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Big Al's Featured
Car's
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1969 Pontiac GTO
~ Big Red II
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Owned by Jim Loveland
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Photography by Buddy
Scoville
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It all began in March of 1968; a close friend of
mine had a 1967 Pontiac GTO Convertible and was interested in drag
racing it, so we did!!! It was fun, but just not fast enough, Soooooo
we talked it over and decided to go to our local Pontiac Dealer here
in Geneva and see what was available to us! My friend had all the
money we needed and I had all the driving skills and ability to Fine
Tune it plus, we could keep it at the service station that I ran.
So off to the dealer we went and sat down to talk business. I had
decided that the model that was most desirable for us was what they
called a T-37 which was a stripped down Tempest 2 door with a Ram
Air motor made strictly to be used on the Drag-strip! As we sat there
with the salesman, I laid out everything I would want and my Buddy
said "Hold On, Wait a minute, If I'm going to dish out the money,
I want it to be a red convertible. What I wanted for power I could
get, but it's got to be a red convertible to make him happy! I explained
to him for all the reasons, that a convertible was not a good car
for racing but he had the money and that's what he wanted and that's
what we ended up ordering. Who would ever believe that almost 40 years
later I would be sitting here writing this story for you and be able
to share it with my Great Grand Children and all the car nuts out
there. The first Red Pontiac GTO Convertible was called "Big
Red", so we figured the 69 should be "Big
Red II".
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Getting back to the story, I ordered the car with
the Big Ram Air 3 Engine with a heavy duty clutch set up and an M-22
4 Speed behind it sending the power to a positraction rear end with
a 4:11 to 1 gear ratio. We didn't order anything else, it came with
the standard AM radio and a console and that was it. We were told
it would take six to eight weeks for delivery because all the Drivelines
like we wanted were going into the GTO Judges and they were not really
sure if we could get it as we wanted it. But sure enough, eight weeks
to the day I was called and told it had arrived. But then they asked
if they could hold it for a week to use as a display in their showroom.
The GTO was a hot number and there was not that many out like the
Special one that we had ordered. How Special was it? There were only
86 of these units manufactured. Yes, only 86. I was called again one
and a half weeks later and told that they would release the car and
to come and get it.
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We raced it at Thompson Raceway Park for
the 1969 season and we were kind of disappointed with the performance
we were getting. So the next move was to go to Ron Hutter who was
the Guru on Pontiac engines. With only 500 miles on the odometer I
dropped it off at the old Taylor Pontiac Dealership in Chardon, Ohio
where Ron did his Performance work at the time. He Balanced the Rotating
Assemblies, Blueprinted all the parts and reworked the Heads. His
fine work put Big Red II in the low twelve's and the rest is history.
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We were happy now! I have had the car ever since
the day that they released from the Taylor Pontiac Dealership which
is only a mile from my home. This is NO Trailer Queen; I drive the
car weekly during the summer to shows and cruises. It only has 49,000
miles on the odometer. I hope everyone enjoys this account of the
Legend of Big Red II as much as
I enjoyed telling it!
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