The Awesome 426 Max-Wedge Cars

First a bit of history...

The super-performance era in the 60's probably began with Pontiac boring out and stroking it's 389 CID engine to 421 CID and installing over-the-counter NASCAR goodies into it, with dual four barrel carbs on a unheated aluminium intake manifold, 12.5:1 compression, forged pistons, rods and crank, new camshaft and dual valve springs.

This engine developed 450 horsepower and could rev to 6200 rpm. The engine was backed up with a heavy duty clutch, four speed manual transmission, oversize drive shaft and limited slip diff with special heat treated ring-and-pinion gears.

This combination was installed into the full sized 1962 Catalina Coupe to which was fitted lightweight aluminium hood, inner and outer front-fenders, radiator supports and front bumpers.

In 1963 the braves at Pontiac added an aluminium bellhousing, gearbox casing, tailshaft and rear axle centre section. they even made the exhaust manifolds out of Aluminium, these tended to melt if you ran the car for more than a 14 second run down the drag strip. All body sealer, padding and sound deadener was left out during production and the frame was drilled so full of holes that the car got the nickname of Swiss Cheese.

I got this picture off the net. I cant remember the URL of the site it came from, if I did I would put a link to it, This car is one of the original swiss cheese cars restored to the same condition as when it was new.
If this is yours or you know the address of the site drop me a line.

Dealers recived the cars with Plexiglass windows sitting in the back seat ready for them to install. All this weight reduction took the weight of the cars down to 3300 lb from the 3800 lb for weight of a bare-bones 62 model and was as good as adding another 50 horsepower to the engine.

This form of weight saving was too much for the NHRA and the rules were changed in 1963 to make the largest engine displacement 7 litres- about 427 cubic inches- and minimum of 7½ lb of bodyweight for each cubic inch of engine displacement. This meant a minimum weight of 3200 lb for a 427 CID engine.

A few months after the release of the 62 Pontiac 421, Chrysler introduced the Dodge Ramcharger and the Plymouth Superstock models.