1963 Super Duty Le Mans Tribute Nostalgic Street/Drag Car

1963 Pontiac Le Mans

Up for bid is this nostalgic 1963 Pontiac Tempest Lemans Super Duty Tribute.Back in December 1962, twelve 1963 Pontiac Lemans cars were built to compete in the NHRA Factory Experimental Class.They were all painted white with blue interior, had aluminum fenders and bumpers, Plexiglas windshields, and fitted with the powerful 421 engine with dual carbs.They were 300-400 pounds lighter than the larger Catalinas making for very potent and fast quarter mile times.Today, these original cars are bringing $450-500K dollars at auction.

This car up for bid has many characteristics of the original cars.Originally a 326 V8, it now has a 421 date coded engine from 1965.It was bored 030 over, has stock D port heads, and a Lunati Voodoo high lift hydraulic cam.It has an aluminum Offenhauser intake manifold with two Carter 400 CFM carbs.There are about 50 miles on the engine.The car has been converted from a rear transmission to a conventional rear from a 1957-58 big car Pontiac.It has a heavy duty indestructible ladder bar suspension.The gear ratio is 3.42.I replaced the 4.30 gear to make it friendlier for freeway driving. The transmission is an M21 Muncie 4 speed that is rowed by a Hurst shifter.It has manual drum brakes all the way around like the original cars had.

The paint is 6 years old and not perfect.It has some nicks and a couple of spots where the paint has some cracking and a few bubbles.It still looks very good however.Before it was painted, the car received a rust prevention treatment.This car is all steel with none of the aluminum pieces that the original cars had.The hood scoop is correct as well as all of the badging.The car wears Hurst Cheater slicks on the back wheels which were customized out of California with 8 inch rims.The front tires are bias ply skinnies.The interior is painted with the correct contrasting blue paint codes as the original super duty cars.It is radio and heater delete giving the car the barren looking dash that many drag cars had in the early 60s.The under dash oil pressure and temperature gauges are Stewart Warner period correct and both work.The seats, door panels, headliner, and carpet are nearly new.There is a small pencil tip size hole on the driver’s seat on the side near the seat belt connection where a wire spring had poked through.It’s hard to notice unless you really look for it.

The car has new front and rear window rubber gaskets.There is a slight wiper arm scratch on the front windshield. All lights and wipers work.The gas gauge works sporadically.The car has headers with exhaust dumps coming out the sides similar to the original super duty cars.They can be manually uncapped for more power and incredible (loud) sound.There are exhaust pipes that run back to race bullet mufflers and downturns just under the rear axle.The car sounds incredible.I remember driving through a Walmart parking lot and many of the car alarms going off from the rumble of this car.

Recently, while driving the car through my neighborhood the harmonic balancer backed off of the crank and broke the timing chain (I did not torque it properly).I replaced the harmonic balancer, chain, crank, and cam sprockets.I checked all of the pushrods to see if any were bent and they were all perfectly straight.I was able to turn the crank and cam with a ratchet with no interference.When I started up the car it ran rough.Upon further checking we determined that several valves had been bent.There is no evidence of any further damage to this engine.The car will start and has 65 lbs. of oil pressure.

I am moving out of state and thought I would put the car up for auction as is, in case the buyer wanted to do more extensive upgrades, like adding aluminum heads.

I have been honest in my presentation of this car.It is very unique and a one of a kind nostalgic tribute.