Aluminum 455 Olds Several photos

[PeteLeathersac]

I love the '62 Poncho Bubbletop look too!.
I've looked for info on these before as I remember seeing a Canadian '62 Poncho Bubbletop years ago and have searched since but never found anything on them being a factory reality..
A few US cars have been built, the eBay car and this car http://www.carcraft.com/featuredvehi...ina/index.html are both 62's w/ '61 roofs also I'm pretty sure I read about a '61 w/ 62 quarters/front clip etc before too..


~ Pete

[Griley]

We also have a few pictures of the Toronado that won the Pikes Peak hill climp in 1970. The engine in that car was also built by Olds engineereing and made around 500 HP.
http://www.levelonerestoration.com/

[StealthBird]

Griley, that Toro is very cool!!

On the topic of that 62 Catalina bubbletop, the roof is very strange indeed. The aluminum engine in that car was recently featured in Hemmings Muscle Machines, but in a Tempest wagon.

There were many of these all aluminum 389's floating around back then. Pontiac Engineering was whipping up some very exotic stuff, and what's amazing is that they had the smallest budget and engineering garage of all the divisions. Yet they managed to turn out DOHC and SOHC engines, 3-valve heads, 4-valve heads, all aluminum engines, aluminum rear ends, hemi heads, aluminum frames, swiss-cheese frames, aluminum bumpers, aluminum fenders, 2-piece aluminum headers, lightweight 421SD cars with rear transaxles, and they did all that by 1963.

On top of that, it was recently discovered that back in 1961, Pontiac engineers were prepared to release (for production) a twin turbo 389. Smokey Yunick had taken one of these twin turbo 389 packages and produced 900 hp on a dyno by kicking up the boost. Estimates had the production version at around 450-500 hp, and again, this was 1961! Pontiac cast up exhaust and intake manifolds for a production run, but abandoned the project when it was determined that NASCAR and NHRA would not allow turbo cars.

Always liked the cover of this early 1968 Hot Rod issue. The SOHC 421 in the lower left corner was installed in Mac McKellers 1963 Grand Prix, and all these decades later, it still pops up at car shows on occasion.



I hope you guys make it to the Muscle Car Nats in Rosemont IL in a couple weeks. There will be a large Pontiac representation there, including the factory lightweight 65 GTO, the Car & Driver 64 GTO, and loads of others. The theme is "the best of 1969".

[Griley]

That is a great cover I also have that issue. I herd several years ago about that turbo project and one fun things I recall hearing was that on a dyno pull the jetting was to lean and the engine back fired and blew a carburetor into the roof of the dyno room! To bad I can't make the Chicago show this year, but do hope to make it next year.

[RM Schimel]

Gary…thanks for posting the great pictures of the Olds aluminum 455. It is exciting seeing these legendary engines being uncovered today. What is the ultimate plan for this particular engine? Oldsmobile definitely had the serious hardware back in the day. I have spoken with many of the Olds engineers who worked under John Beltz. They all speak of Oldsmobile’s high-performance development projects that were truly mind blowing. Olds was always considered the engineering & innovation brand at General Motors and it is easy to see why.

I have to tell you that I’ve seen many of your W-30 restorations at various events and they are absolutely stunning. The finest in the country IMHO. But this black & white W-30 4spd ragtop at the 2009 Olds Nat’s is the nicest car that I have yet seen. The car is absolutely beautiful!!

Thanx again!! RM

[Griley]

Your Welcome, and Thanks for the nice words. The 455 is on display in a garage and probably will stay there for the forseeable future. I can't believe it but we are doing another 1970 W30 4spd convertible I don't think I will ever stop being excited about doing these cars.