1963 Pontiac Tempest Lightweight Super Duty

Pontiac was determined to adapt the Tempest to fulfill all automotive needs. So, the obvious next step was the Pontiac Tempest Lightweight Super Duties,designed to compete on the drag strips of America. By 1963, Super Stock drag racing was a hit. Everyone wanted to be able to say without question who made the fastest car around. Although Pontiac had started the 60’s strong with its Super Duty parts program and factory-built SD Catalina and Grand Prix race cars, Dodge and Plymouth were posing a major threat. Their 426-cid wedge-head V8 race engines and lightweight bodies were starting to steal Pontiac's thunder.

Pontiac initially responded by offering aluminum body panels. The weight-loss program resulted in the creation of Catalinas that featured large holes drilled in the frames. ( Nicknamed “Swiss Cheese” ) But, these efforts resulted in frames breaking due to the removal of too much metal,  and were still too heavy when Chrysler responded with aluminum body parts of their own. So the Tempest was called out of the bleachers to defend Pontiac's honor on the drag strip.

Pontiac wanted to keep it’s rear-mounted transaxle to put additional weight over the drive wheels to help with launching grip, but it’s stock transaxle wasn’t strong enough to handle the 421V8's output. Engineers came up with a new four-speed transaxle known as the "Powershift." ( Two Corvair Powerglide two-speed automatic transaxles mounted inline to offer four forward speeds). It was more durable than stock . The rear-mounted four-speed could use either a clutch or a torque converter. Only 14 were built, one for each car produced. No spare cases were built.

A low profile dual quad intake manifold cleared the Tempest hood. The crankshaft had six extra holes drilled in the end flange to mate it to the curved drive-shaft. This 421 Super Duty had a 12:1 compression ratio and was rated at 405 bhp, ( Actual power figure was somewhere closer to 500 ).

The Tempest’s were given full aluminum noses and doors had much of their inner bracing removed to save weight. Production of these racing specials came to 2 prototype Tempest coupes, 6 LeMans coupes, and 6 Tempest station wagons. (The idea being that the wagon would put even more weight over the rear wheels than the coupe.)

Unfortunately, on January 24, 1963, fearing an antitrust suit from the U.S. Department of Justice, General motors announced  it was pulling out of all factory-supported racing activities. The "Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday" marketing philosophy was working too well, pushing GM's market share dangerously close to the 60-percent figure that would trigger a federal investigation.

Pontiac's Super Duty program was halted and teams quickly jumped ship to seek factory deals with Chrysler and Ford. A few 1963 Super Duty cars that made it out of GM before the doors shut ended up in the hands of private racers and collectors. They've become incredibly rare and highly cherished icons of the factory racing days. Today, only 4 coupes and 1 wagon are known to survive, of which just 1 coupe and 1wagon have been restored to original condition. But there are those who have built clones, and are neat to come across at local car shows.