First, an admission. When we saw this ad on RacingJunk for the first time we kept it to ourselves and did our damnedest to sell a non-vital organ for the asking price of the car, which is $42,000 bucks, give or take. As it turns out, we couldn’t get that kind of dough for our junky organs, so now it is time to tell everyone else about this totally freaking awesome car. What you are looking at is a 1961 Pontiac Catalina based an Art Morrison rectangle tube frame. Off of that rectangle tube foundation, there are many feet of round tubing that make up the rest of the chassis, funny car style cage, and support structure of the car.
Under the hood there is a 1967 vintage 400ci Pontiac block topped with nice aluminum heads, EFI, and twin 68mm Garrett turbochargers. Unfortunately, no elapsed times or trap speeds are given in the ad, but this big car has to haul some serious ass. The transmission is a three speed Lenco with a converter in front of it, feeding a 4.10 geared and bombproof Ford 9-inch, and double adjustable coil overs. The front end has a strut suspension and the whole car is just really nice from the nose to the tail and that is a hell of a long way in a 1961 Pontiac Catalina.
The car weighs 3200lbs with the driver in it and the chassis is good down to 7.5 seconds (we’re guessing that it is a mild steel chassis), it has been featured in several magazines and it literally the wet dream of any Pontiac loving son of a gun out there. We’re closeted Poncho freaks here at BS and this car just really does it for us. The body style is unique, the twin turbo Pontiac engine is just a great thing to see. We love rat motors, but to see someone keep a Pontiac powered by a Pontiac mill, and one that makes this kind of snot, is truly great.
The seller claims health issues for his reason for unloading the car. That truly sucks because the man obviously loved this car to build it with the parts and pieces that he did. Here’s hoping it goes to a new home where another lover of tin indians flogs it and wastes all the other cookie cutters out there on the strip!
Check the photos and then scroll down to see the ad!
RacingJunk Find: A twin turbo poncho powered 1961 Pontiac Catalina
This car was in the jan ’03 issue of PHR. Was just looking at it the other day actually. in the ummmm…. “study”
Years ago, it was my dream to have a 421 Super Duty, when everyone wanted a Chevy Turbo’ing this car makes it relevant in the 20 ‘teens! Good job!