RECREATING THE LOST "BLUE CAR"
- Greg Raymond
- 6 hours ago
- 5 min read
"A Tribute to Jim Wangers' 1964 GTO 'Test Car' built for Car and Driver March 1964"
CHAPTER 1 Greg Raymond
The story is a well known one in the world of the Pontiac Enthusiast. The Muscle Car was born in 1964 when the Pontiac GTO was first developed in late 1963 by Pontiac chief engineer John DeLorean and his engineering staff, Russ Gee and Bill Collins.
DeLorean had an idea while experimenting with the new redesigned 1964 Tempest, originally a four-cylinder economy car, introduced by Pontiac in 1963. The Tempest's standard 326ci V8 engine option had the same external dimensions as the entire fleet of V8 Pontiac engines. So DeLorean and his team replaced the new 1964 Tempest's V8 with the larger displacement 389ci V8 from the Pontiac "Big car" line up. With no physical size differences there was nothing that could prevent this (or any) Pontiac engine swap.
The GTO was born, enter the Muscle Car era!
Why build a tribute to the so called "Lost Blue Car?" This is where the story gets fun. We have all come to learn in our reading Jim Wangers' 2003 book, "Glory Days: When Horsepower and Passion Ruled Detroit" there was a bit more to the story.
In "Glory Days", Jim Wangers used his 45-year career in Detroit, specifically working at "McManus, John and Adams" as an Advertising Executive which owned the Pontiac Advertising contract in 1964, as the basis for explaining successful brand marketing for automobiles. He dove into why brand management for cars is not the same as for other "branded" products and on how to position a model for the best possible tie-in promotion including how not to. And ultimately what it takes to establish and evolve a brand image. Needless to say, Mission Accomplished!
In "Glory Days", Specifically in Chapter 8 "The Tiger Learns to Roar," Jim goes into great depth and detail about the cars used for the March 1964 issue of Car and Driver. Jim not only reveals how he and his friends at Royal Pontiac, a Pontiac Dealership in Royal Oak Michigan run by Ace Wilson, modified the two GTO's prior to the Daytona Beach Florida Car and Driver test sessions in late December of 1963.
Royal Pontiac had already developed a reputation among Pontiac owners by creating the Royal Bobcat packages with part upgrades including their own line of accessories and speed equipment, certain combinations that could be added to any production Pontiac which created an absolute dominant street machine.
This brings us back to the "Why"? – Why build a Tribute to a so called "Lost Blue Car?" As the story was archived in the book, told many times to me personally by Jim Wangers himself and substantiated by the likes of Dave Anderson and the rest of the California based Pontiac family, two cars were built and modified by Royal Pontiac for the Car and Driver test sessions. One Red Car and one Blue Car.
Both test cars were "labeled" as Royal Bobcats and had the Royal Bobcat emblem on the rear sail panel. This means that they were [assumed to be ... ] stock Tempest GTO's with a 389ci engine and the following Royal Bobcat changes:
The main jets were changed to .069 in on all three carburetors for maximum acceleration. Normally, the center carburetor runs lean (.066 in) for cruising economy, with rich jets (.073 in) on the outboard carburetors for occasional bursts of speed. The Royal treatment gives a more even mixture distribution at a slight increase in steady-speed gas consumption.
A progressive-action throttle linkage is installed to calm the beast down for boulevard use; it's also more accurate than the stock linkage.
The distributor was modified to limit centrifugal advance to 7º (14 crankshaft degrees) and initial advance is set at a whopping 20-22° (total advance, 34-36°, is reached at 3600 rpm). This makes a tremendous improvement in low-end response (i.e., below 3600 rpm) but substantially raises the octane requirement.
The heat riser is blocked off, a special (thin) head gasket from the Super-Duty 421 engine is installed and still more compression is gained by installing Champion J-I0Y plugs without gaskets.
Finally, special fiber-insert rocker arm retaining locknuts are installed which permit the hydraulic lifters to function as a solid lifter-operating at 90 percent bleed-down.
As described in chapter 8 in Jim's book "Glory Days", – "We agreed to supply two Pontiac GTO's, one a stock Sports Coupe with standard suspension, a 348 horsepower Tri-Power engine, a wide-ratio 4-speed gearbox, and a limited-slip 3.55:1 rear end. We chose to use a "pilot line car," thus it had no production VIN number. That car, known as "The Blue Car" since it was painted Nocturne Blue, was to be used for street driving and for road course and skid pad testing. The second GTO which became known as "The Red Car" since it was painted in Grenadier Red, also had the 348 Tri-Power engine, but used a close-ratio 4-speed, and a 3.90:1 limited-slip rear end. We built it as a Royal Bobcat specifically for the test, and provided Car and Driver with a complete information sheet detailing exactly what modifications had been made. "The Red Car" was set up exclusively for acceleration testing." The Blue Car, having been set up for street driving and for road course and skid pad testing included Power brakes with Metallic linings and manual steering.
In an effort to keep it brief ... It's the differences between the two cars, however subtle, that paint the true picture. It is important to note that of the nine photographs that were part of the March 1964 Car and Driver article, only one was of "The Red Car." This was the engine shot. This can be deciphered due to the lack of power brakes and the addition of power steering as seen in this photograph.
A close inspection of each photo will allow you to tell which car is in each image. "The Red Car" had, and still has today, the electric rear fender mounted antenna while "The Blue Car" had a front fender mounted antenna. Lastly, 11 Pages into the photo section of "Glory Days", Wangers reports that a front fender mounted rear view mirror was on "The Blue Car." As seen in this photo it had no outside rear view mirror at all.
Over the next several months we will chronicle this build and continue to dive into the history books to tell the story while we recreate the long lost "pilot line car," "The Blue Car," a tribute to one of Jim Wangers' 1964 test cars!
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