![]() Just to show how far Pontiac was willing to go in the pursuit of weight savings, the exhaust manifolds were cast in aluminum. A special “shoebox” intake that resembled a modern tunnel ram-style manifold was available over the counter. ![]() 10 camshaft (named for Pontiac engineer Mac McKellar), and two Carter AFB four-barrels on an aluminum intake manifold. The combination included trick high-flow cylinder heads, a McKellar no. Power for the ’63 lightweight racers was supplied by Pontiac’s Super Duty 421 CID V8, here rated at 420 hp at 5,600 rpm but said to be good for closer to 500 hp when properly tweaked. The car shown here, originally raced by Collingwood Motors in Greybull, Wyoming with the name Tonto VI, happens to be the final example assembled by Pontiac, and it wears Silvermist Gray paint. The first 12 cars were painted code 92 Firefrost Silver, a special-order Cadillac high-metallic color, while the last two were finished in standard WA2970 Pontiac Silvermist Gray. Every ounce was critical, leading Pontiac to some extreme measures, as we will see.Īll 14 of the cars were nearly identical: Catalina two-door hardtops, body style 2347, with base blue plastic interiors. With its giant 120-inch wheelbase and 64-inch track, the Catalina came into the game with a significant penalty in size and weight over the standard-size Ford and Chevy and the intermediate-class Dodge and Plymouth. (Plastic side windows were also available as a dealer package, reportedly.) These pieces and some other measures-more on these later-trimmed the big Catalina’s weight down to a claimed 3308 lbs versus the production car’s advertised shipping weight of 3725 lbs, a savings of over 400 lbs right off the top. ![]() Like many of the factory lightweight drag cars from the Detroit automakers in the ’60s, the Swiss Cheese cars emplyed weight-shaving body components-in this case, thin-gauge aluminum for the inner and outer front fenders, hood, front bumper and brackets, and radiator support. Meanwhile, the photos of the very same car in completed form are courtesy of Barrett-Jackson. With his kind permission, we’ll be using his build photos and his expert input to detail some of the fascinating secrets of the Swiss Cheese Catalina. But fortunately for us, our good friend Tim Divers of Divers Street Rods in Sultan, Washington, winner of the 2008 Ridler Award, among other feats, has performed a ground-up, nut-and-bolt restoration of one of these rare machines, and he carefully photographed the entire process. Due in part to their rarity, everything about these strange cars seems to be shrouded in myth and legend. Only 14 Swiss Cheese Catalinas were built by Pontiac, and only nine are said to exist today. Famed Motor City journalist Roger Huntington, writing for the May 1963 issue of Hot Rod magazine, took one look at the radically modified Pontiacs and coined the nickname they’ve carried to this day: the Swiss Cheese cars. To impress and attract the exploding youth market, Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors all offered special models prepared strictly for drag racing, featuring big, race-tuned V8 engines and exotic lightweight body components.Īs the competition escalated, these drag-strip battles produced some wild and crazy factory-built race specials, maybe none more wild than the 1963 Pontiac Catalina lightweights. ![]() In the early ’60s, the Motor City’s performance wars were heating up. Here are some rare details on these unusual Pontiacs. ![]() In 1963, Pontiac created a handful of very special Catalinas, strictly for drag racing, that would be forever known as the Swiss Cheese cars. ![]()
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