Rusty 63 Tempest gets $226,521 on eBay

Why? it turns out its one of 6 1963 Pontiac LeMans Tempest Super Duty coupes made... unbeknown to the owner.. he got a surprise the bidding skyrocketed.
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/11/10/ebay-find-of-the-day-1963-lemans-tempest-sells-for-226-521/

 

Holy crap!

Good for him he didnt sell it in auto trader or a paper for $500 or donate it to a car crushing charity.

Its neat to see lost cars reappear like this. They are found in the strangest places.

 

He discovered what he really had a couple of days into the ad. So he was well aware and the vin backs up the special car that it is.
He was actually going to sell it for scrap over the summer but luckily the scrap place would not take the car because at the time he did not have the title with him.
Price really jumped, wow what a payback for him.

 

Speechless....

Lucky guy....!

Mike in Kuwait

 

Holy grail of Pontiacs right there.

RMX

 

That is incredible! What a find for both sides.

 

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/1961-1963-pontiac-tempest-17.jpg&imgrefurl=http://auto.howstuffworks.com/1961-1963-pontiac-tempest9.htm&h=246&w=400&sz=15&hl=en&start=52&usg=__z7N_grIzarDe6mw_DfEnl5AyDXA=&tbnid=bWqjqHuWqmceMM:&tbnh=76&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3DPontiac%2BLemans%2BDrag%2BRacing%26start%3D40%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-USfficial%26sa%3DN

A few photos of this rare model. Two of them are diecast models but show a good representation of what they originally looked like.

Arnie Beswick is probably the best known Pontiac drag racer of that time and drove the original "Farmer" Tempest Super Duty to some very respectable numbers. I thought I knew most of the better known racers of that time as I was beginning my drag racing about then. However, I never knew or have been able to find anything about the original driver of the car on Ebay.
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And then Jess Tyree got ahold of one and decided to go the altered wheelbase route, dropped in a 455 cube engine and added fuel injection. Ran on 70% nitro and turned a 9.05 et in 1963..............Pretty hot for 45 years ago.....
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How cool is that! Only better if a little old lady had it or it was in a barn. Great find.

 

Very cool. According to one of the questions, the auction had a "buy it now" of $4k at the start that of course went away when the reserve was met. Sheesh! He also turned down $160k to end the auction early. Smart man!


Q: Congrats on finding a piece of racing history, even if you didn't know it at first. There's alot of people that wish the hit the but it now for $4000.00 If i were you i would relist it with a reserve, if this sells for less than $150k you didn't get what you should. [as stated on more than one website/forum] Good luck with your sale and i can't imagine finding a missing piece of racing history as rare as your car. Nov-07-08
A: I THINK THAT WITH OVER 1100 WATCHERS IT WILL PROBABLY SELL FOR MORE THAN IT'S WORTH. HOW CAN A PERSON PUT A PRICE ON THIS HISTORY.IF I KNEW WHAT IT WAS BEFORE I LISTED IT , I WOULD HAVE SHIPPED IT BACK TO STAN ANTLOCER AND LET HIM DEAL WITH IT.

Q: Will you stop the auction for $160,000.00 cash??? NO BS!!! Regards, Matt Nov-07-08
A: NO NO NO

 

prefer a GTO

 

Most would prefer a GTO but no GTO has the pedigree that this particular Lemans has. There are plenty of them available out there for much less money in perfect condition. This car needs a ton of restoration work and finding the original parts that were on the car is going to next to impossible. I wish the winning bidder well.....

 

This car did not have the original lightweight doghouse either. That was found years ago and was kept by an individual hoping to locate the rest of the car. I wonder who is selling what part to whom?

 

how did it get in that god awful shape...looks like it spent a few years under the pacific !

 

It may be worth something,but i wouldnt pay that much.
the shell is rusty,has no motor,no tranny.

The question we need to ask how did the owner who passed away get this?

I cant see this car selling for more then $450k,even with a full resto.
Its gonna cost atleast the buying price to fix it.

 

Awesome car, and great story. A friend of mine has 2 of the 6, one being black with blue interior, 4 seed....the car is stunning.

 

Only two SD Tempest coupes located, thus far. Dana Mecum owns the other - as well as the only wagon found to date (http://www.hemmings.com/mus/stories/2008/05/01/hmn_feature9.html).

 

My bad, my fried has 2 63's of the 14 sedan built. He has a total of 6 super duty cars in his collection 2 aluminum nose cars. Here is a a link to his 63, black on blue car.

http://www.richmondcountypontiac.com/members/kennys-1963-super-duty-catalina/

 

His are Catalinas. The ones in the article are Tempests. Both are rare but the Tempest holds the edge on being the more rare and more collectible, even in need of everything it is missing.............Would I buy it to restore. I do not think so, even if I could afford it. It would take at least that much again to restore it and that is if you could find the correct parts, which is highly unlikely now.....

 

I have a good friend of mine who has been talking about that particular car for the last few weeks. He is quite an avid follower of factory lightweights.( being a 60 and 70s drag racer himself) His response is, I wish I had known about it. In his second breath he says. Geez friggin old race cars, you know the stuff, we used to push them into the back 40.

He maintains that it was bought by j Leno.

 

Cool car. They drilled the frames on a few '63 big cars ("Swiss Cheese"), too.

 

Apparently the original front clip and transaxle have been located and will be reunited with the car. It will be restored now. Should be interesting to see.

RMX