Old School Drag Car... [PIC]

This 1962 Pontiac Catalina hardtop was a barely legal factory equipped 421 SD powered car made for the strip right down to radio delete. This is Arnie Beswick's "Mr B's Passionate Poncho ll" and his mods a classic for that era and still looks like something any gear head could do in his garage. Nothing fancy with steel wheels shod skinny in the front and fat Hoosier slicks in the rear. The hood has 74 hand stamped louvers on the hood for cooling. As was the philosophy of traction enhancement in '62, the front end was jacked up to put more weight in the rear, but the battery stayed in the engine bay. One of my friends mimicked this set up when he bought an early black '65 Biscayne tudor poster that was one of the few that came off the line with the 409 that a few more units later was replaced with the 396. For weight distribution, he he went a bit further and removed the front bumper and grill leaving just the quad headlamps gleaming within a black maw... coolest and baddest looking beast in the neighborhood.

This is a really old ERTL model that from what I read is going to be released again by MIC ERTL, in the original Bristol Blue, commemorating Pontiac's 75 years of racing with 2500 units planned through the Pontiac Historic Services. I would imagine the same tooling will be used.