balthazar

Hmmm, I'm thinking that number above is '7200' and not '72000', because these have always been rare. Don't knock yourself out- the question was more a passing curiosity than a growing interest...

'80-81 is right- I have a print ad that's emblazened "This is the Last MG Ad You Will Ever See." EDIT- is that about the tail end of Healey production? - I really don't know much about them... and they all seem to be from the '50s. I see the dent in the frame rail- you could never dent the Buick's frame that way while keeping at least 2 tires on the road... must be right about 3/32" thick steel- fully boxed... but it also has rounded corners & bends for even more strength. I know- I shouldn't be comparing an American frame to an automotive 3rd-world unit like this....

King pins & lever shocks ?? I'm thinking I'd have to be in a '40s Buick for that... and a pre-'38 for leaf springs....

Another note: Healey race car = rear leaf springs. Buick road car = 4-wheel coils.

Okee-dokee. Guess I'm more used to my B-59's frame. That one, too, is extremely stiff, even if it's now missing it's 'K' member. Jack up one corner and the whole thing pivots up, and this as a hardtop with currently-latchless doors.

Cutesy lil homemade-looking frame there... pretty narrow. Must flex most entertainingly.... tho I suppose there's not much relative weight involved to push it.

To clarify~ 1969 :: Tempest, series 233 Tempest Custom S, series 235 Tempest LeMans, series 237 GTO, series 242 1970 :: Tempest, series 233 LeMans, series 235 LeMans Sport, series 237 GTO, series 242 Midyear '70, Pontiac added the Tempest T-37 and GT-37, a sub-set of the series 233 Tempest. There is no coding difference (Tempest 2-dr hdtp: 23337, Tempest T-37 2-dr hdtp: 23337) T-37 was a cut-price version of the Tempest ($2683 vs. $2750). Curiously (according to my source at least) the T-37 was only available as a 2-dr hardtop, while the GT-37 was available as both a 2-dr hdtp & a 2-dr sedan. I believe just about all engine options were available thruout the Tempest lines, the exception being the GTO of course (no 6-bangers there). 1971 :: T-37, series 233 LeMans, series 235 LeMans Sport, series 237 GTO, series 242 In '71, the GT-37 was advertised as 'The GTO for Kids Under 30", had stripes, trim ring-less Rallye IIs, HD 3-spd floor shift manual & duals. Production for 70.5 and 71 GT-37s combined was 5,802. GT-37 was an option package.

>>"Sarcasm: learn the definition."<< Doofus: be the definition.

They piss me off with their aloof attitudes. Not to mention, their fins remind me of my unfinished '59...

Have a 5-gal tank in my house; 2 damned goldfish that don't know / refuse to admit they were never intended to live 5 years (coming from a plastic bag) and counting. Everytime the water starts to cloud, I am tempted to slip a Ethel-Glycol cocktail in there and just be done with it...

Business record keeping sucks, and I've a penchant for it. 10 hours today sorting thru 2008, got another few hours to go. I need a sexretary...

Whole movie is already on youtube. Watched most of it: meh- it never reached that level of... authenticity for me.

389 / 421 was a damned strong engine. PMD knew how to build 'em, no doubt.

I wish I had more contact with those in the industry. I was in Detroit in the '80s for a year, if I had been as into history then as I am now, I certainly would've looked up some of the addresses of the birthplaces of auto history. Who here in Detroit can tell me what's at the corner of 1343 Cass Avenue today ? FOG- take a pic. Sh!t- that was only a short walk from where I was... I used to haunt the automotive library of the Detroit Public Library- pulling random auto folders from the archives via the reference desk and paging thru them. As I sat every few evenings or so, I tended to share the table with an elderly guy who was always reading huge bound copies of turn-of the century publications. Somehow, after warily eyeballing each other from opposite ends of our respective timelines, we began to converse. I think he was suitably shocked to learn we could have a historical automotive conversation. We became pretty good friends for that brief year- I was an automotive design student, and he was an automotive historian & author, and ex-ChryCo stylist. I took his thru the studios of the school to view student's work, that & our conversations actually sparked him to take up the pencil and draw a few more. He ended up giving me signed copies of his books, which sit, honored, in my library, along with those drawings. I knew he was only a tip of a history iceberg there in Detroit- but I had little time or mobility. I wish it had been otherwise...

To tell the truth, nothing about it other than the 8-lugs & powertrain (plus the steering wheel) say 'GM" to my eye... and those components alone only point to an individual's parts scrounging. Like I said- it's FAR too crude to be a Corp piece. It IS, however, rather ambitious bodywise, for a homebuilt... but like you said- this skill used to be far more available than now.

>>"Even the SR71 engines had blowers to spool them up to ignite them run by 454 Chevys."<< And earlier, in the '60s, the SR-71 'start carts' were powered by twin Buick 401s, then Buicks 425s.

You'd think on a showcased car, even from AMC, they'd bother to put some sort of showy wheels or at least full wheelcovers on it.

This is not a "rare Pontiac", it's a regular production Pontiac that's been modified- one of thousands & thousands & thousands in that category. BTW- there was at least 1 other aircraft-assist modified Pontiac; I have a clipping of a '69 Catalina 4-dr hardtop with a rack on the roof so a Piper J-3 can land on it. GM has a huge, uncollected assocation with aircraft...

At some point even the free-marketers will HAVE to admit that the THEORY of open markets is getting trampled by the ACTUALITY of open markets.... won't they ????? When does national self-preservation rank over economic theory for them...or is it never so ???

Hello all. I should miss an evening on C&G more often... if stuff like this will show up in my absence. Interesting. I was initially thinking of the '61 Scorpian, XP-758, but that was a 'torpedo'-back job without fins, and this is NOT a modifed version of that- that car was fiberglas. Tho there were 6 cars built under the XP-833 Banshee programs (all the online pics of the 2 existing cars are of #5 and #6)... none of the specs of the 1st 4 cars match this one (tube frame & V-8 ). It's also far too cobbled together to be a PMD job. No other period PMD concepts/projects come to mind. At this point I tend to agree with the article- it's a home-built job. Nice bodywork tho!

There's a reason every one of those hardtops pictures are forgotten, and it's YOU-GEE-EL-EYE-ness. Don't forget, it's theoretically possible to build a hardtop garbage truck- but it's still a garbage truck first.

No working out here, just working. No doubt I could be better from a cardiovascular standpoint, but 8 years of excavation/construction have certainly kept me mobile & strong. Today: slung a bunch of lumber around (2x4s & 4x4s), sanded spackle, hammer-drilled into concrete block, cut/chiseled concrete, loaded up a truckload of tools for a new job Monday. Having eaten and wasted a half hour here, I now need to go make room in the garage and unload the truck.

>>"If this task force comes to realize what Japan Inc has known for decades (that is, incentives and monies for large companies that create jobs here), maybe some of this green shift tax dollars can be poured into Detroit, just like Toyota got for its Synergy Drive."<< Needless to say: fat chance of this. Japan's government values it's industries and acts accordingly. When toyota makes $7B in one quarter, the japanese Gov funds 100% of it's hybrid's R&D. When Exxon makes $11B in one quarter, the media (and those whose thoughts are molded by it) condemn the Co, and the U.S. Gov talks seriously about 'windfall profit taxation'. Far too many Americans hate ourselves, AND success... or at least thats what we're often told to do.... yet AT THE SAME TIME, we are somehow able to lament the 'pitiful' global performance of GM, esp compared to toyota. It's hypocritical nonsense.

>>"16 cylinder, Cadillac powered WWII tank"<< Of course you know, they were twin V-8-powered... tho yes; that does total 16 cylinders.

Cadillac did the engineering & R&D, starting in '32. Handed it off to Olds for in-car testing circa '37. Corporate called for Olds to debut it in order to take any reliability hits in Year 1 vs. Cadillac. Cadillac did the bulk of GM's engineering for the first 35 years or so.