1955 Pontiac 421 SD Hilborn Fuel Injection Hot Rod magazine cover car

1955 Pontiac Catalina 421 Super Duty Hilborn Fuel Injection Vic Hubbard owned

Bid With Confidence: 100% Positive Feedback and Last Feedback (very positive) was for a Vintage Car (1964 421 HO 4sp Tripower 21 option car)and the buyer referred to my description asvery accurate- Check it out yourself on my feedbackHot Rod Magazine Cover Car:Up for auction is this unique time capsule: a 1955 Pontiac Chieftain complete with:areal Pontiac 421 Super Duty engine, vintage Hilborn mechanical fuel injection system, Muncie 4 speed manual transmission, early hand-made Tri-Y headers and Posi 9.3-inch rearend.VIDEO: YOUTUBE keywords: 421 Pontiac Super Duty Hilborn Fuel Injection (right when I got it fired for the first time):you won't believe the sound!The car was likely built, raced and owned by Vic Hubbard (of the famed "Vic Hubbard Speed and Marine" Speed Shop in Northern California Hayward, CA)HILBORN INVOICE WITH VIC HUBBARD'S NAME ON IT:Hilborn Fuel Injection is still around as a company and they have records of all invoices- They provided me with a copy of the original Invoice for this very (by serial number) 1962 Fuel Injector System and the customer name on it is VIC HUBBARD SEE PHOTO**** Come and see the car, bring cash and a trailer *****
The equipment:
* 1961 421 Super Duty Engine:G 12 1 date code (see photo) = July 12,1961Casting code 538181540306 Cylinder heads :These all positively identify this engine as a Pontiac 421 Super Duty Engine: look these up
*1962 Hilborn 347 P-8 mechanical fuel injector (whole system)Original Long "Trumpet" Velocity StacksSerial #219Hilborn PG-150 cam-driven fuel pump
*1968-69 Muncie 4 Speed Transmission Casting # 3925660
*1957-64 Pontiac/Olds Safe-T-Track/Posi/Positraction/Limited Slip rearend with the removable carrier, 9.3-inch ring gears, big pinion shafts, and large-diameter bearings, tough axles; It is either a3:42 or 3:64 gear ratio according to a guy very knowledgeable on these
*The Tri-Y Headers are well-crafted and old,theyresemble photos of early Tri-Y headers by Doug Thorley on the H.A.M.B. website . . . the headers look hand-made by a real craftsman
* Hewitt Industries pyrometer, Jones Motorola tachometer (BOTH WORK)
Bid With Confidence:100% Positive FeedbackandLast Feedback(very positive) was for aVintage Car (1964 421 HO 4sp Tripower 21 option car)and the buyer referred to my description asvery accurate- Check it out yourself on my feedback
State of the car:
What I have done: Now, the car runs,drives, stops, turns, drives straight down the road, has throttle response, runs through the RPM power band like mad, and idles.
It has: new master cylinder, new wheel cylinders and some lines. The heavy duty brake shoes already on it wereimpressive/useable.
* New Brakes* New water pump* New Thermostat* New Water Temp Gauge and Fuel Pressure Gauge* Created vacuum advance for distributor for morestreet-ability* Troubleshot vapor-lock issue: moved fuel lines to camshaft-driven fuel pump away from exhaust and cylinder head, then heat-insulated them* Got Mechanical, distributor driven Tachometer running via custom machined fitting* Replaced gas tank* New electric fuel pump* Installed New Old Stock 1963 Metallic GreenVinyl GM bucket seats* Calibrated shifter linkage* Period lettering added by KANDY VAN of Chicago* Car club Plaques from Vic Hubbards car club (Headhunters, Hayward, CA) added
LOTS OF HISTORY TO THE HEADHUNTERS C.C.
* Running Brass mesh with clamps as air cleaner* Have valve covers and pushrod cover from magazine pictures
*** No, you won't be driving this home. You can drive it across town in Chicago, if that's home ***
**** Come and see the car, bring cash and a trailer *****
* HAVE MANY OTHER PHOTOS FOR SERIOUS BUYERS *
Bid With Confidence:100% Positive FeedbackandLast Feedback(very positive) was for aVintage Car (1964 421 HO 4sp Tripower 21 option car)and the buyer referred to my description asvery accurate- Check it out yourself on my feedback
Other Features:
*HilbornFuel Injector system serviced by retiredHilborn employee (per previous owner)
* Frame solid
* Absolutely solid floors (cabin and trunk)* Door/glass seals allowed a lot of water in: rust in bottom of doors and drip rail areas* Rust through at end of drip rail on drivers side near roof* Rusty hood, front bumper* Some oil comes through exhaust ports into passengers side muffler* This thing is tuned pretty well: revs through the power band and even idles well* Given the rarity of this real 1961 Pontiac 421 Super Duty Engine, I would have the heads done and the engine gone through/rebuilt/overhauled
VIDEO: YOUTUBE keywords: 421 Pontiac Super Duty Hilborn Fuel Injection (right when I got it fired for the first time):you won't believe the sound!
**** Come and see the car, bring cash and a trailer *****
Here is the Article on this car from the July 2014 Issue ofHot Rod Magazine:
1955 PONTIAC CHIEFTAIN - 421 c.i. TIME CAPSULE

Written by David Kennedy on July 7, 2014

Photographs by Jesse Kiser

As with all time capsules, everything we believe about this car comes from what its contents (421ci Pontiac Super Duty engine, Hilborn mechanical fuel injection, Hewitt Industries pyrometer, Jones Motorola tachometer, and the Tri-Y headers) tell us. The car's current owner believes it was built by Vic Hubbard, a West Coast hot rodding pioneer and the step-father of Jerry Light, who opened the historic Vic Hubbard Speed & Marine speed shop in Hayward, California. Its components and construction suggest it was built in the early '60s, and by some strange speed-part-preserving sequence of events, it's remained virtually unmolested for decades.

We stumbled upon the Pontiac for sale on Craigslist while researching Stuart Hilborn's legacy after he passed away in December 2013. The evidence of Hubbard's involvement begins with the Hilborn injection system, which, based on a receipt acquired from Hilborn, was originally sold to Hubbard. The Chieftain also displays build practices that would have been state-of-the art in the early '60s—the kind of hot rod engineering noted engine builder Ed Pink confirmed: "You'd have to be a pretty serious guy in the '60s to use a pyrometer on a Hilborn-injected street car, but Hubbard would have been the kind of guy with access to that stuff."

Standing in the car's presence today, it's not hard to image this street/strip racer—dare we say "sleeper"—laying waste to the competition. But the fact that this car's pedigree is unknown suggests it either didn't run well, or was designed to keep a low profile.

Here's what we do know: The car sat stagnant for most of its life. It has clearly changed hands a number of times, it's traveled from California to Ohio and back again, and was last registered in Salt Lake City in 1994. It finally ended up in a small import repair shop in Lakeside, California, where it was owned by a young mechanic who couldn't figure out how to get spark to the plugs, so he sold it to Greg Mettelka of Fallbrook, California.

Every '60s California hot rodder is only separated by a few degrees, so it came as no surprise that when we set up the photo shoot for the Pontiac, it was in Dragmaster Chassis founder Dode Martin's shop in Fallbrook, where Martin was storing the car for Greg. Martin and Hubbard's cars attended many of the same races during the time we believe this car was built, but not even Martin's crew knew anything about the Pontiac.

So if Vic Hubbard (the man) or the speed shop that was named after him built this car, it remained unnoticed—but it wasn't for lack of engineering. By today's standards the Pontiac looks simple, but in the early '60s it was advanced even for the Southern California hot rodding scene. "It was obviously built by someone who knew what the hell they were doing," Greg said. "They definitely weren't counting pennies, either."

The part that draws everyone to the car is the vintage Hilborn mechanical fuel-injection system. Seeing eight stacks reach for the sky when you open the squeaking hood would send chills down any hot rodder's spine. Greg sent the Hilborn injection to an ex-Hilborn employee to get it working again because the butterflies were frozen shut when he first uncovered the car.

Out back, the car has extra leaf-spring halves strapped to the stock leaf springs for added bite. Up front, the lower bumper was removed for better airflow into the radiator. All the pieces combined to produce a glimpse in hot rodding history, but even with all of these trick parts, the car never wound up in the record books and therefore is not in a museum or connected to a hand-me-down race program. And that could be why the car was never updated or changed, creating a tangible snap shot in the hot rodding timeline for the rest of us to enjoy.

Pontiac 421 Super Duty

• Production started in late '61 and stopped in '63.
• It was a race-only option, and some models offered aluminum front sheetmetal to cut weight.
• Only 47 of the 225, 421 engines produced in '62 were replacements—the other 178 were installed at the factory.
• Only 88 were produced in '63.
• Pontiac rated the 421 Super Duty at 405 hp, but our sister magazine Motor Trend tested a 421 in a 1962 road test at 465 hp and 505 lb-ft at the flywheel.
• Dealers were told to warn customers of the engine's intense torque, high idle, lower oil pan, and cold-weather driveability.
• A 390hp rated version was offered and intended for long durations of high speeds, it included a single 4-bbl carb.
• The street/strip version came with twin Carter 500-cfm carbs and an aluminum intake manifold. Aluminum exhaust manifolds were optional, but were known to melt under intense hot lapping.
• With the largest displacement at the time, the 421 helped start the cubic-inch wars in Detroit.

Out of the Barn

Greg Mettelka recently sold the Pontiac to Nathan Dougal, a psychoanalyst from Chicago. "I was really excited to receive the old relic, it looks all business," said Nathan, who collects old 421ci Super Duty Pontiacs. "[The 421 SD] is arguably still the best normally aspirated Pontiac V8." With help from friend Jim Simms, Nathan plans on either mechanically restoring the car so he can drive it, or leaving it untouched as it has been for so many years. "We might just leave all the California golden-age-of-speed grime alone rather than do a full aesthetic restoration ... Create an honest period hot rod".

Bid With Confidence:100% Positive FeedbackandLast Feedback(very positive) was for aVintage Car (1964 421 HO 4sp Tripower 21 option car)and the buyer referred to my description asvery accurate- Check it out yourself on my feedback
VIDEO: YOUTUBE keywords: 421 Pontiac Super Duty Hilborn Fuel Injection (right when I got it fired for the first time):you won't believe the sound! supreme supremewidgets
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On May-02-17 at 21:02:58 PDT, seller added the following information:

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• Condition: Used
• Make: Pontiac
• Model: Catalina
• SubModel: 2 door hardtop Chieftain
• Type: Coupe
• Trim: 421 Super Duty Hilborn Fuel Injection Vic Hubbard owned
• Year: 1955
• Mileage: 46,400
• Color: Darker Blue Patina
• Engine size: Pontiac 421 Super Duty (Real)
• Transmission: Muncie 4 speed
• Drive type: posi
• Vehicle Title: Clear
Want to buy? Contact seller!