Thursday, May 28, 2026

I just love this part of a bigger photo... I had to slice off the water marked area. Then I learned how important the car in the watermarked area was... a Super Duty 421 Tempest at the Daytona 2nd Continental Race, a 250-miler.







at the race when the all-aluminum 427 Mystery Motor made its advent within a pair of Mickey Thompson 1963 Corvette Z06s, this barely noticed Pontiac made an astonishing debut

The Chevy 427 big-block—the first of its breed, was out to punch the automotive world in the proverbial nose— but there was this Pontiac to get around.

And the Pontiac was hustling around the track and lapping everyone, including one poor Ferrari eight times. 




Others were lapped multiple times, too. Even the second place finisher, the legendary A.J. Foyt would succumb, he was 2 laps down

Instead of Chevy introducing the world to a victory with the Mystery Motor, the best they could do this day was to come in second.

But then... the SD Tempest disappeared. 

The Pontiac was sent back to the shop in Indiana and sat for a short time before reportedly being purchased by Mercedes-Benz, who promptly shipped it back to Germany and completely disassembled every nut and bolt for a “competitive” inspection. The car has never been seen again and is listed by most hard-core SD experts as “destroyed.”


In  1963, Pontiac built 12 lightweight Super Duty Tempests, six station wagons, and six LeMans coupes to assault the 'strips—which they all did, with the exception of one coupe.

It was plucked for the first ever NASCAR Challenge Cup (above race)

2 comments:

  1. I'm sure any Pontiac fan would know about it, but this story is all news to me. And what a cool story! Thanks, Jesse!

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    Replies
    1. it's all news to me too! You're very welcome!
      I only knew of the Super Duty Tempests and Super Duty LeMans as drag racers, the factory lightweights maybe, or was that only the Swiss Cheese Catalinas? Anyway, I only had heard of them as drag racing monsters, and never heard of them racing in Nascar, etc.
      Wow, beat the daylights out of Chevy's super vettes, and Ferraris, and Jags... I have no idea why this story hasn't popped up before!
      And I only saw it after admiring the top photo, the one I cut down to just show the nice line of split window Corvettes on a inclined curve... and leaving that right hand side on the cutting room floor because of the Getty watermark - when I looked at it one last time before moving on, realized it was WEIRD to see a Pontiac racing Corvettes on a Super Speedway
      I didn't know Corvettes raced on the big ovals, didn't know they raced a Pontiac, etc.
      It's all been a shock to discover this old story (63 years old) by accident

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