Back in the 1960s many car manufacturers found it handy to support drag racing programs to attract business from car enthusiasts who spent their weekends at the drag strip. Rather than getting directly involved in drag racing, the automakers usually relied on certain dealers to put their cars in the winner’s circle and generate publicity.
Milt Schornack was a talented mechanic and car tuner who worked at Ace Wilson’s famous Royal Pontiac dealership in Royal Oaks, Mich. According to Schornack, it was in 1959 that Wilson approached Pontiac Motor Division with the idea of turning his franchise into the company’s high-performance headquarters. PMD was all for the idea and Schornack was the guy who did a lot of the performance tuning on the cars that became known as Royal Bobcat Pontiacs.
Once the arrangement between PMD and Royal Pontiac was sealed, the next step was to build some cars to win races and make headlines. The cars would have to look good, go fast and sell the notion of Pontiac performance. Wilson told Schornack to put together a’59 Pontiac with a warmed-up motor. Naturally, the 389-cid Pontiac V-8 with three two-barrel carburetors was used.
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