In 2018, a juvenile bobcat nicknamed “Mr. Murderbritches” became the darling of the Internet for his incredible ferocity during a brief capture-and-release by Utah wildlife officials. Fifty-six years earlier, Car Life tested another fearsome Bobcat, a special hopped-up Pontiac Catalina conceived by Jim Wangers and offered by famed performance dealership Royal Pontiac. Let’s see what Car Life editors had to say about the original Royal Bobcat, a rare full-size ancestor of the legendary GTO.
Utah bobcat Mr. Murderbritches demonstrates the ferocity that briefly made him a star.
The thing to remember when reading this vintage article is that in 1962, the Pontiac GTO, that eternal darling of the ’60s Supercar set, did not yet exist. Pontiac had full-size cars, and it had the Y-body Tempest, whose street performance potential was limited by its “rope-drive” powertrain and Corvair-derived rear transaxle, but that was it. The A-body intermediates were still over a year away, and the Firebird was five years in the future. Prior to 1964, if you wanted a really hot Pontiac street car that could also be set up for weekend drag racing in the NHRA stock classes, you had to order a basic B-body Catalina with as much engine as you could afford, ideally one of the hot high-output Tri-Power engines or rare Super Duty mills.
For young ad executive Jim Wangers, Pontiac liaison for advertising agency MacManus, John & Adams, the problem was that a hot engine in a base-model car was not yet a complete product with an identity Pontiac could market. Another problem was that the Pontiac sales force generally didn’t know much about performance cars or how to sell them, nor did old-school general sales manager Frank Bridge, who wasn’t keen on Wangers’ proposal to set up a traveling seminar program to teach Pontiac dealers how to serve the performance market. In the summer of 1959, Pontiac general manager Semon “Bunkie” Knudsen suggested a compromise, telling Wangers, “Go out and find a dealer who would like to become a performance specialist, like a guinea pig.”
That guinea pig turned out to be Asa (Ace) Wilson Jr., owner of Royal Pontiac in Royal Oak, Michigan, who eagerly embraced Wangers’ suggestions, transforming Royal Pontiac into a true performance dealership. Royal salesmen were trained to understand the needs of the market: They wouldn’t try to talk a buyer out of ordering essential items like a heavy-duty suspension or four-speed, and they knew what to suggest and how to order from the burgeoning list of Pontiac performance options, including the special equipment lists and dealer-installed stuff (LPOs and DIROs, in Pontiac parlance), which many salespeople knew nothing about. Putting its money where its mouth was, Royal Pontiac also built and sponsored its own drag racers; Wangers himself became NHRA Top Stock Eliminator behind the wheel of a Royal Pontiac car in September 1960.
The next step was for Royal to introduce a special package aimed specifically at the street, with unique trim and a new name: BOBCAT, selected by mixing and matching the letters of existing Pontiac model badges — two “B”s and an “O” from the Bonneville, “CAT” from the Catalina. “It fit nicely in the same place on the car, and it looked like it came right out of the factor,” Wangers recalled years later. “Honestly, that’s how we chose the name.” Wangers also chose the exterior trim, which was relatively subtle, but easily identifiable.
Paul Stenquist / Hagerty Media
Royal Pontiac prepared the first Bobcats during the 1961 model year. Nine months later, Car Life magazine put a 1962 Bobcat through its paces.
Here’s what they said in their review, which was published in the magazine’s July 1962 issue:
According to Wangers, many of Wilson’s salesmen and service managers were actually none too keen on the new performance orientation, at least at first. Most of the salespeople changed their tune when they realized they’d found a lucrative new niche, but Wilson’s father, Asa Wilson Sr. (who’d bought the dealership for his son), never came around, resentful of being associated with greasy teenage hot-rodders and nursing an antisemitic dislike for Wangers. However, in its heyday, Royal Pontiac was the place to go for Pontiac performance, and they eventually did a brisk mail-order business well outside the Detroit area.
Since the Bobcat was a dealer creation rather than a factory option, its special trim and exterior decor was obviously chosen so that it could be easily added after delivery by the Royal Pontiac service department.
Trim aside, the Bobcat was essentially a Pontiac Catalina Sport Coupe (two-door hardtop) with an array of performance equipment optional on the regular Catalina, including the Tri-Power Tempest 425A version of the 389 cu. in. (6,375 cc) V-8, various heavy-duty components, and snazzy-looking eight-lug Pontiac aluminum wheels with integral brake drums. Most Bobcats likely had four-speeds, but Wangers says you could also order Hydra-Matic. (Since the automatic on the early ’60s Catalina was the unfortunate three-speed Roto Hydra-Matic, this was best reserved for gluttons for punishment, although Royal Pontiac could tweak it a bit in hopes of improving its glacially slow shifts.) The four-speed manual transmission normally had a “wide-ratio” gearset with a 2.56 first, but the close-ratio gearset with a 2.20 low gear was available as a no-cost special order option, as was the 3.90:1 axle.
As the text explains, the Royal “Superchief” engine hop-up changes were actually optional — you could buy a Bobcat with a stock engine — and Royal Pontiac subsequently offered the same modifications as a tuning package for other Pontiac models. Many of the GTOs and other hot Pontiacs tested by the buff books in the sixties enjoyed this little pick-me-up, which was devised to be simple, effective, and yet still legal for NHRA competition, including a bit of tinkering with cam timing and distributor advance, re-jetted carburetors, different spark plugs, and blocked heat risers.
Paul Stenquist / Hagerty Media
Two of the features described in this article were new for 1962 Bobcats: the lock washers on the valve lifters, to avoid hydraulic lifter “pump-up” at higher engine speeds, and a progressive rather than vacuum linkage for the front and rear carburetors. (The standard vacuum linkage was on-off, which could mean some uncomfortably abrupt transitions from “not enough carburetion” to “way too much.”)
One point not mentioned in the text: Later Bobcat tuning packages generally included a thinner head gasket to raise the compression ratio slightly. Whether that was done here isn’t clear.
So far as I know, the bottom-end changes described in the text (a new No. 4 rod bearing, changes to the No. 3 main bearing, and increased oil pump pressure) weren’t included as part of the later Royal Bobcat tuning package for the GTO, although they seem worthwhile.
The estimated output — 370 hp at 4,800 rpm and 460 lb-ft at 2,800 rpm — was a gross figure, extrapolated from the 348 hp rating of the stock Tri-Power engine rather from than dyno tests.
The sidebar on this page describes one of the other Royal Pontiac conversions: a Grand Prix with a $275 Paxton supercharger kit on the regular four-barrel 389, giving about 400 hp on 6 lb of boost. Royal matching the factory warranty coverage voided by the supercharger installation was a classy touch, although the “no tinkering” rule would probably tend to discourage young performance-minded buyers.
The second half of the sidebar at the top discusses the even rarer Royal Tiger, a hopped-up four-cylinder Tempest. Since the Pontiac “Trophy 4” engine was essentially a 389 minus one cylinder bank, most of the modifications that could made to the V-8 could also be done to the four. However, the four-barrel Trophy 4 was never very common, probably in part because Tempest customers didn’t want to buy premium fuel.
Flexibility is not often a strong point of hopped-up engines, so the Royal Bobcat’s willingness to pull hard from 1,000 rpm in fourth gear was noteworthy. A top speed of 117 mph wasn’t outstanding given the power on tap, but bear in mind that this was with a 3.90 axle giving 20.5 mph/1,000 rpm in fourth, and where in Michigan other than a drag strip were you going to be able to go faster than 117 mph without ending up in handcuffs?
The text offers an important proviso about their recorded acceleration times: The Car Life crew ran with two aboard (in those days, a second crew member was needed to read the test equipment) in “a brisk 15–20 mph head wind,” without enough space on the strip to run in both directions to cancel out the wind effects.
Despite that, they recorded an average quarter mile elapsed time of 14.5 seconds, with a trap speed of 95 mph and 0–60 mph in 6.5 seconds and 0–100 mph in 16.0 seconds. Not quite up to the standards of the really hot intermediates of a few years later, but not far off either, and this was a two-ton car: Curb weight was 3,960 lb (about 1,800 kg), with the testers and their gear bringing test weight up to a round 4,300 lb (about 1,950 kg)!
Drag racers in those days didn’t like power steering (another belt to consume horsepower!), but the prospect of a owning two-ton car with unassisted steering requiring almost six turns lock-to-lock sounds pretty miserable, although Car Life thought the H-D suspension Catalina handled pretty well on the road, with the stiffer underpinnings reducing the float and wallow to which contemporary American cars tended to be prone. The lack of power brakes also seems like a hassle, though, and likewise the snappish heavy-duty clutch, although that was perhaps more necessary with the hotted-up engine and close-ratio four-speed. As the Car Life tester conceded:
Practice makes perfect in matters like this. (“I never have any trouble,” Wangers murmured politely.) It certainly didn’t slip any, even after umpteen acceleration runs.
The eight-lug wheels/integral drums were the best brakes Pontiac had to offer at the time, and among the best available on an American car in 1962, but they still left something to be desired in both directional stability and stopping power. Also, while the wheels themselves are attractive enough — today, they provoke oohs and aahs from observers who know what they are — I also think the add-on spinners (part of the Bobcat dress-up package, not a factory item) look a little foolish. I suppose it’s a matter of taste.
Paul Stenquist / Hagerty Media
I’m scratching my head a bit at the text’s various confusing references to the Bobcat’s price. The spec sheet below doesn’t include a detailed price breakout, but lists an as-tested price of $4,320 against a list price of $2,860, which the Standard Catalog of Pontiac says was the base price of a Catalina Sport Coupe in 1962. The Car Life main text says on the first page that the Bobcat “could be delivered at something under $4000,” while noting that someone from Royal had owlishly insisted, “The ‘as tested’ price in the data panel is considerably higher than the actual delivered price.” The final paragraph of the text then lauds an as-delivered price of “just over $3000.” This seems a trifle disingenuous: $4,000 is certainly “over” $3,000, but the word “just” seems to be doing a lot of heavy lifting here. Also, given the array of special equipment choices and the custom trim, I have my doubts that a buyer could wrangle much of a real discount from list price on a car like this.
The 10 to 13 mpg estimated fuel consumption (European readers may wish to note that this translates to 18.1 to 23.5 liters / 100 km) is presumably on super premium, but I don’t suppose one bought a car like this expecting it to be cheap to feed.
A more interesting question is how these performance figures compared to the later, lighter A-body GTO. Fortunately, CC has previously presented the June 1964 Car Life road test of a ’64 GTO with the Tri-Power engine, wide-ratio four-speed, and 3.23 axle. Let’s tabulate the results:
| Speed, seconds | Bobcat | GTO |
|---|---|---|
| 0–30 | 2.5 | 2.7 |
| 0–40 | 3.4 | 3.7 |
| 0–50 | 5.6 | 5.1 |
| 0–60 | 6.5 | 6.6 |
| 0–70 | 8.7 | 8.3 |
| 0–80 | 10.7 | 10.2 |
| 0–100 | 16.0 | 14.9 |
| Quarter mile ET | 14.5 | 14.8 |
| Speed at end, mph | 95.0 | 99.0 |
A very close race! The GTO was almost a quarter ton lighter than the Bobcat — 3,470 lb (about 1,575 kg) at the curb — but the lower numerical axle ratio cost it on the low end compared to the Bobcat, although lighter weight and smaller frontal area paid off at higher speed, despite the Bobcat’s extra power. (The first Car Life GTO was not Bobcatted, at least not that they acknowledged.) Note that the GTO had a slower ET than the Bobcat, but a 4 mph higher trap speed. With the same 3.90 axle ratio, it would almost certainly have trounced its larger cousin.
Prior to January 1963, you could also order a 421 Super Duty engine in a Bobcat, but it was very expensive and never very common. Wangers later said it was also kind of beside the point; the Bobcat’s purpose was really to build Pontiac’s image on the street.
In that regard, the Bobcat was very much the same kind of car as the later GTO: a reasonably complete mechanical package with a unique name and identification, providing enough performance to be worthy of respect while offering a ready-made image. The B-body Catalina was still bigger than ideal for street racing or the drag strip, and the Bobcat was a dealer special rather than a factory model, but the GTO would shortly address both of these shortcomings, which would also make the Catalina-based Bobcat irrelevant.
Exit Mr. Murderbritches, stage right.
Just as Mr. Murderbritches’ 15 minutes of fame ended soon after the angry young bobcat high-tailed it as fast as feet would carry him, so too has the original Royal Bobcat faded into obscurity. Pontiac fans still know the name, which Royal Pontiac later applied to its GTO tuning package and to some other conversions, like a 428 Firebird, but these weren’t quite the same thing. However, the original car had served its purpose, and while Jim Wangers freely admitted that the A-body GTO was not his idea (the idea of putting the 389 in the A-body Tempest was conceived by Pontiac engineers Russ Gee and John DeLorean), it’s easy to see the Royal Bobcat as a proof-of-concept for the factory performance packages that followed.
I’ve never seen any estimate of how many of the early Catalina-based Royal Bobcats were built — it’s quite possible that nobody knows, and since Ace Wilson sold Royal Pontiac and got out of the auto business in 1974, any records are probably long gone. Even more than the GTO, there are probably far more Bobcat replicas and tributes than survivors, and today, most of us are more likely to see the AutoWorld 1:18 scale model than the genuine article. Like young Mr. Murderbritches, however, they’re still fierce enough and distinctive enough to make an impression.
Related Reading
Curbside Classic: 1965 Pontiac GTO – How To Create a Legend and Build a Brand (by Paul N)
Vintage Car Life Road Test: 1964 Pontiac GTO – “Honest in Performance”?
Thanks Aaron! Great stuff.
I was completely unfamiliar with the Bob Cat, which made this an extra-interesting read for me. Pontiac certainly made up for lost time in becoming the place to go for retail performance cars in the 1960’s.
This also helps me understand some details of why it was necessary to take Pontiac performance figures in road tests of that era with a grain of salt. Pontiac and Royal seemed to go all-out in prepping test cars in ways that most buyers from most dealers would never know anything about.
Royal Pontiac repeatedly contended that there was nothing tricky about the engine modifications, which were the kind of thing that someone setting up a car for drag racing in the stock classes would do anyway. This was probably true, but it did provide a notable advantage against completely stock cars (especially since quality control in that era was such that you were lucky if your new car didn’t arrive with the carburetor bolted on backwards).
More than one new GTO owner was nonplussed, disappointed and pizzed off to discover that his new Pontiac was not nearly as fast as the magazine road tested Royal Pontiac Bobcat “ringer” car was.
I knew one of those guys. He was a gruff old cuss who smoked unfiltered Camels and bought a new 1968 Goat after military service (he was luckily stationed in the states during that period). He apparently bought into all of Wangers’ marketing hype by saying “(he) just had to have a GTO”.
But, then, as stated, he found out very guickly that his new Pontiac wasn’t all that on the street. I vividly recall his story of getting handily stomped by a Charger R/T. He wouldn’t have minded so much except the Dodge had a full load of passengers, too.
When his new GTO began rusting in the rear shelf, he vowed to get rid of it after no more than a year and was much happier when he traded it for a 1969 442 with the W-30 under-bumper air scoops. His only negative on that one was having to remove the scoops for winter driving.
His final ride before finally succumbing to all those years of smoking Camels was a 1971 Corvette with a 454.
I will admit to taking great pleasure in shutting down more than one proud, arrogant and conceited GTO driver with my 340 Dodge Demon. The looks on their faces when all they saw was the rapidly fading tail lights of my Mopar was truly a “Kodak Moment”.
The GTO might have been near the bottom of the street machine pecking order (with the Ford 390 being the only car beneath it), but the Poncho exceeded where it counted, i.e., in the sales race. It was number one in sales until 1969 when both the Road Runner and SS396 bested it.
With that said, it was also one of the more civilized musclecars with better overall driving dynamics than most. Sure, it wasn’t the fastest in the quarter mile, or even stoplight to stoplight, but for daily-driving in relative comfort (at least during the sixties), the GTO was okay.
I think DeLorean’s recognition of this may have been a major factor in the hugely successful downsizing of the Grand Prix for 1969.
True, the Ford FE390 was somewhat of an under-achiever as a street racer engine, quickly running our of breath and power as the engine speed increased. With enough after market parts installed it could be improved on…..but that goes for all the other engines that beat it from the factory.
It did make gobs of immediate, off idle torque, making it a good engine for your Mother’s Country Squire station wagon or your Dad’s Thunderbird.
As proof that the FE Ford could be made to run, Tasca Ford created the 428 CobraJet. They were the Ford performance dealership that got Ford to put it into midyear production for the 1968 Mustang. Suddenly, Ford was competitive in the big-block musclecar wars. And when it came out in the 1969 Fairlane Cobra, it was pretty reasonably priced, too. A bit more expensive than a 383 Road Runner, but still cheaper than an A12 Mopar 440-6v (and easier to maintain).
Unfortunately, Ford had gotten an unenviable reputation for building stones throughout the sixties. They had some good engines, but they were expensive and, unless the buyer was ‘connected’, hard to get. The 428CJ was a legitimate RPO. The Boss 429 gets all the love as the ultimate Ford big-block, but the 428CJ was Ford’s musclecar meat-and-potatoes.
Coupled with the 428CJ’s introduction at just about the time the musclecar era was ending (thanks mostly to insurance surcharges), and it was another case of too little, too late.
Let’s not forget the 1960 Ford Starliner with the 360 horsepower 352HP. Hot Rod magazine tested one and found it had a top speed of 152.6 mph.
i think it would be a good subject for one of Aaron’s deep dives.
As usual, another well researched, logical and well written entry from Aaron Severson.
There are authors here than I will read their words even if I don’t like the cars they are discussing. Aaron is one of these fine authors!
Thank, Aaron, for my first mental smile of the day.Looking forward to your next entry here.
A very appealing car. Pontiac sure did some nice things in the Sixties, with or without dealer assistance. I was aware of those wheels, and really like them. But as a “grown up” I’m wondering, did they include one as a spare? At least the eight lug design would prevent someone from throwing on standard steel wheel with no brake drum. But would your average small-town GM dealer even stock these rims if you hit a curb or had a small accident and broke one on the road?
Wow ~ all this and in 1962 no less .
The few that bought these must have been _very_ happy campers indeed .
I wonder how many are left ? .
-Nate
I had a special neighbor who lived 1 street away from me who worked for Car Life Magazine. He has great privilege of bringing cars home and gave me a chance to see everyone on them. He. Took me to special events and even had his very own lotus D production. This was all a great experience.
Thanks for this; I was aware of the Bobcat in general terms but this fills in the details.Creating these dealer relationships became an important solution for Pontiac and Chevy due to corporate restrictions on displacement and then the no less than 10lbs/hp rule in 1967. Chevy had Nicky and Baldwin and Motion(?) build 427 Chevy IIs and Camaros, among others.
I seem to recall being informed about Royal Pontiac and their messaged Bobcats from the “Letters” section of “Car & Driver” magazine; from readers who questioned the power and acceleration times of the “ringers” supplied to “C&D” by Royal Pontiac. Many years later “C&D” acknowledged this.
Somehow more than a few angry and offended FoMoCo and Mopar owners knew about the skunk works at Royal before most of us did. Word traveled fast out on the mean streets of America!
https://www.hagerty.com/media/car-profiles/royal-pontiac/
Next time I travel back in time, after reading this and seeing the picture of the red Catalina, I’m definitely going to be stopping in 1962 and get one for myself. Happy travels to you all
Wonderful piece, Aaron! Thank you.
I shudder to thing how much those wheels-cum-brake drums would have cost to replace.
There are both refurbished and repro replacements available — not what I’d call cheap, but not disastrously expensive these days.
This is the only POCI double Gold awarded 1962 Catalina with the correct dealer installed Royal BOB CAT treatment in existence.
Google or Utube
1962 Pontiac Royal Bobcat for more articles and videos
See also Lou Costible interview video.
Yes there was an 8 lug spare in trunk.
Great article! I just found the one on the 1966 LeMans. I used to have a 1966 Pontiac LeMans with the Sprint package. Mine was blue with triple white stripes down the length of the rocker panels and black vinyl top. The engine was the overhead cam 6 with close ratio Muncie and factory tachometer. I should have kept that one!
The racing Royal Pontiac car in the black & white photo looks like it has an altered wheelbase. That is some crazy rear overhang.
What I find really interesting are the hoops Pontiac jumped through to establish a performance image.
It took another six years, but it seemed like nobody understood the muscle market better than Plymouth when it released its original Road Runner. Stripped down and muscled up by the factory at an appealing price. Add fuel and go racing.
I’m surprised no one mentioned it, but I wonder about the influence that Royal Bobcat Catalina might have had on the infamous ‘Swiss Cheese’ B/FX Catalina, only 14 of which were built for 1963 before GM pulled the plug on all factory racing sponsorship.
They were really parallel efforts, although Royal ran a 421 SD Catalina with all the factory lightweight panels in A/Stock in 1962. Wangers said:
The Bobcat was about creating an identifiable package that would be an image-builder for the street rather than an ultra-specialized FX racer.
I’ve always loved the picture of Jim Wangers wheeling the ’60 Catalina stocker – not a helmet in sight, just out for a drive.
Besides the performance angle, IMO this model is the most stunning Pontiac body styles they ever came up with.
Clean lines, front clip and rear deck all in good taste.
The styling also does a nice job of retroactively justifying the 1960 front end, which had temporarily abandoned the split grille theme.
Well this was a wonderful article.
I am the last member of my Pontiac family. We started out with a 1940 Torpedo Model 29 Touring car. Being a somewhat mechanic, I worked on all 25 Pontiacs from 1940 to 2006, my son has the last GTO made. They were all fantastic and great to work on. But as of now, I don’t know where I would go faster than legally 85 MPH in America except the dragstrip of which I used drive every weekend in my youth. And again as of now my son’s GTO and my Torpedo are theonly ones left. My Torpedo has over 560 000 miles and still going strong. Goes to most all the car shows on Arizona and still passes righthand traffic uphill with the greatest of ease.
Granted I customized it fior me and is quit the head turner when I arrive pulling my 29ft.Airstream trailer.
PONTIAC A GREAT AMERICAN ICON WITH A GREAT NATIVE AMERICAN LOGO..
Sorry it’s
Lou Costabile site.
421 SD dual quad was also available
My family had a ’62 Grand Prix when I started high school. It had a 389 Tri-Power, factory reproduction H.O. cam and valve-train, a Borg-Warner Super T-10 4speed trans, and factory aluminum 8-lug wheels. The engine was built with the guidance and supervision of Pontiac Super Stock legend John Angeles in his home garage in Fountain Valley, so it was dead nuts ON…right ON! That engine was absolutely piss DRUNK on torque! It had freeway gears, not diggers, but it was a BEAST on the freeway! Total sleeper too with a voracious/insatiable craving for BMW’s and Benz’s, imports of all shapes and sizes…didn’t matter. Wolfed ’em down like a Rottweiler eats.
The idea was to sell customers a car that had POTENTIAL for high performance moreso than a turn-key factory race car. They still had to offer a warranty, build an engine that ran in the rain, cold weather, summer heat, etc etc etc. If you were knowledgeable or had the resources to pay for someone else’s knowledge then you could turn a 389 Tri-Power into a BEAST. We had one such beast. 1962 Grand Prix with 389 Tri-Power, H.O. reproduction cam and valve-train, tube headers, and a Borg-Warner Super T-10 4spd. The engine was built under the guidance and supervision of Pontiac Legend John Angeles in his home garage in Fountain Valley. That Pontiac had a VORACIOUS and INSATIABLE appetite for BMW’s, Benz’s, and imports of all shapes and sizes. Wolfed them down like a Rottweiler eats.
I just can’t imagine what kick in the hind parts a 421 dual quad engine delivers. It was all I could do to manage a 389 Tri-Power. That car was just falling down drunk with torque! A 421 Super Duty…that’s the TIT’S!
Thank you Aaron for this great article Not many people know that the Bobcat treatment was Pontiacs version of a Shelby or Yenko aftermarket muscle car.
Thanks again
Dennis koss