63 Lemans Tempest sells for $226,521

[67 ls1 vert]

On Ebay this car sold for a crazy amount of money!!

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2009/09/00_tempest63_opt-1.jpg (http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Pontiac-Le-Mans-TEMPEST-63-PONTIAC-LeMANS-TEMPEST-1-4-MILE-CAR-W-O-MOTOR-TRANS_W0QQitemZ110306170567QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_C ars_Trucks?hash=item110306170567&_trksid=p4506.c0.m245&_trkparms=72%3A727%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318 )


http://www.autoblog.com/2008/11/10/ebay-find-of-the-day-1963-lemans-tempest-sells-for-226-521/#comments

[MuscleRodz]

old news. It did not take long for the purist to figure out it was the original missing factory lightweight racecar

[67 ls1 vert]

sorry for the old post. First time for me thought I would share with others who hadn't seen it yet.

[MuscleRodz]

no biggie

[Roger M]

Anyone know the status of this car as of now? I remember reading that the original motor was found and that Pontiac guru, Scott Tieman was going to restore it. I wonder if anything has been done to it yet?

[MuscleRodz]

The original aluminum front end was also purchased seperately for the car as well for stupid money. I will have to ask a friend to see if they have started on it yet.

[dadto2jays]

Boy I am glad I am not a purist......:squint:

[LateNight72]

Boy I am glad I am not a purist......:squint:
Apparently its a Pontiac thing.. :Alchy:

[PT_79_TA_461]

Apparently its a Pontiac thing.. :Alchy:

im just sick of seeing chevy powerd pontiacs when a pontiac can make the same HP... its like putting a ford engine in a mopar to me....just cant be done....

[79-TA]

im just sick of seeing chevy powerd pontiacs when a pontiac can make the same HP... its like putting a ford engine in a mopar to me....just cant be done....

Yea, there really is no reason to change engines if the engine it had would have made whatever desired amount of power. I can see swapping up to an LSx engine, but I'm sick of 2nd gen Firebirds with gen 1 sbc's.

[LateNight72]

im just sick of seeing chevy powerd pontiacs when a pontiac can make the same HP... its like putting a ford engine in a mopar to me....just cant be done....
I completely understand, and agree to an extent. I was just poking fun at the Pontiac Resto Purists. They're a cult all their own. :enguard:

[WS6]

Yea, there really is no reason to change engines if the engine it had would have made whatever desired amount of power. I can see swapping up to an LSx engine, but I'm sick of 2nd gen Firebirds with gen 1 sbc's.

What about GenII SBCs or L98 swaps? What about the thousands of 2nd Gen Firebirds that came with GenI SBC's from the factory? Do the factory guys get a pass on building their factory engine up?

I understand what your saying. I'm just ragging you.

I too am glad I am not a purist. I don't have the coin for it.

[buickfunnycar.com]

The original aluminum front end was also purchased seperately for the car as well for stupid money. I will have to ask a friend to see if they have started on it yet.

Yes,all parts have been reunited,right...?

[dropit69]

i remeber reading about this car..cool deal..if you are bored and want some fun go to the pontiac performance forum and ask advice about putting a ls1 or sbc in a 69 bird ..i did wow did i get some great feedback..lol

[vsefiream]

LOL I have to agre, if it's Pontiac, keep it Pontiac but that's just me. My motto is It's your car, build it how you want it. If I don't like it I'll just pass it over at a show, somebody else might like it. I have the same feeling towards automatics (Me No Likey) but hey..

[MuscleRodz]

Yes,all parts have been reunited,right...?As far as I am aware of, yes. I believe only 6 were made and this one had been lost for many years. GM did not do the factory light weight drag cars like Ford and Mopar did, which makes this Pontiac all the more rare.

[novaderrik]

I completely understand, and agree to an extent. I was just poking fun at the Pontiac Resto Purists. They're a cult all their own. :enguard:

who's worse- the Pontiac purists, or the Mopar purists?

[b-man]

All of the hard-core fans of the '60s factory lightweight drag cars know that any brand of car in this category will bring big dollars.

It has nothing to do with it being a Pontiac, but of course rarity adds into the desireability and value of any of the old factory lighweight race cars or other rare factory performance cars.

Ever check the prices that '69 ZL1 427 COPO Camaros have been selling for? Think the guys that 'play' with these cars are any less fanatical than the Pontiac or Mopar guys? The vintage Corvette purists?

Back when this particular '63 Tempest (owned & driven by Stan Antlocer) first made its debut it was running at or near the top of the heap. I remember reading that Stan had mentioned the car was actually quicker with a 3-speed manual trans than with the newly popular 4-speed due to the torque characteristics of the 421, the car ran 4.30 gears. This was after the original PowerShift 4-speed automatic transaxle was replaced with a big Pontiac conventional rear end.

It was two 2-speed planetary transmissions (like a Powerglide or TempesTorque) on either side of the Tempest final drive unit. The flywheel and either a clutch or torque converter was hung at the extreme rear end. This required shortening the fuel tank about a foot.

Power flow thru the PowerShift was interesting and complex: the "rope" driveshaft fed power into the input shaft via a splined connector at the front of the transaxle. This shaft went completely thru the front trans case, the final drive and the rear trans case to the flywheel/flexplate. From the tc or clutch output the power flowed back thru a second concentric shaft to the transmissions. From there it went back thru a third concentric shaft which was the pinion gear shaft.

Pic of the PowerShift transaxle:

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2009/09/attachmentphpattachmentid14178d0-1.jpg

Arnie Beswick was running 11.30s in his own 13:1 compression 421 410 HP Super Duty '63 Tempest coupe (410 HP rating was very conservative), topped by the very first tunnel ram intake that was designed by Pontiac engineers. It would take a couple more years before the aftermarket tunnel rams were being marketed.

The original 'bathtub' tunnel rams ran two 750 cfm Carter AFB NASCAR carbs. Here's an original setup owned by a friend with the rare NASCAR 750 carbs:

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2009/09/attachment2-1.jpg

A 'standard' 405 HP 11:1 compression 421 SD with the low-rise 2X4 intake:

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2009/09/attachment-1.jpg

A repro 'bathtub' (one of only 22 repros) that I'm playing around with topped by a pair of much cheaper 575 cfm '66 GTO AFB carbs, using my own home-brewed progressive linkage and fuel lines:

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2009/09/DSC01348-1.jpg

Note that there's just enough room between the carbs for a separate 2-barrel idling carb, some of the factory originals used a blockoff plate between the carbs as the separate idling carb wasn't really necessary:

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2009/09/DSC01245-1.jpg

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2009/09/DSC01248-1.jpg

Pontiacs are cool. :smoke:

[Crazy Carl]

Did anybody ever find out what's going on with this car these days?

[wmhjr]

I believe it's currently under restoration at Scott Tiemanns shop in Michigan. He did a '63 Tempest Wagon SD a little while back, and the new owner of this car sent it directly to Scott upon purchase. Scott is real well known and has a waiting list, so I doubt that this car is finished as of yet.