In 1963 General Motors banned factory competition efforts so the 1963 Pontiacs emphasized styling and luxury. The Catalina had new, clean, and square lines. It had angled an angled roof, upward curving taillights, recessed split grilles, and non-panoramic windshield. It had small hubcaps, plain full length body moldings, and "Catalina" front fender scripts. With much success and many wins on the NASCAR tracks and in drag racing, Pontiac stepped up its Super Duty program even further with a hotter engine with higher compression for 1963. Output of the 1963 engines was rated at 410hp but true output was rumored to be around 500 to 550 hp. The cars were lighter than before with new plexi-glass windows and an aluminum deck lid, a select few, 15 to be exact had large holes drilled out of the frames, nicknaming them the "Swiss Cheese".