Paxton option in 66? Yeah...right.....

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pishta

pishta

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"...1966 saw the Barracuda get a slight makeover which included a new die-cast grille and tail lamps. A list of optional equipment inside consisted of a transistorized AM radio, seat belt retractors, and a new center console. The performance Formula S option also returned this year. Motor Trend flogged the Formula S equipped with a 3-speed TorqueFlite and got a respectable 8.9 second 0 to 60 time along with a quarter mile run of 16.5 seconds running 84 mph. Installing a Paxton supercharger upped the ante and gave this compact a little extra kick. From 0 to 60, the Barracuda was 1.1 seconds quicker and the quarter mile time was shaved by 0.7 seconds. The supercharger also made the Barracuda 8 mph faster in the quarter mile. According to Motor Trend, this upgrade only cost $365 and took about an hour to install."
1964-1969 Plymouth Barracuda

Tell me they thought this was a factory option in 1966...It's written to seem like it was just another option you could order.
 
That's bullshit. They were an option in the 66 Shelby GT350H Hertz rent a cars, though.
 
I’ve got a Paxton on my Studebaker Avanti. It would’ve been cool if a supercharger was an option on the Barracuda.
 
67Dart273 said:
........and 57? 58? Fords........
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my best friend in HS(67/68) had a '58 Ford Fairlane(?) convertible with a Paxton supercharged 312(?). Cool car but I think the s/c drive belts were removed. We had to buy a qt or two of bulk oil every week for it because it burned/leaked oil so fast.
 
pishta said:
How many you think got that...1? That would be even more a mega buck car today!
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I am not a Ford expert but I believe they made a fair number of S/C Coupes . Guess I could google it but Im lazy ...lol
 
If I remember correctly the McCullough (wasn't Paxton yet) supercharger was available only on the 57 Fords. They were built to compete against the Chev 283ci fuel injected engine. They also built a 270hp engine with 2 four barrels to compete against the 270hp Chev engine. There were at least 3 companies that used that supercharger in the late 50's early 60's. Ford, Studebaker and Kaiser. I guess you could add Packard if you consider the Packard Hawk. We took one off of a Kaiser Manhatten and adapted it to a friend's 55 chev which surprised a lot of street racers.
 
Many kits might have been installed by dealers, but it was an aftermarket accessory. Paxton offered a lot of kits for different applications. Most likely Paxton supplied the editors of Motor Trend with a kit and maybe even help installing in exchange for a favorable mention in a road test. Product placement plain and simple.

I think Paxton has offered kits through Ford dealers for mustangs and such over the years.
 
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C130 Chief said:
Might have been installed by the dealer, but it was an aftermarket accessory. Paxton offered a lot of kits for different applications.
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Ford did make kits available for dealer installation but they also included many factory produced cars reference 1957 "F" code passenger cars and T-birds. I don't know about the dealer installed kits but the factory cars had special heads which made putting a used kit together a little harder. There weren't many F codes produced (notice value of F code T-birds today). A friend of mine had a 57 2dr sedan F code he raced in the NHRA stock classes. Your're right about kits for various cars this units history goes back to the 30's but relatively speaking there were not many factory cars produced with the supercharger
 


57 Ford with Paxton

This is pure stock class so it is supposed to have been available from the factory .
 
Anything was possible " back in the day ". Everybody knew someone or heard about odd things back then... Just mention something different and someone will chime in...
 
The Granatelli Brothers made Paxton blowers for numerous applications, not offered by Chrysler. It would be interesting to see a vintage setup on a 273
 
Supercharger Carb Modification

One of my old links when I was considering using a Carter for a blow through. My Carter 4bbl 312 in my 57 Fairlane 500 was smooth, purred like a kitten even with solid lifters. Ford-o-Matic (Early FMX) had 2 speeds on the column but really had 3: you put it in L and run it up and shift to D then you pull it back down into low and it would hold 2nd until you shifted back up into D again.
 
pishta said:
"...1966 saw the Barracuda get a slight makeover which included a new die-cast grille and tail lamps. A list of optional equipment inside consisted of a transistorized AM radio, seat belt retractors, and a new center console. The performance Formula S option also returned this year. Motor Trend flogged the Formula S equipped with a 3-speed TorqueFlite and got a respectable 8.9 second 0 to 60 time along with a quarter mile run of 16.5 seconds running 84 mph. Installing a Paxton supercharger upped the ante and gave this compact a little extra kick. From 0 to 60, the Barracuda was 1.1 seconds quicker and the quarter mile time was shaved by 0.7 seconds. The supercharger also made the Barracuda 8 mph faster in the quarter mile. According to Motor Trend, this upgrade only cost $365 and took about an hour to install."
1964-1969 Plymouth Barracuda

Tell me they thought this was a factory option in 1966...It's written to seem like it was just another option you could order.
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Not a factory option. Paxton (owned at this time by the Granatelli brothers) did make a kit to install their supercharger on a 66 Barracuda (one of many such kits for a variety of cars), and the Motor Trend article makes it clear that they took the Barracuda to the Granatellis' shop for them to install one of their Paxton kits.

03251504 (2).JPG
 
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-1.1 sec increase 0-60 and -.7 1/4 mile...so.....? ET calculator says 40HP (assuming 3000 lbs and 235HP before SC)

$365 in 1966 is worth $2,931.59 today...$73 per HP.
 
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40 horsepower sounds about right - about what basically the same supercharger gave the R2 Studebaker 289 in 1962-64. Not a whole lot of boost - maybe 5 lbs or so. The R3 Studebaker had another 50 horsepower on top of that; it had a hotter cam and better heads, but also a supercharger with a lot more boost, which is why its carburetor was enclosed in a pressure box. Below: R2 on the left, R3 on the right.

R2 Studebaker.jpg
R3 Studebaker.jpg
 
Didn't Grand Spaulding Dodge sell some later ones with the Paxton?
 
Blucuda413 said:
The Kaiser Manhatten also had a pressure box.
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Yeah, in 1954. It had a supercharged 226-inch flathead six. The supercharger was a McCulloch - the McCulloch company formed a separate Paxton division in 1957 to build its superchargers (which were called Paxton superchargers from then on). The supercharger upped the horsepower from 118 to 140. Not too shabby for the day, considering the 49-50 Oldsmobile 303 inch "Rocket" V8 only had 135 hp (although by 1954 Olds had 185 hp).

kaiser manhattan motor.jpg
 
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