OUR ROYAL TREATMENT

"A Tribute to Jim Wangers' 1964 GTO 'Test Car' built for Car and Driver March 1964"

CHAPTER 4

Greg Raymond

The donor car for this project was a 1964 LeMans Sport Coupe, an ideal starting point. This body style featured the crucial B‑pillar “post” separating the front and rear side windows, matching the configuration of both Car and Driver test cars. From the outset, authenticity mattered.

The LeMans arrived with its original 326ci engine still in place, along with a freshly built 389ci pulled from a 1966 GTO. Every instinct told me to hunt down and build a 421ci engine to mirror what I wanted to believe powered the original Blue Car. However, the final vote came in which became the deciding factor for our recreation of the lost “Blue Car.” 

Between Jim Wangers book “Glory Day’s” and Tenney Fairchilds intimate understanding of both cars based on many conversations with Jim Wangers, we went with the 389ci to remain true to the original build.

1966 marked the final year Pontiac offered the beloved Tri‑Power induction system, now with a one‑year‑only larger center carburetor. In 1967, GM restricted multi‑carb setups exclusively to the Corvette, and Pontiac transitioned to the 400ci/4‑barrel combination with the same advertised horsepower.

When we decoded our 389, the details confirmed we had something special:

ENGINE BLOCK
CODE:	WW
Car:	A-body
Year:	1966
CID:	389
HP:	335
Transmission:	Manual
Block Casting:	9778789
Main:	2
Model:	GTO
ENGINE BUILD DATE
C286:	March 28th,1966 - Day Shift

1966 389ci Block Casting Numbers

The engine, as purchased, wore an Edelbrock Performer RPM intake and a 750 CFM Competition Series Carter carburetor. Not the required Tri-Power we needed to maintain accuracy to the build.

Then fate stepped in.

The phrase “meant to be” gets thrown around too often, but in this case, there’s no avoiding it. At a local San Diego auto swap meet, Bryan Worthington stopped by my booth, noticing the vintage Pontiac parts I was selling. He mentioned he had a Pontiac Tri‑Power engine for sale and pulled out his phone. There it was a video of a 389 Tri‑Power running on a start cart. It was impressive.

I was intrigued, but I misplaced Bryan’s contact information and assumed the price would be out of reach. I let it go.

Until fate circled back.

Nearly a year later, I sold a set of headers through a local online marketplace. The buyer arrived, and it was Bryan. Within minutes, we were talking about the Tri‑Power engine still sitting in his garage.

At first, Bryan believed it was a 1968 Tri‑Power setup, which we all know is impossible. After decoding the intake and carburetor numbers, we uncovered a stroke of luck: the manifold casting number 9782898 identified it as a correct 1966 GTO Tri‑Power setup.

Exactly what we needed.

If we were going to maximize the potential of the 1966 389, already upgraded in multiple ways, this was the only correct path. The ’66 Tri‑Power bumped output from the earlier 348 hp rating to 360 hp and featured a unique one‑year‑only configuration: three large‑base Rochester carburetors. The center carb grew from the earlier 1¼‑inch venturi to a matching 1 3/16‑inch size, with revised bolt patterns and slightly different port shapes.

The negotiation was brief. Bryan preferred to sell the entire engine, but I only needed the Tri‑Power intake and carburetors. We struck a fair deal: some cash plus the 4‑barrel intake and carburetor.

Test Build #2 - 1966 389ci Tri-Power

MANIFOLD
9782898:	1966 Tri-Power Manifold:
CYLINDER HEADS
Cylinder Head Casting:	092
Valves:	1.92/1.66
Combustion Chamber:	70CC
Application:	1966 389ci & 421ci engines

Correct 1966 Pontiac #092 cylinder heads. Primarily used on 1966 389ci and 421ci engines.

With the correct components in hand, we turned the engine over to the team at JBA Speed Shop in San Diego for a modern‑day “Royal” treatment. Sixty years of engine technology has rewritten what’s possible, and the goal was to build something that honored the spirit of the Car and Driver test while delivering performance far beyond what the original engineers could have imagined.

But as with any ambitious build, things didn’t go exactly as planned…