This could be one of the most incredible hot rod barn finds that has ever surfaced! This period built Pontiac is packing a 421 Super Duty with a Hillborn fuel injection system, handmade headers and a 4 speed Muncie transmission. It’s believed that this car was owned and built by Vic Hubbard of Hayward, California. His stepson Jerry Light opened the famous speed shop, Vic Hubbard Speed and Marine. Ofter the past few decades, it has traded hands several times and traveled from California to Ohio, on to Utah and eventually back to California. It now runs and drives, but the current owner has to let it go. You can find it here on eBay in Chicago, Illinois with an opening bid of $8,700.
There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of documentation to link the car to Vic, but there is one invoice for the Hillborn injection system that has Vic Hubbard on it. Given the quality of the build and the equipment used, it seems likely that it was built by Vic, but it’s going to take a ton of research to prove anything beyond the fact that this is one awesome hot rod!
Can you imagine having a 421 Super Duty sitting under the hood of your car? If you don’t know much about Pontiac’s 421 SD V8, it was a factory monster. Pontiac rated it at 405 horsepower, but independent tests concluded it was producing more like 465 horse and 505 ft. lbs of torque at the flywheel. With the fuel injection system and all the other performance bits, it was likely producing more power than that! We don’t know what kind of times it was running back in the ’60s, but that’s a ton of power for a ’55 Pontiac.
The interior looks to have been left mostly stock, outside of the addition of the Hewitt pyrometer and Motorola tachometer that is. The seller installed a set of NOS seat covers to make it more comfortable and calibrated the shift linkage on the Muncie. They also added the “period” lettering on the exterior.
If this car looks familiar, that’s because it was featured on the cover of Hot Rod Magazine. The seller posted the article in their ad, so be sure to take a look at it. It definitely looks better in the magazine, but that’s the difference between photos taken on your phone and a having a professional photographer take them in a studio with thousands of dollars in equipment. That being said, how amazing would it be to own a car with this kind of history?
Did anyone notice the dizzy cap terminals arcing in the video? Sweet ride and if I weren’t thousands of miles away…
I think that guy better leave tuning by ear and pick up a timing light!!
Sure does look like spark leaking across that dizzy cap – yet engine doesn’t sound like it’s misfiring?? How’s that possible? Sounds healthy as hell!
What a kickass car. I’d love to drive around town in that thing and perhaps challenge a fart pipe Civic or two at stoplights. LOL at Head Hunters club. They must’ve been some guys to be reckoned with.
It sounds to me like its only running on 6 of its 8 cylinders, notice how far he rotates the distributer to have zero effect on the engine tune…it seems to me that he is attempting to clear fouled plugs by revving the engine, id have to hear the engine at idle then the miss or cross firing would be more evident.
Looks like a piece of debris flapping in the wind actually
It looks to me that there is a bit of something on a plug wire where it attaches to the cap. The wind from the fan is blowing it around, gives the illusion of arcing.
Why would there be a receipt for something going to the name sake of the company who was the step father of the owner? It doesn’t make sense. Something like that would have been have likely have been given to a family member, not sold, especially if this was going to be used in for a race car.
The addition of the “period lettering” makes it more doubtful that the claims of a family connection are true. It’s a cool car, but the story has a bunch of holes and seems designed to drive the price higher.
Steve R
Steve R, I don’t follow your comment on the receipt. It shows the Fuel Injection Engineering Co. sold a (presumably) Hilborn injection system for a Pontiac to a customer named Vic Hubbard. How does this not fit in with the possibility of Vic Hubbard having owned the car?
I’m friends with the grandson of the founder of Vic Hubbard’s, last night he spoke with his dad who ran the the company from the early 80’s until it’s close in 2014. He said they never owned it car, nor did anyone in the family. They raced dragsters.
If the current owned put in a little effort he could have contacted someone from the family in an attempt to document the car. Several family members still live within a block of the original store. The seller has all of the correct names and the story about the company being named after the stepfather is accurate too. No one probably ever tried to contact them because they were afraid of the answer.
Steve R
Looks like doc from the cars movie
love the car but the story seems like a fairy tale?
Only 55 Pontiac to have bucket seats…………….not
Yup…other than lots of stuff, the interior is all stock!
Cool car and I’d love to have it but as big a player as Vic Hubbard’s was in the Bay Area you would think there would be a ton of documentation available. Hell, I have a bunch of Vic Hubbard receipts from Wayback, mine and my dads…
Why are people missing the point on this receipt? The receipt is for an injection system that Vic Hubbard BOUGHT from another company. He was the customer. The fact that anyone has a receipt for something they bought from Vic Hubbard Speed and Marine is irrelevant here!
When did Ford co-opt the Super Duty name for its trucks?
I read the ad and the whole thing seems far fetched to me. A receipt from Vic Hubbard on buying the injection set up links him to owning the car? BS
The car is a rusty pig. The owner admits they cannot restore it otherwise it would ruin the patina. So what do you do with it? That is serious rust on the lower body. The only thing that is going for it is the 421 which is why the guy bought the car so why is he trying to cash in? Wait. Because it was on the cover of Hot Rod and he is hoping for Tri Five Chevy money and to achieve that you need the 421 in place! Cool car despite the sellers car dealer infused ad.
I think I ‘ll wait around on Craig Breedloves loaner AMX given to him to drive while in Detroit coming up for sale. Why not. It is as likely!
ET’s bike is going on Ebay next week. With full documentation. Get in line.
Great induction system. Rap it to 5000 rpm, dump the clutch and start banging gears, not letting it drop much under that. Thrilling! :-) Terry J
The video is worth $8700. That guy should be playing the Hammond organ at the local hockey rink.
yep…been found….picture in a magazine….like a rolling stone……been flipped more times than a pancake at IHOP…..still no documentation but a lonely receipt….why does this get posted here ?
So we can watch the maestro tuning it. No worse than some of the other stuff posted here. I still find this page is the best entertainment on the WWW.
Casey C just my opinion u don’t need a timing light to get
best tuning I tuned my 455 Pontiac by the ear and took it
to the dyno marked the distributor moved it around and
best horsepower was back to the mark. Was that luck or what?
that sounds so good. I say fix the rusty areas and leave the car the way it is
I will say that is some gauge cluster. Is that a fuel pressure gauge on the hood?
What is a pyrometer? I know it is trying to measure heat, but where?
What is a pyrometer? For automotive applications it is used to measure exhaust gas temps. Google for more.
I spotted that on craigslist and posted it to the pontiac forums and a hotrod staffer saw it. I sent him the contact info and it became the cover car. So cool
The SD 421 engine is the money in this car. It will be intersting to see how much the car will bring because of the motor.
As a lifelong Chicagoan, the rust on this thing is really gonna start becoming an insurmountable problem at some point. Someone get this thing back to California, now!