Technical THE most rare Pontiac intake ever?

Frank, could you please share Arnie Beswick’s contact info? I wanted to reach out for an autograph. Sent you a PM...
Thanks much!

 

Done. I am sure he will want to hear from you.

 

I will be in Greensboro this weekend and spend some time with Arnie. I am sure he will have something to add here about his memory of the intake.

 

Tell him all his HAMB fans say hello

 

Will do.

 

I've saw a couple of pics before but never the story. Thanks for the history.

A friend has a 421 intake and it's supposed to be pretty rare by what little bit of research I've done on it but this one is way cooler.

 

Interesting stuff.

Mike

 

I asked Arnie today if he used the small carb and if it worked. He said he did and it didn't. I will have more on it tomorrow. All four of his daughters are with him. I have never seen all of them with him before. They are a close family and trying to cope with the loss of Mrs. B.

 

Thanks to you @frank spittle, I called Arnie and we had a lovely phone conversation about my newly acquired 60 Ventura. He once demo-dragged the same car at a Quad Cities Pontiac event in the late 90’s. Father of the GTO / Pontiac Advertising Exec Jim Wangers also made a run with the car on the same day. At the time of the event, the car belonged to former Pontiac Exec and President of the Sixty Owners Society car club, Doug Bendle of Nashville, TN.

Arnie shared some cool stories about driving his 60 Pontiac all the way down to Daytona, FL from Illinois...changing the intake, gear to a 4.30, timing, etc. all in the parking lot! The “beating Chevy’s ass”...putting all the street parts back on the car in the same parking lot and driving home. “That’s how it was done back then...”

Arnie’s in my Hall of Fame!

[emoji471]

 

Glad you got to talk with him. I talked with him at Greensboro. I also had the honor of introducing a close friend as he was also being inducted into the North Carolina Drag Racing HOF along with Arnie. Pete Hill and I raced T/F Harleys 40 years ago, mine was powered by two Sportster engines and his a supercharged single engine Harley. It was a hobby for me but business for him and he is known worldwide today and stays busy rebuilding vintage Harley engines. He also ran Harleys at Bonneville and was friends with "The Worlds Fastest Indian" Burt Munro.

 

guess i've lived a sheltered life! my first thought was the fuelie intake '57-'58 (?).

 

The 1957 and 1958 Pontiac fuel injection intakes were different for the different years.

There is a reason why Pontiac discontinued fuel injection after only 2 years, and the same reason why MOST 1957 and 1958 Bonnevilles that show up at auction are described as "low mileage cars".

Jon.

 

Guys,a couple years ago I ran low on brain cells and took on a project to reproduce the Bathtub intakes.Over the years I have owned many from originals,a couple of the first run of reproductions and one of a reproduction done by Randy Williams and collector of rare pontiac parts and cars.I acquired one that was made for drag racer Bill Blair.With help from a couple very smart friends I set out to do the project.Found a foundry in SoCal that could do small runs of castings.With the help of a Pontiac and owner of a machine shop with a 3D scanner,and a 3D printer we started.John scanned the intake I had that was made for the 61-64 pattern heads,scanned it,printed a plastic intake to confirm fitment.I then sent it to a Pontiac engine builder and head porter to convert my intake to match the port and water pattern of the 65 and later heads.Got it back,confirmed fitment on my 62 GP with late heads and we were off again the 3D scan,3D print and with the help with another friend to convert our scan into a solid works file to be able to make molds for casting.I then handed over the project to John Cogger to produce the intakes.We ended up selling close to 75 intakes,mostly 65 and later and a lesser amount of the early style.I have pics on my phone and will try to get some posted here.Thanks for reading.I can be emailed a t.schlauch@yahoo.com if anyone wants pics or interested in buying one.We are sold out right now but can order mre castings if there is enough interest.Tom

 

Very interesting history.
Thank you
Dan

 

@tjs44 I would think that they would sell pretty good depending on price.

Ebay is one place I would look to also, people bitch about it but the sheer number of people that search that sight is amazing.

Getting the word out that they're available is the only downside I see....

If you do produce more please be sure to post here !!

...

 

John has moved on to a under hood LS style blower system for the traditional pontiac.Have one running in a 69 GTO.Can use AC,PS etc.If I could figure out how to sign in on my phone I could post pics of the Bathtubs and the blower system.John can order Bathtub castings. Tom

 

Tom - glad to see you are still active; GREAT project. Sure that you have made a lot of folks happy!

Jon