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.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=26555912034081287&set=gm.1751308582811627&idorvanity=226675368608297

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.”

https://www.motortrend.com/features/1812-pontiac-tempest-bested-427-corvette-1963

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)

https://www.hotrod.com/features/1963-pontiac-lemans-wins-the-nascar-challenge-cup

1962 Pontiac Tempest Lemans

 https://www.dragzine.com/features/car-features/this-pontiac-tempest-lemans-is-equal-parts-show-and-go

1968 Pontiac Tempest Safari wagon.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1372173509928253&set=a.347169822428632
https://musclecarandcorvettenationals.blogspot.com/2022/07/keeping-things-interesting-at-mcacn.html

I just learned that the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals has a section for the Big Body Muscle Invitational and Performance Wagon Invitational displays

https://journal.classiccars.com/2023/01/08/big-cars-and-wagons-at-mcacn-2022/

seen on tonight's walk, a lot of cool cars

 

Tom Laskowski spent $90,000 to make his '68 Tempest restored, and the way he wanted it. Then it was stolen about 10 years ago, but a friend of his recently spotted it in a driveway, and now he's got it back!

"That car was given to me by my father in 1975," he said. "We worked on it together. Fixed it up. I drove it all through college and celebrated my graduation by driving it across the country. My wife and I had our first date in that car, and we used it in our wedding party. It means a lot to us."

He had put in a 650-horsepower motor, a Turbo 400 transmission with a trans-brake he used when racing the car, and hundreds of chrome accessories.

Laskowski put the Tempest in storage for $100 a month after a fire damaged his home in February 2011.

Then, a tow truck driver hauled it out of a storage facility, and it was all caught on camera,

The thief hooked the aqua-colored Tempest to a tow truck and drove off. The cameras captured it all in color, right down to the suspect's face and the tow truck's license number. Yet no arrests have been made, and the car has not been recovered.

"Everyone knows who [took it]. We have video of him doing it, and he admits doing it," said Laskowski, 55. "He says he was hired to remove the car by a Jamaican man who said he owned it, even though he had no keys or registration.

"Of course, no one can find this Jamaican man," Laskowski said. "Shouldn't the tow-truck driver be responsible for taking the car?"

Cleveland Detective John Kraynik agrees with Laskowski. He investigated the theft.

Kraynik said the case was poorly laid out to a Cuyahoga County grand jury by a detective not familiar with it. Kraynik said only the barest of evidence was presented.

"I was working a later shift, so they sent another detective," Kraynik said. "But he was not aware of everything I had. I was angry when I learned what happened. The suspect admitted to me that he stole the car, and we had him on camera doing it. But that was not presented to the grand jury."

here's the story: https://www.cleveland.com/metro/2012/06/memories_make_pontiac_tempest.html

“When we got married it was in our wedding party,” Laskowski said. “So it had a lot of sentimental value.”

They never stopped looking for it, and by chance Tom’s good friend spotted it in November. Tom and his friends were then able to locate it in a driveway in Maple Heights. Even though the car was made to look like a GTO, Tom knew it was his Tempest.

“It was very obvious it was my car,” Tom said. “I had hundreds of things that we changed. I knew what I did on that car.”

A few months later, William Woods, of Maple Heights was indicted on a receiving stolen property charge. His case is still pending in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.

https://fox8.com/news/i-team/after-nearly-a-decade-man-gets-stolen-classic-car-back

Pontiac Tempest Super Duty Safari, 1963

https://carsthatnevermadeitetc.tumblr.com/post/184832164842/pontiac-tempest-super-duty-safari-1963-the#notes

Anyone else think it would be cool as hell to see the Grey Ghost and maybe other SCCA famous cars race in the Optima Challenge?

I've already extensively covered what makes this Tempest cool, one year ago, almost exactly to the day  http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-grey-ghost-pontiac-tempest-had-life.html

https://www.facebook.com/groups/505973489414476/permalink/1600092596669221/

Mystic Warrior, a 1963 Pontiac Super Duty Tempest mule car. This car was sponsored by Union Park Pontiac in Wilmington, Delaware.

http://www.hotrod.com/articles/2016-edition-muscle-car-corvette-nationals-proves-mcacn-greatest-muscle-car-show-country-not-world/

By 1963, Super Stock drag racing was capturing the attention of competitors, spectators, and manufacturers alike who wanted to claim theirs was the fastest car around. Though Pontiac had started the Sixties strongly with its Super Duty parts program and factory-built SD Catalina and Grand Prix race cars, the competition was posing a major threat

Pontiac initially responded to the 200- to 300-pound weight penalty the Super Dutys suffered by offering aluminum body panels, then by building the Swiss Cheese Catalinas.

Unfortuately in addition to having frames break due to the removal of too much metal, the cars were still too heavy once Mopars got aluminum body parts of their own. Something drastic had to be done to shut down the "Max Wedge" Mopars, so the Tempest was called upon to defend Pontiac's honor on the drag strip.

Actually, Mickey Thompson, Royal Pontiac, and even Pontiac Engineering cooked up their own versions of the dropping Pontiac's brutal 421-cid Super Duty race engine, a 12:1 500 hp motor, in the compact Tempest.

The only problem was that stock transaxles weren't able to last under the shock. Engineers came up with a new  4 speed transaxle known as the "Powershift." The Powershift was essentially two Corvair Powerglide two-speed automatic transaxles mounted inline to offer 4 forward speeds by combining off-the-shelf parts with more than 200 new components unique to this design and then casting a new case to hold it ail together.

Though the Powershift was by no means "bulletproof," it was quite a bit more durable than a stock production unit. The rear-mounted 4 speed could use either a clutch or a torque converter, giving racers the opportunity to choose. The only available final-drive ratio was 3.90:1 and only 14 were built, one for each car produced. No spare cases were built.

To save weight, the Tempests were fitted with full aluminum noses and the doors had much of their inner bracing removed. Production of these racing specials came to 2 prototype Tempest coupes, 6 LeMans coupes, and 6 Tempest station wagons.

Unfortunately, all the effort came to naught. On January 24, 1963, General Motors, fearing an antitrust suit from the U.S. Department of Justice, announced that it was pulling out of all factory-supported racing activities. Apparently, GM's market share was dangerously close to the 60-percent figure that would trigger a federal investigation.

Pontiac's Super Duty program was killed. Those few 1963 Super Duty cars that made it out of GM ended up in the hands of privateer racers and collectors.

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/1961-1963-pontiac-tempest9.htm

have you ever seen tires this angled off the vertical? At the same time?

it's that goofy Tempest I think.. the one with the 5/8ths torsion bar driveshaft. http://www.thedrive.com/vintage/5567/carmakers-sometimes-build-strange-things-heres-one-of-the-strangest  I just recall there was something really weird and unique about it

http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/

Turns out, this was a racing set up, and you can read about it here: https://automediaregistry.org/wp-content/uploads/gravity_forms/5-ed79259387d159526adca1659b978d35/2016/04/Vintage-Motorsport-Tempest-in-a-Teapot-Parts-1-2.pdf

Gray Ghost is finally back to racing, having been restored to at the Monterey Motorsports:

In the 66-72 Trans-Am race group, the Tempest started in 10th place out of 38 cars, and finished 6th.

At Monterey, the Gray Ghost was equipped with a unique exhaust system that featuring long “lake pipes” that run from the header collectors, below, under the rear axle to the rear bumper. This system is a replica of one used in-period, designed to give the engine the longest possible collector pipe. The SCCA took umbrage, alleging competitors’ complaints, and the system returned to a more conventional side exit exhaust.

http://www.carguychronicles.com/2016/08/64-tempest-gray-ghost-rides-again.html

Thanks to Harry for the news and photos!

the Grey Ghost Pontiac Tempest began life as the daily driver of the wife of Pontiac's special projects engineering manager, then it became a track monster that consistently nipped the heels of the newest SCCA cars, and best drivers

a fan favorite in the 1971 Trans Am series was the "Grey Ghost", a '64 Pontiac Tempest, prepared by Pontiac Special Projects Engineering Manager Herb Adams and a group of his young proteges (Tom Nell/Jeff Young-Engines, Joe Brady/Harry Quackenboss-Chassis, Ted Lambiris-Body, Tom Goad-Logistics).

The boxy six-year-old Tempest had once been Adams' wife's daily driver, with over 80,000 miles (130,000 km) on the odometer when it was turned into an A Sedan racer. It proved to be surprisingly fast, at a time when even a one-year-old car was considered out of step with the competition.

Using his own money, Herb Adams set about converting Mrs. Adams grocery getter into a competitive race car. Using a 389 destroked to a Trans-Am regulation friendly 303 cubic inches (producing a whopping 475hp), Adams and his skeleton crew added larger tires on the front, a few degrees negative camber on the rear to make the big Tempest hook up a little better in the corners, and a fresh coat of dull silver paint. To drive their beast, Adams convinced the hard charging Bob Tullius.

It was entered in the opening round of the 1971 Trans-Am Championship. Unable to qualify, the car was allowed to start from the back of the pack. With Bob Tullius behind the wheel, it mowed through the field, and was running second behind eventual winner Mark Donohue's factory-supported Penske Racing AMC Javelin when the engine expired.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Am_Series#Beginnings_.281966.E2.80.931967.29

Herb Adams:
We had gained a lot of knowledge especially about chassis development from the 70 SCCA season. They (Pontiac) would not give us any parts but at least by then we knew what to get. The car was a joke to them (the other race teams) until we were running in second place right up until the end, then we blew a head gasket. We were chasing down Donahue at the time. We did some things that they laughed at. Like, we ran big tires on the front because the car was nose heavy. It turned out that in the rain the car was really, really competitive. Bob Tulius was the driver. He had a lot of experience driving in the wet. So every time it rained we did really well. It was also competitive in the dry. We usually ran in the top five.

http://www.pontiacsonline.com/Herb%20Adams.htm
http://hooniverse.com/2011/06/13/morning-qualifying-paranormal-activity-edition/
http://www.luishernandezjr.com/2015/08/book-review-blood-sweat-gears-story-of.html

Doesn't this mean it was the seminal beginning of the Optima Street Car type of car? I believe so

there is even a book about it:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/stiffspeed/

http://gwadagone.fotki.com/trans-am-racing1966/?view=roll#935