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Old 01-04-2014, 05:42 PM
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Default John Zink at Daytona Beach 1957 - PMD Tribute video

came across this video, but with no background info to go with it, hope folks here can tell me more about it, I believe the video was done in spring 1990, depicting event from January 1957.

When Semon “Bunkie” Knudsen was put in charge of revitalizing Pontiac, part of his plan was to get involved and achieve some success in various forms of auto racing. So in January 1957 at Daytona Beach a 347 tri-power Pontiac driven by John Zink set a one-way speed record on the flying mile.

Interested in more details about the original event, was this Pontiac's first racing success in the Bunkie Knudsen era? About the car? About John Zink?

But also interested in this tribute video, when and where has this video been shown before, who was involved in making it, when was it done, is there a better (or longer) version, assume the car used is a re-creation, who owned it at the time, where is it now, etc.

It is my understanding this video was shown at a regional POCI convention in the early 1990’s (possibly 1993) and may have been shown at a POCI national convention.

Note: click image to play, you don't need facebook account to view video, best with the volume cranked to really enjoy the Patrick Stewart narration

John Zink at Daytona Beach 1957 Tribute

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Old 01-04-2014, 08:01 PM
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The Video was made to celebrate the 30 millionth Pontiac built in 1991 and shown as a superbowl commercial . The car was owned and built by the late John Fitzgerald from Jupiter Florida, A well known 1957 Pontiac Collector.

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Old 01-05-2014, 08:48 AM
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Some good early motion picture of the car in this old episode of AMC...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVa5-...a7WSr&index=18

SOLD at MECUM in '09...
http://www.mecum.com/auctions/lot_de...D=HE1009-82663

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Old 01-05-2014, 03:13 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by alex s View Post
The Video was made to celebrate the 30 millionth Pontiac built in 1991 and shown as a superbowl commercial . The car was owned and built by the late John Fitzgerald from Jupiter Florida, A well known 1957 Pontiac Collector.
hi, this is the kind of info I'm trying to uncover, please tell me more, I went thru my collection of old Pontiac literature and found this article from sometime around 1990, regarding John Fitzgerald and company Pontiac Restorations, and this article has a photo of a white '57 tri-power Chieftain








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Old 01-05-2014, 07:28 PM
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I knew John Fitzgerald quite well. He was an attorney, later disbarred. He had a Resto shop and museum in Jupiter. A friend of mine babysat for his kids and took many trips up north in various classic Pontiacs. I remember the car when it was under construction and when it was completed. He met an untimely demise in the late 90's. His much younger wife sold all the cars and scrappedthe parts cars. I found his 66 cat wagon in the boneyard and parted it out.

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Old 01-05-2014, 08:11 PM
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I knew John Fitzgerald quite well. He was an attorney, later disbarred. He had a Resto shop and museum in Jupiter. A friend of mine babysat for his kids and took many trips up north in various classic Pontiacs. I remember the car when it was under construction and when it was completed. He met an untimely demise in the late 90's. His much younger wife sold all the cars and scrappedthe parts cars. I found his 66 cat wagon in the boneyard and parted it out.
do you know if the tri-power Chieftain that John F. restored was ever "made up" to resemble the John Zink car and then used to make the tribute video?

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Old 01-06-2014, 04:17 PM
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The Daytona Beach 1957 video - https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...27286635576028 is a tribute to John Zink’s Daytona record holder.

Here is a picture of the actual car that set a new speed record in January 1957 at the Daytona Beach Speedway in Florida. It ran the flying mile one way at 141.2 MPH, the fastest speed ever recorded to that date in its class. The White-and-Red finish, complete with correct graphics, was reapplied during a complete frame-off restoration. A piece of Daytona’s rich history, this car is also a genuine tribute to the craftsmen of '57 Heaven.

On the day of the record setting run, it was driven by 28 year old owner John Zink, from Tulsa Okla, who also owned the cars that won the Indy 500 in 1955 (driver Bob Sweikert) and 1956 (driver Pat Flaherty). John Zink had been bring cars to Indy since 1950 when he was 21 years old. For the 1957 Daytona Speed Weeks, John Zink brought 2 Pontiacs – one a production legal chassis for the beach speed trials and the other a stock car for the Grand National 160 mile road (and beach) course. There were 2 different engines for the speed trials car, one was 400-hp fuel-injected intended to run on alcohol in the experimental class, but when John arrived at Daytona he was surprised to discover alcohol was not permitted, so they attempted a practice run on gasoline and managed 160 mph but burned a piston, so they switched to the stock engine for the record setting run.

On February 27, 1957, the #85 stock car owned by John Zink and driven by Darel Dieringer had qualified to start in 6th position for the 39 lap race, but at the end of the beach section Darel hit a car that spun in front of him and his race was over.

Highlights:

- John Zink’s Daytona record holder, 141.2 MPH flying mile
- White and Red with Black interior
- Frame-off restoration
- 347/317 HP NASCAR engine
- 3x2 carburetion
- 3-speed transmission

When the assets of the ’57 Heaven Museum in Branson Mo were auctioned off in October 2009, this car was the 8th most expensive sale at $192,500


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Old 01-06-2014, 05:11 PM
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I remember the car and when it was being built. I later saw it at several local shows, and possibly at a POCI convention or some show where it was shown indoors. I liked John. He was a nice enough guy, and gave me some solid advice when I was just a pup in the hobby.
He had a Bluemist slate '65 GTO with blue interior that was a frame off that he drove every day. Bragged about stamping the block correctly. I don't know what ever happened to that '64 Lemans they show in the picture of the article. It was rough, but complete and running.

My recollections is that he built several Fuel injected "57 Bonneville convertibles. Back then I think they were selling in the low 100's. I reached out to my friend who had babysat his kids, but it isn't the woman that I thought it was. I'm going to have to try and remember who it was. She drove some of his cars to shows, and rode in many of his cars, and has inside details that I never knew.

I'm fairly certain I met John in late '88. After that the time frames are a bit sketchy. The guy that did his interior work was one street to the north of him. If I remember correctly, his warehouse was either on Evernia or Fern street in the original industrial area of Jupiter Florida. Some years before I had the engine of my '66 GTO built at Mr Bill's which was a general autmotive shop to the south of where Fitzgeralds warehouse would eventually be.
Going back a few years, if you mentioned Fitzgeralds name in POCI circles, it would create a rumbling as it appeared that he had some bad dealings with various folks.

About 2-3 years ago, I met a fellow at an AACA show in Vero Beach, Fl. He had worked as a "gopher" of sorts for Fitz, and had nothing but nice things to say about him.

I can tell you this much. The quality of his restorations at that point in time were above the level of a Scott Tiemann restoration. I know this because right about that same time frame, my friend Steve Brown had his 71 Judge convertible restored by Scott. Not sure if he had gone pro yet, or was just doing restorations as a hobby. That Judge was the green one that I'm sure many of you will remember. Not sure where it is now.

Speaking of all this reminded me of another renowned resto shop in our area- J+J Enterprises. They were in the Ft Lauderdale area, (John and Jackie) Top notch shop that restored at least 2 of Steve Ames cars. They moved away many years ago, but I think they have a shop in Illinois under the same name.

Of course with the good also came the bad. That started and ended with Custom Classics of Florida.

I've now used up all my words for 2014.

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Old 01-08-2014, 01:50 AM
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Default video - part 2

history of Pontiac Excitement 1957-1991

This is it, 3 and ˝ minutes of non-stop history of Pontiac Excitement from 1957 to 1991, the recently posted John Zink Daytona Beach 1957 tribute (see https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...27286635576028 ) is just the intro to this video segment.

So go back right now and watch the Daytona Beach 1957 video to get prepared for the ultimate Pontiac commercial, so much excitement that GM corporate would not allow Pontiac to broadcast this to the public, previously shown only to Pontiac staff and at Pontiac club meetings (no recordings allowed), from Cotton Owens winning at Daytona driving a ’57 Pontiac prepared by Ray Nichels, to the new (at the time) 1991 line-up and the 1990 Sunfire concept, combining the beat of Ride Pontiac Ride with the narration of Patrick Stewart.

Which clip is your favorite? What isn’t there that Pontiac should have included? Maybe it’s there and you missed it, better go back and watch it again. How does this version compare with the “so 80’s it hurts” version? (see https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...93781236777356 )

For more on the actual John Zink Daytona Beach speed record setting car see post - https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...3030066&type=1

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Old 12-17-2014, 08:46 PM
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This is my understanding so far, hope folks here willing to fill in the gaps and correct me where I’ve gone wrong. My understanding is that Pontiac actually did 2 separate tribute projects regarding the John Zink 1957 Daytona Beach speed record. The 1st tribute was the 2-minute video with narration by Patrick Stewart. The video was produced in 1989 and the car used in the video was provided by John Thropp.

John Zink at Daytona Beach 1957 Tribute Video

John Thropp was a member of POCI and also a member of the Safari Chapter. According to the chapter briefs section of the October 1982 issue of Smoke Signals magazine, a new Safari chapter officer for 1983 was chapter vice president John Thropp. John also had quite a career as a drag racer and was runner up in Stock Eliminator at the 1969 Dallas World Finals driving a F.I. Pontiac.



John’s drag racing car was altered to match as closely as possible the appearance of the original John Zink record setting car. Since the drag car was a hardtop and the Zink record setting car was a post, fake posts made of wood and painted white were attached to the car on either side to make the car appear like a post model to the casual observer. Is it possible that John Thropp himself was the driver of the car for the video? He would have certainly been qualified to do so.

Sadly, John passed away on November 18, 1994 and the following announcement appeared in the January 1995 issue of Smoke Signals.



Hopefully that car has survived and it would sure be interesting if any memorabilia from the tribute video project has stayed with the car and could be recovered and shared.

The 2nd tribute was this photo that appeared inside front cover of 1991 Pontiac full line brochure. This photo was taken in spring 1990 and as far as I know there is no video from this tribute, just the photo. This is not the John Thropp car, this car was restored by John Fitzgerald and Pontiac Restorations of Jupiter FL back in the late 1980’s. At the time of the photo the car was owned by Gerald Adcox. When the assets of the ’57 Heaven Museum in Branson Mo were auctioned off in October 2009, this car was the 8th most expensive sale at $192,500. I presume the buyer was satisfied that the documentation that came with the car confirmed it is the actual car driven by John Zink at Daytona Beach back in 1957. John Zink passed way in February 2005.


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