1967 Pontiac 2+2 Convertible in Tyrol Blue with 428 Engine Start

At the 25th Annual Indian Uprising, an all-Pontiac-only show in St. Charles, Illinois, owner Richard Larabee’s Tyrol Blue 1967 Catalina 2+2 stood out enough to take home an award. Lou Costabile records the factory 428 cold-starting on camera, while the comments fill with viewers recalling their own history with the model going back to 1967 showroom brochures. Watch to hear the big block come alive and see why this specific combination of options makes the car so desirable.

Some Pontiac events are open to any GM product with the right badge. The Indian Uprising is not one of them. For twenty-five years running, this all-Pontiac weekend in St. Charles, Illinois has drawn nothing but the genuine article, and the car that caught Lou Costabile’s attention at the 2015 event carries a factory 428 under the hood and an owner who’s been fielding the same questions about it for years without ever seeming tired of answering them. Before getting into the numbers, it’s worth understanding just how selective this particular show really is, and why that selectivity matters to the people who keep coming back to it year after year.

Twenty-Five Years of an All-Pontiac-Only Rule

The Indian Uprising’s defining rule, Pontiacs only, no exceptions, is exactly what gives this particular show its identity among Midwest muscle car events. Reaching a 25th anniversary under that restriction says something about the strength of Pontiac’s owner community specifically, a group that has kept a single-marque show alive and growing for a quarter century in a hobby where general multi-brand shows are usually the easier path to bigger turnout. This 2015 edition, filmed in St. Charles, Illinois, represents that milestone year for a brand that hasn’t built a new car since 2010.

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Tyrol Blue and the 2+2 Package

The car itself is a 1967 Pontiac Catalina 2+2, a performance package built to compete directly with Chevrolet’s Impala SS and Ford’s XL for full-size buyers who still wanted genuine speed in a car built to seat a family. Finished in Tyrol Blue, a factory color that has become a favorite among Pontiac collectors for how well it photographs against chrome trim, this particular example pairs its color with the 2+2’s more aggressive trim and instrumentation package, distinguishing it clearly from a standard Catalina sitting on the same show field.

428 Cubic Inches, Caught Cold on Camera

Lou records the engine’s cold start-up directly, letting the 428 settle into an idle before revving it for the camera, treating the sound itself as the centerpiece of the segment rather than a supporting detail. That approach mirrors what draws so many viewers to Lou’s channel in general: rather than describing what a numbers-matching big block sounds like, he simply lets it run and lets the audience judge for themselves whether the reputation holds up in person, without narration getting in the way of the exhaust note.

Owner Richard Larabee’s Long Relationship With the Car

Richard Larabee walks Lou through the car with the specific, unhesitating detail of an owner who has answered these same questions many times before, at this same show, likely with this same car, for years running. That familiarity comes through on camera, less like a rehearsed pitch and more like a longtime friend catching up about a subject he genuinely enjoys discussing, which is a big part of what makes Lou’s interview style work as well as it does across the broader My Car Story catalog of owner walkthroughs.

An Award-Winning Build, Not Just a Survivor

The video specifically notes this car as an award winner within the show, distinguishing it from the many well-preserved but unjudged cars that simply attend for the social atmosphere. Winning at an event as selective as the Indian Uprising, where every competing car is by definition a genuine Pontiac rather than a badge-swapped stand-in, carries real weight among the marque’s dedicated following, since the judging pool skews toward serious, detail-oriented owners rather than casual attendees looking for a weekend outing.

Comments Full of Personal Pontiac History

The comment section fills with viewers recalling their own history with the model, one describing a childhood neighbor’s 1967 Ventura that sparked a lifelong attachment to the body style, another recalling graduating high school in 1967 and remembering seeing the 2+2 in period Pontiac brochures firsthand. That kind of firsthand generational memory, viewers who were alive and car-shopping when this exact model debuted, gives the comment section a documentary value that runs alongside the video itself.

Front Disc Brakes and a Four-Speed, in 1967

One commenter specifically flags the combination of a four-speed manual and front disc brakes on a 1967 full-size Pontiac as an unusually well-optioned build for the era, when many buyers still chose an automatic and drum brakes all around even on performance-oriented trims. That kind of period-correct, well-optioned combination is exactly what separates a genuinely desirable example from a merely complete one, and it’s a detail an inexperienced buyer could easily overlook without an owner walking them through it on camera.

Why the All-Pontiac Format Keeps Working

What the Indian Uprising ultimately proves, twenty-five years in, is that a single-marque show can sustain itself indefinitely as long as the community behind it stays engaged, and cars like Richard Larabee’s Tyrol Blue 2+2 are exactly the kind of well-optioned, well-documented, personally owned examples that keep bringing longtime Pontiac fans back to St. Charles year after year, long after the brand itself stopped building new cars to join them.

The 2+2 package itself is worth dwelling on a little longer, since it’s easy to overlook next to better-known muscle car names from the same model year. Rather than a separate model, it was an options package layered onto the full-size Catalina, adding bucket seats, a center console, upgraded instrumentation, and access to Pontiac’s largest available engines for buyers who wanted genuine performance without stepping down into a smaller, less practical body style. That positioning, performance without sacrificing full-size comfort, was exactly the pitch Pontiac used to compete against the Impala SS and the Ford XL, and it’s part of why surviving, well-optioned examples like this one still draw a crowd decades later.

Condition matters just as much as options on a car that’s been driven, shown, and maintained continuously since 1967 rather than restored once and parked. Richard Larabee’s willingness to start the engine cold on camera, rather than presenting a static, pre-warmed display piece, signals a level of confidence in the car’s mechanical health that not every show owner is willing to demonstrate in front of a live audience and a rolling camera.

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