My Pontiac Story

[Keith Seymore]

I've gotten quite a few requests to post my anecdotes over on this forum, so that they don't get lost within some of the more major general topic threads.

Basically these are my recollections of growing up in a GM family, in the Flint Michigan area, and with a dad that raced Pontiacs semi-professionally. This will be the long version, but I will provide links to shorter summaries and sidebars where appropriate.

I've mentioned it here previously, but before Dad started racing Pontiacs he was racing Ford products. He had a '60 Ford convertible with a Paxton blower on it that ran pretty well.

As a result, he had a good working relationship with Ford and was even trying to get hooked up with a factory lightweight in late '62/early'63. That didn't happen and is another story for another day...

Dad's contact at Ford was a gentleman named Dave Evans. Dave called Dad one day, out of the blue, and said "come on down here; I've got something for you".

Dad got the details. He was supposed to go over to Dearborn Steel Tube and pick up a box. He drove over and they directed him out back to see "Andy". Andy told him "...put this in the trunk of your car and don't open it until you get home".

Naturally, Dad pulled out of the parking lot and into the very first Shell station he saw and opened the box. In it was a complete 3x2 setup for a Ford; everything required for the installation was there. Intake, carbs, air cleaners, fuel lines, gaskets, everything.

After he got home, Dad called Dave and asked "what am I supposed to do with this thing?". Dave said "make it run. We can't get 'em to run...".

After a day or so Dad had the setup installed and tuned and took it out for a trial run. Sure enough, as soon as he went wide open the engine flooded out and stalled. He tried it a couple more times with similar results. He drove the car home, took everything apart, inspected and readjusted everything, reassembled it but still had the same results.

After thinking about for another day, he called a buddy over that was racing a Ford with twin Paxton blowers on it (Brad Burton was his name). They took the car for a ride, same results, and disassembled the setup for inspection. Brad left and Dad went to work that evening, came home and went to bed.

About four am the phone rang. It was Brad. He said "I know what it is! Meet me in the garage!". Dad drug his sleepy self out of bed and went to the garage. They took the carbs apart for the hundredth time and Brad said "AHA! There it is....I knew I noticed something wrong before but couldn't put my finger on it". What he had seen was that Holley had put power valves in the end carbs, allowing too much fuel to flood the engine. "We've got to plug those off".

So that night, in the Chevrolet die room, Dad made his first set of homemade Holley power valve plugs for use in a Ford Tripower!