1968 Pontiac GTO “Royal Bobcat” 428
This is an original Pontiac GTO from 1968 with the rare “Royal Bobcat” 428 performance package (from a Bonneville) installed in-period by the legendary Royal Pontiac of Royal Oak, Michigan.
The Royal Bobcat package went above and beyond anything offered by the factory at the time, offering a larger and more powerful V8 sourced from elsewhere in the Pontiac family tree. Exactly how many of these were made isn’t known, but well-documented examples like this are now highly sought after.
Fast Facts: The Royal Bobcat Pontiac GTO
The Royal Bobcat 428 was Royal Pontiac’s answer to GM’s 400 cubic inch limit on intermediate cars. Owner Ace Wilson Jr.’s Royal Oak, Michigan dealership pulled 428 V8s from full-size Pontiacs and dropped them into GTOs, with mechanic Milt Schornack and Dave Warren preparing the engines and the rest of the car.
The $650 conversion went far beyond a simple engine swap. Schornack’s crew reworked the top end, valve gear, ignition, and carburetion using Royal’s signature Bobcat package, which included thinner head gaskets, a Quadrajet re-jet, a distributor recurve kit, and other tuning tweaks. The resulting engines were said to be good for over 425 bhp.
Car and Driver magazine tested a Bobcat 428 in February of 1968 and recorded 0 to 60 in 5.2 seconds and a 13.8 second quarter mile at 104 mph, numbers that put a mid-size Pontiac into Hemi Charger and 427 Corvette territory. For comparison a stock Ram Air 400 GTO ran the quarter in 14.53 seconds.
The featured car is a documented two-owner Royal Bobcat 428 finished in Verdoro Green and Red over Ivy Gold, with a 428, automatic transmission, Ram Air, and 35 factory and dealer options including a Sony Micro TV, GM trunk-mounted air compressor, and Hurst Dual-Gate shifter.
If you want to read the story behind these rare cars:
