There was a time when a Pontiac powered nitro flopper was pretty normal stuff. Guys like Dick Jesse and Arnie Beswick proudly flew the Poncho banner with header flames belching from under their cars. Sadly, those days were many decades ago. Until now. A wild Pontiac nostalgia funny car called the Boss Bird has been under construction and as these videos prove, it lives! The car has what is undisputedly the most powerful Pontiac engine of all time, and it is built with some amazing custom parts. 

The block is an iron piece from All Pontiac, but the heads are the real story. They are 100% scratch made and based on the unicorn-like Pontiac Ram Air V heads that a select few people ever got their hands on. That Beswick guy we mentioned before ran a pair and has apparently told the crew on this car that they worked really well back in the day on pop.

The engine specs were spilled by Eric Larsen one of the owners of the car and the guy who bore the most reponsibility for the heads. He posted them up over at the Classic Funny Car Board. Here’s what the guts of the operation look like:

AllPontiac aftermarket iron block
4.25 x 4.25
6:1 compression
Crower billet crank
Bill Miller “426” rods
Bill Miller pistons
Erson cam and springs
Ferrea valves 2.25 and 1.80″
Our own design and manufacture billet heads; based on the old factory Ram Air V…..Pontiac changed the valve order to divorce the 2 center exhaust ports and they are “tunnel port” intakes with the pushrod tube thru the port. Arnie Beswick used RAV heads back in the day and related how well they ran on nitro.

Manton pushrods…7/16 intake and 1/2″ exhaust
Custom build Jesel rockers….alum. intake and steel exhaust
SSI 14-71 std. helix
Hogan intake (custom build for our heads)
3-rib bugcatcher for the right look
MSD 44 mag, cam driven
Rob Bruce’s fuel pump and tuneup….you’d have to ask him if you want to know more.
Moroso custom build pan and valve covers
Old school Moon timing cover

One name that jumped out at us was that of Rob Bruce. Rob’s been in the nostalgia flopper game for a long time and he’s also run a “modern” nitro car so he understands the intoxicating fluid better than most. He’s also a Pontiac guy to the core who ran a 1965 GTO A/FX car that was a fore runner of the actual flip top nostalgia funny craze.

The men aim to break the all time Pontiac elapsed time record which stands at 6.27/227mph. 

Press play below to see two awesome videos of the angriest Pontiac engine on planet Earth!