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In the mid fifties, his engineering team developed an even more radical evolution of the Mercedes approach for the 1959 full-sized Pontiacs: a rear transaxle to balance weight distribution, and connected to the engine with a flexible shaft drive inside a rigid torque tube. With the 1960 Corvair in the wings, DeLorean’s lingering plans to build a truly advanced and practical car finally came to (not quite ripe) fruition.ĭeLorean was particularly interested in the benefits of independent rear suspension that so many European cars like the VW, Porsche and Mercedes had been using since the thirties. He was aware as anyone of the limitations of the Detroit big car formula: too big, thirsty, front-heavy and dull-handling. John DeLorean may be more famous for the ’59 Wide-Tracks, the GTO, the Pontiac OHC six, and the ’69 Grand Prix during his tenure at Pontiac, but in my opinion, the 1961 Tempest is his most ambitious and creative engineering effort. If so, the result would have been even more remarkable than the 1965 Corvair. But unlike the Corvair, The Tempest never got a second chance to sort out its readily fixable blemishes.
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But in true GM fashion, penny-pinching resulted in the 1961 Tempest arriving flawed, like the Corvair. When GM gave its engineering talent the freedom to innovate, the results were often extraordinary. Or a Mercedes, or a Rover 2000 perhaps? But none of them had this: a rear transaxle and a totally revolutionary flexible drive shaft.
1963 pontiac tempest manual#
If only they had stuck with it.Ī high performance four cylinder engine with four-venturi carburetion, four-wheel independent suspension four speed stick shift perfect 50-50 weight distribution a light, compact yet fairly roomy body decent manual steering and neutral to over-steering handling qualities: sounds just like the specs for the all-new 19/1800. And although the Corvair and Toronado tend to get the bulk of the attention, the Tempest’s format was by far the most enduring one: it was a BMW before BMW built theirs. But in the period from 1960 to 1966, GM built three production cars that tried to upend the traditional format: the rear engined 1960 Corvair, the front-wheel drive 1966 Toronado, and the 1961 Tempest. Planned obsolescence, chrome, fins and financial rationalization were the real moneymakers, especially during the technically conservative fifties. But GM’s technology prowess was just one facet of its endlessly warring multiple personalities. In the thirties and forties, GM pioneered and brought to market some of the most innovative, successful and lasting new technologies: diesel-electric locomotives, the modern diesel bus, automatic transmissions, refrigeration and air conditioning systems, high compression engines, independent front suspension, and many more.