Mecum Pontiac Super Duty's

[Paul D]

For those that didn't make it to the Mecum auction last weekend, some pictures of the Pontiac Super Duty's that were sold out of the Randy William's collection follow this post.

Dana Mecum stood up and said that these were the finest cars he's ever sold at any of his auctions. That's quite a statement and after closely examining the cars, they were all unbelievable restorations.

Also, Arnie "the farmer" Beswick gave a little talk. He said the reason he kicked ass on Chevrolet, Mopar, and Ford in those days was the quality of engineering that Pontiac put into their race cars. He said Pontiac totally dominated NHRA and NASCAR in the early 60's.

In fact, in the Race of Champions at Daytona against all the series winners of European and American sports car and oval, a 421 Super Duty Tempest lapped the field of Ferrari's, Mercedes, Porche, NASCAR, etc., etc. After the race, Mercedes bought the car (an offer that couldn't be refused) from the Pontiac race team, took it to Europe and reverse engineered the car. To this day, that Tempest has never been found!

[Paul D]

the "Grocery Getter" 421 SD Tempest the Arnie Beswick make famous. It went for $650 plus buyers commission.

[Paul D]

the 1963 Packer Pontiac "swiss cheese" Super Duty went for $440K plus. This car's frame had grapefruit size holes over it entire length put in at the factory. Additional weight was save with aluminum fenders, hood, bumpers and numerous brackets.

[Paul D]

the 1961 Super Duty Ventura Bubble Top went for $135 plus. In '61 all the SD parts came in the trunk and were dealer intalled on the factory 348hp 389ci engine. This car was beyond beautiful!

[Paul D]

the 1062 SD Catalina went for $235K plus. In '62 NHRA required that all car must be built in the factory....none of this dealer installed stuff! This black beauty is on of about 170 Super Duty cars Pontiac built in 1962. It has factory aluminum front end, bumpers and interestingly, the SD hardtops came with the post sedan frame, which was not boxed on all four sides..... anything to save a few pounds.

[Paul D]

the '63 SD Catalina post car went for $285 plus. It had all the aluminum pieces plus numerous "one off" items that Pontiac sent to some of the big name racers. Items like stamped stainless steel headers, aluminum rear end pumpkin, etc. Randy Williams searched out all these "unobtainium parts" over a 20 year period and had them installed on this car.

[Paul D]

421 Super Duty engine was factory rated at either 405hp or 410hp (13:1 compression). Two fours, mechanical cam, dual points, aluminum exhaust headers were part of the deal.

[Paul D]

you've got to love that '62 SD Catalina. When they drove them up on the podium, all the cars had there headers "uncorked". Yeah, the sound was deafening as all five were driven into the auction room at the same time!

[Paul D]

And finally, here's Arnie signing some autographs.

[Paul D]

Oh, and the whole package of five cars was initially bid as a group. It went up to about $1,650,000. but didn't meet reserve, so then each one went over individually.

Here's Scott Teimann (sp) getting a little emotional as they past $1,550,000. Scott did the restorations on all the cars with the exception of the '61 Catalina.