Glory Days of GM Factory Race Car
 

These are the factory race cars GM built prior to their ban on racing. The cars, men and teams that raced them were amazing automotive pioneers...

You can't see it in the photo from the article, but my dad is driving Pete Seaton's car in the other lane.

This is the B/FX class final at Indy in '63.

K

Here's our car.

It's the same as above, except sitting on a regular frame.

Built as a 421SD it was converted over the counter to a HO car (tripower) so that it would run B/S.

Aluminum fenders, hood, bumpers with steel brackets.

It also has the distinction of being the car Wangers developed the Bobcat paint scheme on.

K

----Very, very cool, Keith! If I had to pick a 3 year period that encapsulated my younger years it would be 62-63-64. What a fantastic time period. Of course, then things started to really ramp up and it was all crazy, yet wonderful!.....Bill S

Duntov the Father of the Corvette had some really well designed perf Chevy BB engines that were never produced due to GM upper brass saying no. Duntov had a prototype Chevy BB Hemi Engine that looked impressive in pictures that never got approved to be built.

https://images2.imgbox.com/0c/9a/u86kIl12_o.png

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/201...big-block-v-8s

This is an interesting post for me. The original owner of my 68Z (still kicking it) was a road racer and was sponsered by Nickey Chevrolet, and he told me a story of why he turned on GM and it seems to relate to this engine work they were doing.

He and some other racers were invited to GM research and there he saw their work on an overhead cam engine. He was so impressed and got excited (he is an engineer and had his own race shop in Joliet IL) BUT at the end of the presentation they made it clear they will not make these engines in the future. My car was the last GM car he ever owned, because he got so mad that GM would do such a thing. Went into Porsches from then on.

He is supposed to help me put the engine back together in the car he had here shortly once he takes car of some medical issues, just talked to him the other day. According to him the exact twin the car I have now (except for the JL8) was wrecked when he tried to get around an out of control mustang at road america. He rolled that car end over end and was able to walk away. They fined him because he still had his watch on which I guess was a no no. Nickey helped him order a second car at below cost which he (and they) intended to race, and after seeing that overcam engine at GM, he never took it to the track even though it had the off road package with the headers and crossram setup.

I can pick his brain when I see him on what he knew and saw on the overhead cam engines related to this article if anyone is interested. Seems like there is not a lot of info on them.

IMO . . . when GM and Chrysler saw what NASCAR did to Ford when it tried to get their 427 SOHC engine accepted (NASCAR put a 400 pound weight addition to any car that would run their engine, which made it non-competitive) both companies abandoned their SOHC efforts.

This is awesome! Thank you for sharing

Awesome picture of the Chevy BB prototype that Duntov had hoped Chevy would approve. Would of loved seeing a BB Chevy Hemi Engine get approved. Duntov the Father of the Corvette made Chevy performance what it is today.

I remember eons ago of a Hot Rod magazine with Duntov sitting with at least four experimental Chev engines on the cover ...

From December 1967 :)




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Exact picture i have and magazine sitting on my shelve now. Look at those Chevy powerhouses. Would of loved seeing that BB Chevy Hemi become reality. Chrysler would of had some big competition.

Chrysler also had a SOHC Hemi in case Fords' got approved by NASCAR.

Return of the DOHC 426 HEMI

https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/return-dohc-426-hemi/