by cammerjeff » Mon Oct 26, 2015 10:21 am
They were actually Very innovative, but the Corvair based transaxle was its weak point. They were actually not very good street cars, but great race cars. I drove a High compression 4 cylinder 4bbl with a 3 speed manual once, I was considering buying it, but the big 4 cylinder with 1950's technology was to rough for me, it was way to easy to get the entire drivetrain surging with a non aggressive 1-2 or 2-3 shift. The car was a 1962 Convertible and when the drivetrain started surging the cowl shake was scary!!!!!
They did but the Aluminum Buick 215 V-8 in them in 61 and 62, but they sold very few, and after seeing the modifications required to put in the 215 I can see why. The standard Tempest with the slant 4 is a rear steer car (I could have this backwards but the issue is the same) and the 215 V-8 cars are front steer, that means that the entire front end geometry is different between the cars powered by different engines. I can't imagine the production line was set up to build many of the V-8 cars.
For 1963 they dropped the 215 Buick, and offered a small bore version of the standard Pontiac V-8 advertised as a 326 but actually a 336 CI engine (330 was GM's internal size limit for the compact cars at the time, the 336 engine was a still born design that was to be used for an optional GMC truck engine for the 1960 model year, GMC decided to not use it, but the engineering and tooling was already available so to save time it was used, and advertised as a 326. In 1964 an actual 326 CI engine debuted in the more conventional Tempest/Lemans that came out that year.)
They also built a very few SD421 Powered Coupes and wagons for Drag and road Racing. Here are a few shots of my favorate 61-63 cars. The 1st 2 show a SD421 Powered Tempest passing a off brand GTO & a couple of corvette's on the high banks of Daytona on its way to Victory, the race was held on 1/2 the oval and the infield course. And the last one is of a Rail powered by 2 195 I-4's named 8 the hard way.
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Jeff R
1971 Catalina Freeway Enforcer
77 Astre Formula, some day soon powered by a 215 Buick V-8
1973 4-speed Lemans Safari STOCK!!!!! 1978 Catalina Safari
2006 Mallet Solstice, 6.0 LS2, 6-speed manual
2009 Solstice Coupe, 2.4, 5-speed Manual