A Tempest on the Track (Part 1)

Wow; nearly two hundred reads of my last post in roughly twenty-four hours; and one of my recent posts is up to 500 views. I am humbled. With that in mind, A few someones are finding my missives interesting, so I’ll try to be more verbose – i.e. more posts. What to write about? Here’s a diversion - building a race-ready Pontiac. Not a NASCAR high banks runner or a quarter-mile burner, but a nimble Poncho for road-course track-days and autocrosses.

My previous car life had me immersed in all things Corvair. This included restoring one with each of my four daughters. Also, since they were considered a poor man’s Porsche, I took advantage of their inherent good handling and built a ’62 two-door sedan into a hot daily-driver for me that was a blast in the curves with cut off front springs, front anti-roll bar, relocated battery, and a custom exhaust. I sold that car and proceeded to turn a plain Jane ’68 two-door hardtop into something track-worthy with the same sort of modifications. This car was a little more challenging since it started life with an automatic transmission, so I had to swap in all the bits necessary to make it a manual. When I decided it was finally time to turn my attention to the LeMans, I sold all the drivable Corvairs to focus on only one old car.

Since the ’61-’63 Tempest is much like the Corvairs with a transaxle in the rear, an available four-speed manual transmission (starting in ’62), four-wheel independent suspension, uni-body construction, 50/50 weight distribution, and only 3000 pounds in curb weight, it would be a great platform for a corner-carver.

What I wouldn’t want to build is a car that was constantly breaking. I’m thinking the week link would the drivetrain, specifically the torque shaft and transaxle. I love this photo I found on HotRod Magazine’s website. It shows the independent rear end, the transmission directly in front of the differential , and the infamous rope drive bringing torque to the trans from the front-mounted engine. The most powerful engine you could get in an early Tempest was the 1963 326 cubic-inch V8 rated at 352 ft-lbs of torque. This was quite a bump up from the 235 ft-lbs. from the 215 V8 available in the 1962’s. I read that GM did not bother beefing up the transaxle or torque shaft for the 50% increase. Hmmm.

I’ll continue this "drive"train of thought tomorrow.