers, No fenders/hoods that i'm aware of. Royal ran 2 Catalinas in 61, an automatic car, and a 4 speed car. one of these (4 speed car i think) has been found and restored by a collector in Idaho. here's a pic of the 4 speed 61 car back in the day
My understanding is there were a few aluminum bumpers in 1961, but very few. Otherwise the '61s were all steel. This could have been a car prepped by Royal, as mentioned I believe they only ran two cars on their own. It would definitely be worth getting the historical documents from PHS for this car. edit: the Performance Years Pontiac web board has some of the most knowledgeable people there are on the early SD cars, go to the 1961 and earlier and the 1962-1966 sections to post questions.
The Poncho's from the factory that were race prepared were delivered through Ace at Royal Pontiac. Those were 389 and a few SD 421's and the latter were very few. The '62's Catalina's (and and few Grand Prix's) were all Special Order cars and again a lot were delivered using Royal as the dealer. But there were a few other dealers too. The '62 race prepared light front end HD 421's were impressive! Normbc9
There were other "connected" dealers out there, Knafel Pontiac,Akron Ohio(Anderson Pontiac at that time) Gay Pontiac out of Texas, Packer Pontiac in Michigan, Mickey Thompson on the west coast got "anything good" Pontiac had at the time. while Royal Pontiac got alot of ink in the magazines, no doubt thanks to Jim Wangers, they weren't that sucessful "at the track"! the 61 Super Duty cars weren't factory built, the few that were built were done with "over the counter parts" purchased or delivered with the ordered car. there were 162 1962 SD Catalinas built, (16 SD Gran Prixs) they were delivered all over the US, to dealers and customers who ordered them.
The Jalopy Journal
