Draglist.com Drag Racing

Article in new dragster features a 62 Ply 413 Maxie Wedge. Very nice. wish it was mine. The owner tells that those Plymouths with 413s and 62 Pontiacs with 409s and two fours set the Muscle Car stage. I thought I knew more than most about those old cars--But a 409 Pont.

In 63 I ordered a 409 425 HP Biscayne stripped sedan. The Beach boys were singing to me that was the hot tip. It turned out the Muncie plant had a fire and I was told no 4 speeds till 64

That is whyin 63 I ended up with a new very rare 63 427 425 HP new R code Black Merc sedan. See: http://www.animaljimracing.com First picture on Career Gallery and more on AJ and Friends gallery. Or click on Super Marauder on Google and you will find a registry of hot factory 60s Mercs. With pictures. Mine is the only 63 2 door (center post sedan R code that ever was as a R code) 3W51R are first 5 digits of Vin number. R means 427 8V 425HP package.

Back to 409 Pontiacs. Either I am ignorant of such. (perhaps Canadian had Chevys in their Ponts?) Or it was a missprint and was supposed to say 421 Super Duty with 8V. Or the Mopar owner is confused-which I doubt.

I had a 421 Super Duty engine many years ago. I gave it to a Pontiac younger friend. He never did anything with it. I don't know what ever happened to it. Wish I had it now.

While searching Google for 409 Pontiac info I came upon a video of a supposedly stock 421 SD on a dyno making 488 HP!

Beswick must have put it together

Wild stuff... Thanks, Jim. bp

I caught that also A.J. I thought it must be a typo also.
A few weeks ago I called a 348/409 a wedge fire and a guy in CA
had never heard that term.
IA AL

For the record in case you don't know me well: I love love all American brands of cars and engines. And even a few None USA ones. And I work on all American Brands. Mostly 40s to mid 70s. But once in a while I do some newer stuff.

I also had most American Brand cars in my life. I hope sometime to do a series of stories about each significant one in my younger days especially. My stories will not only tell about my car but others also. And most important I will tell history about the time periods and a fun story to go with it.

One of my car stories I already did. It tells about my first street car. It is on my website. www.animaljimracing.com Look under Animals Stories. It is called Sixteen going On Seventeen

I am writing a very long story right now. Some of it is fact. Anyway that is how it started. But it has embellished into a fiction short novel. Each chapter is like a short story in itself. It will be a fun read. My favorite chapter is: "The Car Wash" And it is close to the facts.

I did find one thing about the Pontiac 409. It looks like this guy will build them back.

http://www.bruneauperformance.ca/page2.html

If the writer of the article that AJ is refering to,is talking about Canadian Pontiacs.Then it makes sence.Canadian Pontiacs had Chev engine till 1968.The exception was the GTO and the Firebird.

There were a couple of Canadian Pontiac 409s around here in the mid 60s. There was a red 1962 Strato Chief(the low buck model) 2 door post and a black 1963 Parisienne hardtop(top of the line) As I recall they were both the single four barrell 340HP versions although the guy with the Parisienne added the dual quad intake and an aftermarket camshaft in later years. Sadly both are long gone now - the Strato Chief was destroyed in a barn collapse and it's engine then went into a 1961 BelAir convert. The hardtop Parisienne dissolved into the ground from sitting for years and it's engine/4 speed trans got put into a 1964 Chevelle. The BelAir was destroyed in accident and the engine was eventually sold to a collector in New Brunswick. I have no idea where the 1964 Chevelle went.

Edit: Thanks to Google Images I've found examples of both Canadian Pontiacs.

Wow. What beautiful, rare cars. It's a shame they're gone now, but at least we got to see them as they were. Thanks. WC1