jet sanchEz

I think a lot of us watch ebay and are often amazed at what pops up. This isn't related to cycling but a seemingly uninteresting car with a rare history popped up a couple of weeks ago, here is the story...

https://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...67#description

https://www.autoblog.com/2008/11/10/e...s-for-226-521/



The eBay auction for this 1963 Pontiac LeMans Tempest started out innocently enough. Obtained after owner died. Appears to have original interior but no motor, no transmission. Body has a little rust and some dents. There's stuff in the trunk, but no key to open it. Opening bid nine days ago was a mere $500. After one week, eBay seller 123ecklin will pocket $226,521 before auction fees. What happened between Day 1 and Day 9 is an amazing story.

The car's plexiglass windows, unusual suspension setup and a dash plate bearing the name of a racetrack tipped the owner to its racing history. But what he didn't know is that the car is one of only six 1963 Pontiac LeMans Tempest Super Duty coupes ever made. Hemmings recently did a story on the rare cars in which they listed all ever built. This one looks to have been driven by Stan Antlocer and was the fastest drag car in 1963 before disappearing.

Reading through the questions on the auction gives us reason to believe the seller truly didn't know the car's provenance. In his answers, he seems both surprised by the car's potential value as well as overwhelmed by the attention. He turned down an offer of $160,000 to end the auction early because he feared getting negative eBay feedback. That decision paid off. With only seven minutes remaining, the highest offer was $95,000. When the virtual gavel fell, eBayer ccsi2000 had bought a very rare, if a little rusty, LeMans for $226,521.

Old Fat Guy

And I thought bike people were nuts.

luker

Hey! I gotta Jeep cherokee with custom suspension. I can pull the engine and transmission and throw 'em away if you want. Let's say, Buy It Now for $160,000.

Oh, yeah, and driven by Van Antlicker in, oh, about 1993, maybe. And I'm sure that it disappeared for a while.

Anybody?

mswantak

Oh, I call multiple BS on this. Maybe only six SD '63 LeMans coupes were built, maybe not. Every stinking one of them though, had the 'unusual' suspension -- it was the Chevrolet Corvair transaxle. 'Dashplate bearing the name of a racetrack'? Like LeMans? It was the model name, ferchrissake.

I don't know who's stupider; the buyer (and I'll be surprised if he actually pays up), or the blogger, who appears to know jack-squat about the car in question. If somebody wanted to bother restoring it, it might bring $50-60,000 at auction.

Otis

If yer into Pontiacs that would not surprise you. Truly one of the coolest of the early 60's super stock wars and a direct lineage to what became the GTO the following year. Finding a Super Duty 421 mill is going to be tough, but that's going to be a killer restoration project.

I have not thought about this stuff in years. Makes me mourn my '62 SD 421 Catalina clone I sold in the early 90's. Ran 13's on street tires, corked, with four passengers aboard! Loved that car.

Otis

SD Tempests did not use the torque tube and transaxle. These were factory drag race cars and were retrofitted with shortend rear ends from the full size sedans.

As with most of your posts, you do not know what you are talking about, but you do have a really polite way of making your point.

mswantak

Oh, Otis -- stop trying to butter me up.

Sangetsu

The only thing is that the Tempest of this year came with that anemic 4 cylinder engine that GM made by cutting a perfectly good V8 in half. This car was Pontiac's answer/version of the Corvair, which was God awful enough.

When I was in high school I worked in a salvage yard. These old Tempests would come in from time to time, but no one ever bothered to get any parts off of them. It certainly is rare, but not fantastically so.

The only good thing about working in a salvage yard in the mid 80's was that I got to buy a lot of interesting cars. I bought a 1966 Plymouth Barracuda Formula S (273 V8, 4bbl carb, 4 speed trans, posi rear, and disc brakes) for a princely $150. I got a 1970 Dodge Challenger convertible, a non-R/T model factory equipped with the 340 V8 for $300. There were only 50 or so made. I sold that one (should have held onto it) and bought a 1970 Dodge Charger R/T SE, which was an incredibly rare model combination. It was lime green with a white vinyl top, white interior and stripes, 440 magnum, auto, with the drag pac, which included a Dana 60 4.10 rear axle, and front disc brakes. The SE package gave it power windows, AC, and power seats (I've never seen '70 or earlier Charger with power seats). I had to reach deep and shell out $700 for that one.

But I don't dislike Pontiacs. I have a 2006 GTO, and I can't say enough good about it. I wanted to buy an '06 Mustang GT, but the dealers I went to seemed to think that Mustangs were made out of gold, and wouldn't budge on the sticker price. I drove by a Pontiac dealer and saw several GTOs parked in their lot. I stopped in and they gave me a great deal. The Mustang GT I was looking at was $32,900, the sticker price on the GTO was $32,600. But the dealer dropped it down to $28k even. 100 more horsepower, 1 extra gear, and a much nicer interior, and $4k less than the Mustang! I drove it home. I had a non-running '66 GTO sitting in my driveway for a couple of years. I always wondered what it would have been like when new, but the old 389 V8 with the 3 (three) speed on the floor wouldn't have come close to the new LS2 and 6 speed manual in my '06.

For all that, car person that I've always been, my Gios has more miles on it than my GTO.

CardiacKid

Now that cable tv has started putting on all these classic car auctions, the market has gone nuts. Last year the fad was flipping houses. Look what happened to that. If they ever make a tv show about classic bikes, I am selling my collection.

Dr.Deltron

I'll have to keep an ear out next Summer during Car Week.
I'll bet that car shows up at auction here...

And gets a $300,000 or higher bid!

Saw a '66 Vette that sold for over half a mil!

late

Remember Beanie Babies?

Grand Bois

My mother had one the same color, but with black interior. The engine was a 326 V8. I don't know how they managed to get so little power out of such a large engine. I hardly ever won any street races. I did manage to snap the stupid torque tube driveshaft.

miamijim

My mom has a '63 Tempest convertible.

Dr.Deltron

I keep getting visions from My Cousin Vinney.
Anyone else?

Picchio Special

I'll bet the new owner makes it into a single speed.

miamijim

Probably a 2-speed....

retrofit

wow, over 43K views!

I like this part from the description:

stan
.

cb400bill

I've been to Harrison. It is a little town a couple hours north of Detroit. It would be a perfect place to dispose of a body...but not in the trunk of a drag car.

Otis

Actually they came with a 326 V8 as well, but that's not the point here.

The car in the auction is NOT a basic consumer version Tempest that would be worth a few hundred bucks in the shape shown, it IS a Super Duty model.

These were factory built race cars quietly sold through the back door of select dealers going to top local and national drag racers. There was an agreement at the time between the big three US auto makers not to sponser racing, but each had a small division dedicated to getting top racers all of the trick parts to still keep their brand winning.

Pontiac dominated stock and drag racing for a very short period here with their Super Duty 421 mill and factory lightweight body parts for Tempest and Catalina's.

Stock Tempest = Falcon gaspipe Eddy Merckx bike boom 10 speed.

SD Tempest = Ugo De Rosa hand built bike FOR Eddy Merckx to ride in the Tour.

mickey85

I drag race oldsmobiles (where correct 1969 H/O intakes can go for $3500). 200+K for that car isn't a big deal - it's well worth it, and indeed, only six factory cars were built. This might likely be the only one remaining in private ownership.

For the cash, it's well worth it. In a world where Barrett Jackson is jacking up prices on even "slant-sick" challengers and such to absurd prices (because of the "ultra-rare" hemi cars), 200K for a literal one of a kind isn't bad at all.

luker

I'm sure my Cherokee is "one of a kind" and I'm lowering the price to $130K.

Anyone?

Saddle Up

And rattle cans it black.

mickey85

There's a difference between a one-of-a-kind, factory built gasser and a craptastic cherokee that you slapped some expensive rims on...

I'd place this in the same category as the dodge ramchargers:



and the Chevy Black widows...




and teh factory Ford lightweight Fairlanes...




These things are kind of akin to collecting bikes that raced in the TDF...

luker

oh, you misread my posting, sir. I wouldn't sully a rare classic like this cherokee by changing out the rims.

Just for you, a reasonable $105,000.

mickey85

I guess non car people don't "get" it. Which I don't understand, because the same people who can understand buying a set of bicycle rims for $3,000, or a relatively heavy steel road FRAME for $3500 can't understand buying an insanely rare piece of history for a lot of money.

I guess you'd freak if I told you that I had $7,000 alone in my engine, $4,000 in my transmission, and my axle housing alone (without any innards) cost me about $1,000. All in a car that I bought when I was 14 for $500. To each his own.


As far as I'm concerned, the comparison that Otis made was probably really correct...

In the sense of my bikes, a typical Tempest would be my pink, 80's Huffy girls' "road bike"...this thing would be my 79 Raleigh Professional...