Big Blue Daddy vs. Jim Wangers!

[4th GTO]

I just finished reading the book "Glory Days" written by Jim Wangers "Godfather of the GTO", and some of his stories of his street racing days remind me of the stories that Big Blue Daddy has been writing.
The favorite story of mine that Jim writes about is when they had two identical 67 GTO's,White with black vinyl top and red interior. One was a four speed car and the other was an auto. The four speed car was about 1/2 second faster in the 1/4 mile than the auto. Both cars were prepped by Royal Pontiac.
A guy in a 67 GTX Street Hemi with auto challenged them and they went out and beat him. On the way back to Woodward Ave. they were challenged by a Yellow 65 Vette. The Vette ended up beating the GTO. Jim was upset because even though they had beat the Hemi, everybody was talking about the Vette. So Jim not one to let this end, told people that they had found a broken valve spring in the car and that is why they had been beat. Needless to say, Jim wasn't telling the truth but wanted another race with this guy. So the stage was set for another race. They showed up with the auto car and then had to drive several miles to the pre-arranged highway for the race.
So on the way there they take a different route and switch the auto car for the four speed car and showed up first by taking a short cut to the site. This time they beat the Vette and then turn around to go back to Woodward Ave. and again switch the cars and come back in the auto car.
I guess people questioned this but they told them that ,hey you were here and seen the car before and after :thumbs:

[chris_wiz]

Glory Days is a great history of Pontiac and the horsepower wars of the 60s. I highly recommend it to anyone with a little interest in automobile history.

For the uninitiated, Jim Wangers is the marketing genius behind the GTO, and John DeLorean (yes, the same guy) was the head engineer at Pontiac who realized that you could drop a 389 into a Lemans where the 326 normally sat. Voila, GTO!

[4th GTO]

Glory Days is a great history of Pontiac and the horsepower wars of the 60s. I highly recommend it to anyone with a little interest in automobile history.

For the uninitiated, Jim Wangers is the marketing genius behind the GTO, and John DeLorean (yes, the same guy) was the head engineer at Pontiac who realized that you could drop a 389 into a Lemans where the 326 normally sat. Voila, GTO!
Right on Chris, I'm not a book reader at all but when I started, i couldn't put it down. Anybody that wants to know about Pontiac from the late 50's on, this is an excellent book to read. It takes you right thru the GTO years and how they marketed it!

[6704gto]

I just finished reading the book "Glory Days" written by Jim Wangers "Godfather of the GTO", and some of his stories of his street racing days remind me of the stories that Big Blue Daddy has been writing.
The favorite story of mine that Jim writes about is when they had two identical 67 GTO's,White with black vinyl top and red interior. One was a four speed car and the other was an auto. The four speed car was about 1/2 second faster in the 1/4 mile than the auto. Both cars were prepped by Royal Pontiac.
A guy in a 67 GTX Street Hemi with auto challenged them and they went out and beat him. On the way back to Woodward Ave. they were challenged by a Yellow 65 Vette. The Vette ended up beating the GTO. Jim was upset because even though they had beat the Hemi, everybody was talking about the Vette. So Jim not one to let this end, told people that they had found a broken valve spring in the car and that is why they had been beat. Needless to say, Jim wasn't telling the truth but wanted another race with this guy. So the stage was set for another race. They showed up with the auto car and then had to drive several miles to the pre-arranged highway for the race.
So on the way there they take a different route and switch the auto car for the four speed car and showed up first by taking a short cut to the site. This time they beat the Vette and then turn around to go back to Woodward Ave. and again switch the cars and come back in the auto car.
I guess people questioned this but they told them that ,hey you were here and seen the car before and after :thumbs:


That is a great story. Milt Schornack (Royal's builder & driver) also told the story at Nationals last month. The only difference between the two cars was tranny and their license plates.