Pontiac Gto Tempest

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Pontiac Gto Tempest
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The history of American sports cars is the story not only of machines, but also of the men who made and drove them. There have been many key players in the development of the modern sports car, but some stand out as truly significant figures.

Among those innovators to remember are Alexander Winton, Zora Arkus-Duntov, and John DeLorean. Each made a lasting impression on the sports car scene.

Alexander Winton

Alexander Winton was the first truly successful automotive magnate in the United States. His cars participated and excelled in virtually every major racing and touring event of the late 1890s and early 1900s. Winton cars were perceived as the model of American automotive engineering.

Winton's success and belief in his vehicles led him to accept a challenge from an upstart from Detroit named Henry Ford. In a much-ballyhooed 1901 contest, Ford and Winton squared off in one-on-one race.

Winton's Sweepstakes racecar suffered from mechanical problems during the contest and his two-cylinder, 28 horsepower racer finished a distant second to Ford, who found his career revitalized after the publicized victory.

Despite often being remembered as the man who lost to Ford, Alexander Winton was a true American sports car pioneer and laid the groundwork for many manufacturers who followed in his footsteps.

Zora Arkus-Duntov

After World War II, American manufacturers began to produce readily available sports cars, in contrast to the limited production, high-dollar versions from earlier in history. After Ford made a splash with the Thunderbird sports car, Chevrolet sought to capture its share of the growing market with the 1955 introduction of the Corvette.

The Corvette, whose distinctive appearance was brought to light be famous designer Harley Earl, was a beautiful package containing a ho-hum gift. The car had a two-speed automatic transmission and a standard Chevy 6 cylinder engine. Sales stagnated.

A Russian migr and Chevrolet designer named Zora Arkus-Duntov took the reigns of the Corvette project after its second lackluster year. He redesigned the new Chevy V8 to fit in the Corvette and replaced the automatic transmission with a sportier 3-speed manual tranny. His design changes vaulted the Corvette to fame and admiration.

Arkus-Duntov continued his affiliation with Corvette, ushering it into its heyday as the most respected and admired American sports car.

John DeLorean

A brash young auto executive at Pontiac named John DeLorean had an idea. He could take the under performing Pontiac Tempest, make a few minor exterior alterations, outfit it with a big and powerful V8 engine and upgrade some of the other components. His revitalization effort turned the lowly Tempest into the Pontiac GTO the car that sparked the muscle car era in America.

DeLorean's efforts to build better and more interesting sports cars continued as he opened his own auto company. He introduced the stainless steel DMC-12 sports car later popularized in the Back to the Future movies. The innovative vehicle was never a hot-seller but was an inspiration for countless future designs from other automakers.

The controversial DeLorean was plotting an economy-priced plastic sports car that was never released. He passed away while the vehicle idea was still in its infancy.

Sports car enthusiasts remember cars. They can tell you the specs of many significant sports cars and can trace the history of many sports car lines. It's important to remember these cars did not materialize from thin air. There were men behind the cars who brought them to the limelight. Three of the great innovators Winton, Arkus-Dontav, and DeLorean deserve to be as remembered as any sports car to ever hit the road.

For more articles like this one, please visit [http://www.SportsCarGuide.org]

How John DeLorean Created The Muscle Car Movement In The United States

Most of us think of John DeLorean as the guy behind the gull-wing stainless car from the Back to the Future movies nut the fact of the matter is that his contributions to the automotive world go much farther back than that. DeLorean was actually the creator of the muscle car revolution in the United States. Think of how different the sports car industry would be today if we hadn't had that era of performance cars.

In 1964 DeLorean was with Pontiac and he made the decision to totally recreate the Tempest using a huge V8 high performance engine. The car became known as the GTO, also nicknamed the Goat by adoring fans and remains to this day one of the all-time favorite muscle cars. The GTO was a big hit for Pontiac sparking off huge sales volume and led other manufacturers to follow suit.

His creative out of the box thinking got him advanced to the higher echelons of the automotive industry but his independent free thinking nature was not really cut out for that and he ended up leaving that and forming his own company to do things his way.

Leaving his past fruits behind him in Detroit, DeLorean opened his own car company in Northern Ireland with the rather ambitious idea of competing against the Big Three automakers that he had helped so much in the 1960's. His namesake, the DeLorean DMC-12 was a unique brushed stainless steel sports car with the innovative flip up gull wing doors. The car never really took off and actually less than nine thousand ever sold. Still, the vehicle was responsible for many innovations for years to come.

DeLorean along with Preston Tucker were both headstrong individuals who were forward thinking revolutionaries way ahead of their time introducing cutting edge vehicles. Although their product ideas didn't take off in their time they influenced the future of the automotive industry.

In 1999 DeLorean had hopes of coming back to the automotive world with a high performance sports car that would be priced below 20k and would be made of mostly plastic. It seemed like he was ready for a revival but it never came to fruition and he died in 2004.

It will be interesting to see how the new Tesla Motor Company's electric high performance car does; the founder says he was influenced by DeLorean and Tucker. The car does o to 60 in under 4 seconds with a top speed of 130 mph.

About the Author

Gregg Hall is an author and internet marketing consultant living in Navarre Florida. Find more about cars and
car care products
at http://www.stopwaxing.com

She wan't to go top-less everywhere, I think it is too dangerous and would ruin the fun. What do I do?

She drives this killer 1964 & 1/2 Tempest LeMans (GTO) Pontiac with a 389 & tri-pack, rag-top, leather. She wants to go top-less EVERYWHERE! But I'm afraid it would ruin the leather. Is there any hope to preserve the car?

its her car isnt it?....

Catalina... Tempest... GTO... and the '86 Daewoo LeMans! [Classic Ad Watch]
# classicadwatch Do we really need to go into great detail about how wrong the Pontiac-badged '86 Daewoo LeMans really was? Probably not. More »

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