It's a lot of fun checking out one of these early Pontiac V8s and seeing the differences between it and the later ones we're all used to.
They are the ones that most of us won't ever get a chance to work on. We pass them by, mainly because we know the small-valve press-in stud cylinder heads are 'inferior' to the later ones and the blocks won't bolt up to modern transmissions. They're no longer favored by the street performance crowd because of the improved designs of their later '60s and early '70s brethren.
But 4 of these 1959 389s (4-bolt main versions in heavily modified form) did power the fastest Pontiac-powered car ever built.
Pretty cool if you ask me.
