[Bobcat]

Well your story is pretty close. A few corrections are in order. 1) There were two Ace's Jr. and Sr. 2) Sr. bought the dealership to give Jr. something to do. 3) Jim Wangers sold an idea to Estes and Delorean on a high perforamce dealership program. He was given the OK to find just one to start. Packer Ponttiac was very interested. But Bill Packer Jr. was leaving town for the weekend and would get back with Jim on Monday. While heaading back to his office Jim made one more stop. Royal Pontiac. Ace Jr. loved the idea and woulid not let Jim leave until a deal was set in stone.Side note Ace Sr hated it. Deal made. Bill Packer was more than a little upset. Packer after all was one of Pontiac's largest dealers with three stores. Detroit, Flint and Miami, FL. 4) The Royal racing program began with the '59 Catalina which was set up as a test bed. It had all of the latest including an Isky cam with a Pontiac part number. Unfortunately, while waiting in the pits at Detroit Dragway for the begining of the races, Bill Sidwell, against Jim Wangers' wishs took the Royal car out onto Dix Hwy with a couple of freinds and rolled the car. Bill was removed form the driving chores. The car was repaired but not until the 1960 race season. For 1960 Royal had three cars. 2 '60's, one automantic driven by Winston "Win" Brown and the stick car driven by Jim Wangers. A Pete Seaton entry racing through Royal was also in the finals. The Racing proram was Pontiac back door to the public. 5)As for all factory only parts that's not true. Inital Royal sold Isky cams with Pontiac part numbers. Royal Pontiac published three "Royal Story" parts books. 1962, 1963 and 1968. These where given out at Royals open houses. 2) Royal began marketing a Bobcat Kit in and a Bobcat dealer built car in 1961. Frank Rediker, while not an employee of the Dealership, had developed the kit and was the head mechanic on the race team. 6) the reason the cars had window stickers on the was because they were later sold as used cars. The cars however had the original engines removed and placed on a pallet and a rac motor was put into the car. At the end of the season the paint was stripped and repainted and the race motors pulled and the original motor replaced in the car. Less hassel and warranty issues. That's why it's hard to varify a Royal car. 7) Royal was hardly an outlaw dealership. They prepared almost all of the magazine Pontiac test cars so as not to embarrass the division with the cars performance. YES, the cars were more than plain jean stockers. Remember this was the back door to the public. Bottom line was to sell cars at all costs.8) A few Royal affiliates would not only hit the local tracks. They were constantly doing "market research" on the streets of Detroit. Royal was only a few blocks off Woodward Ave. Jim Wangers was always on hand with more than a few "hot" Pontiacs. 9) Royal formed a mail order business called the "Royal Racing Team" in 1962/1963. You could join for a couple of bucks and get discounts on Royal Pontiac parts. The mail order business hit it's peak in 1966 with the "Geeto Tiger" program. Over 5,000 members by the time the dealership was sold in 1969. The story goes alot deeper than the story book you just bought. Unfortunately there is a past, glorified porter, from Royal that is constantly resurfacing. I read he calims to have invented Royal and the Ram Air program. This guy wasn't even a line mechanic. Whenever Royal sent him out with another Royal Employee or even "Doc" Watson, this guy couldn't even post as fast a time. The magazines bare this out. The Royal Story keeps getting better and better. There was always a close working relationship with Royal Pontiac and the corp. while Knudson, Estes, Delorean and Wangers where there. Knudson went onto Ford and took his freinds and business partners, Mickey Thompson and Smokey Yunick with him. Delorean went on to Chevrolet and Wangers went onto Hurst than his to own Chevy Dealership in Wisconsin. Sad, very sad.