"Berang" (berang)
11/10/2015 at 17:41 • Filed to: None
15
8|
"Berang" (berang)
11/10/2015 at 17:41 • Filed to: None | 15
| 8 |
The Corvair may be seen as GM’s weirdest creation, but it was only really weird by American standards. The 1st Pontiac Tempest however, was weird by anybody’s standards.
As the fifties rolled into the sixties - compacts were becoming the next big thing in automobiles. Big cars like the Edsel failed - and smaller cars like the Rambler and Studebaker Lark were selling in unprecedented numbers. As well, imports like the Volkswagen and Renault were scooping up their share of American customers. Consumers were demanding “sensible” cars, the size of the average american car had ballooned during the course of the 1950s - and cars like the Rambler brought the automobile back down to reasonable proportions.
Ford responded with the Falcon - a completely conventional American car, simply scaled down a bit to fit the current tastes of the early 1960s. And it sold like hot cakes. Chevrolet on the other hand was more adventurous. Rather than simply re-sizing the American car cookie-cutter, they decided to make what was essentially a “better” more American, import. The air cooled, rear engined Corvair was the result. But abandoning American orthodoxy meant that tooling up for the Corvair was expensive. It shared few parts with other GM models, and this was a problem. Unfortunately for the Corvair, other GM departments took a look at the design and said “no thanks”. That is, except for one John Z. Delorean over at Pontiac.
Delorean was not going to have a Pontiac branded Corvair, but he did see some potential in some of its parts - particularly the rear mounted transaxle. Delorean reasoned that he could use the transaxle in a front engined car - providing more passenger space in the front seats, and better weight distribution. But that alone wouldn’t be enough. He had some other ideas. Weird ideas.
One of the most interesting ideas was to use a flexible drive shaft enclosed in a box (or, technically, “hat”) section torque tube (torque box?). The drive shaft was flexible so that it could bend in the middle - the objective? To get a lower floor. It worked in a somewhat similar fashion to the flexible drive line in a common weedeater - and is often referred to as “rope drive”. So the engine lived up front, the transmission lived out back, and they were connected by a flexible drive shaft housed in a torque tube. Corvair’s infamous swing arm rear suspension also came along for the ride. All of this resulted in a “perfect” 50/50 weight distribution, a lower floor and more passenger space, with only a small bit of trunk space sacrificed to fit the rear transaxle. So far so good. But then Delorean went and did something questionable:
Pontiac wasn’t about to put an air-cooled, flat six under their hoods. But they still needed a “compact” engine. What to do? Lacking the funds or time to design a new engine from scratch, they decided it would be ok to simply remove one bank of cylinders from their V8. Presto! A slant four. A 3.2 liter four cylinder. 110 horsepower. Grossly overweight, and shaky as hell, the Trophy 4 was not regarded as a finer point of the 1st generation tempest. It also only returned about 20-21mpg, Rambler and Ford could do as well if not better with their smoother, more refined inline sixes. It was however the first four cylinder used in an American passenger car since the Kaiser Henry J and the Crosley minicar ceased production in the 1950s. Fortunately Pontiac customers didn’t have to take the Trophy 4 if they didn’t want to. Buick’s 215ci V8 was also available.
All of this added up to make a car that featured a front mounted half V8, a flexible drifeshaft in a rigid torque tube, a rear mounted transaxel, and independent swing arm rear suspension - enclosed in a monocoque body. It was not as refined or cohesive as the Corvair, but it was in its own ways just as daring.
But of course it was too weird to live. In 1964 a new Tempest arrived. It threw away the unitbody construction, the transaxle and the rope drive. It was bigger and heavier and more American. Chevrolet also realized they had possibly made a mistake with the Corvair, and soon enough had developed their own Ford Falcon, the Chevy II. The loss of Corvair’s Tempest ally, as well as new competition from within Chevy doomed that car far more than any of Ralph Nader’s polemics against rear engines and oversteer. But for a brief few years GM was making not just one innovative compact, but two. The Tempest however, probably because it looks like a normal car on the outside, has long been overshadowed by the sleeker, stranger looking, and more infamous Corvair. The 1st generation has also been eclipsed by its more conventional and popular follow ups. But it is still one heck of a cool car.
crowmolly
> Berang
11/10/2015 at 17:51 |
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Pontiac Tempest?
Chariotoflove
> Berang
11/10/2015 at 17:54 |
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Thanks for this!
Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast.
> Berang
11/10/2015 at 18:11 |
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I have a friend with an old Corvaire that dreams of having one of these as well. He revels in weirdness.
kanadanmajava1
> Berang
11/10/2015 at 18:20 |
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One my friends had a convertible Tempest with Trophy 4. I didn’t know much about cars at that point but I remember that the engine sounded really weird. I guess the weird sound came from the fact that it was the largest 4 cylinder gasoline engine that I had heard.
I haven’t seen this car since my friend sold it but it should be the only one in this country as it is quite rare car.
LongbowMkII
> Berang
11/10/2015 at 18:23 |
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a 215ci V8, 4spd and a 3.9 rear end? sounds fun.
Needed olds’ jetfire turbo.
WilliamsSW
> Berang
11/10/2015 at 18:57 |
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Nice work! I knew about the half (and half baked) 389 and the rope drive, but never knew that the rear transaxle came from the Corvair!
I always thought these were neat cars - though I'd want a '63 with the 326 if I ever bought one.
ranwhenparked
> Berang
11/10/2015 at 23:06 |
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GM’s early compacts were real oddballs.
The aluminum V8s in the F-85 and Skylark senior compacts was totally out of the mold for American engines of the time, in material as well as displacement, and to spend that kind of money on a totally unique engine for what were the smallest and cheapest cars in their respective ranges was a bold strategy. GM was not holding back on the development resources at the time, they were serious about carving out a huge chunk of the compact market and were going to throw whatever amount of cash at it they deemed necessary.
Except for the Corvair’s sway bar. That was a step too far.
Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
> Berang
11/16/2015 at 19:42 |
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It bites?
My stepdad had a roadster with the Tempest I-6 and Weber side draft carburetors.