But that’s not descriptive, i.e., the number of cylinders, inline versus V, etc., and no photos are provided from under the hood. The innovative Tempest drivetrain is no longer in the vehicle, replaced by an SBC motor and transmission out of a 1980s GM product. It would be interesting to see photos of the transformation process because what we see of the final product doesn’t look like a weekend cobbling. Perhaps you could think of this as an El Ponchino, borrowing from the coupe utility name that Chevrolet would reintroduce in 1964. There was no 2-door wagon in the Tempest world and the width of the doors on the seller’s car is not especially wide, indicating that everything from there on back was grafted onto this vehicle. We don’t know the background on the seller’s car or exactly how it started life but we’re guessing it was a 4-door wagon. Sales may not have lived up to GM expectations as the Y-platform was ditched after three years when GM went with a new intermediate chassis for the intermediate market.
Having come up with something that was more than an ordinary compact, the Tempest was named Motor Trend’s Car of the Year for 1961 and won other accolades from automotive media. Instead of offering a badge-engineered version of the Corvair, GM gave them the green light to lead an interdivisional program coded named “X-100” which would be led by John DeLorean, Pontiac’s chief engineer and general manager. Pontiac followed Chevy into the compact market a year later. Thanks to Chuck Foster for this interesting tip! The Pontiac is available here on Facebook Marketplace for $6,200. Located in Davisburg, Michigan, this vehicle was possibly converted from a station wagon and there is still some work to be done. This 1962 Tempest pickup is likely one-of-a-kind as Pontiac offered no such body style like Ford did with the Falcon Ranchero. It would shed those roots and become a “conventional” mid-size car in 1964. It was an innovative design using the “Trophy-4” four-cylinder engine (half a V8) and a flexible drive shaft paired with a 2-speed rear-mounted transaxle automatic transmission. The Tempest was Pontiac’s first foray into the compact car market in 1961, sharing GM’s new unibody Y-platform with Buick and Oldsmobile.
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