THE PONTIAC TEMPEST was a product of General Motors' post-war anything goes' period. These halcyon years of designer-led innovation and iconoclastic engineering brought us the plastic-bodied 1953 Chevrolet Corvette, the fuel-injected 1957 Pontiac Bonneville, the 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham with Citroën DSinspired pneumatic suspension, and the 1960 Chevrolet Corvair with its unitary construction and air-cooled rear-mounted flat-six engine. It gave birth to the world's first two turbocharged production cars the 1962 Oldsmobile Jetfire and Corvair Monza Spyder - and climaxed with the 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado, which had a 7.0-litre V8 driving its front wheels via a Hy-Vo chain. The 1961 Pontiac Tempest was the dark horse of this bunch. Its unassuming Eisenhower-cool body cloaked what was possibly GM's weirdest ever drivetrain: a 3.2-litre slant-four engine at the front, a transaxle at the rear, and a curved torsion bar 'rope drive' connecting the two.
Pontiac enjoyed a renaissance in the late 1950s. The marque occupied a narrow ledge in GM's hierarchy, above Chevrolet but below Oldsmobile, Buick and Cadillac. It'd ticked over post-war by building competent but unstimulating cars for the elderly and unadventurous. A step-change came in 1956 when 43-year-old Semon 'Bunkie' Knudsen was appointed division manager. He recruited Oldsmobile's 40-year-old Elliot 'Pete' Estes as chief engineer and Packard's 31-year-old John Zachary DeLorean as head of a new department titled 'Advanced Engineering. Estes went on to become president of GM; DeLorean would make it as far as vice president before stomping off to establish the DeLorean Motor Company.
この記事は Octane の 253 - July 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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この記事は Octane の 253 - July 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
Will China Change Everything? - China is tearing up modern motor manufacture but is yet to make more than a ripple in the classic car world. That could be about to change dramatically
China now dominates the automotive world in a way even Detroit in its heyday would have struggled to comprehend.Helped by Government incentives, the new car world is dominated by China's industries: whether full cars that undercut Western models by huge amounts, ownership of storied European brands such as Lotus and Volvo, or ownership and access to the vast majority of raw materials that go into EV cars, its influence is far-reaching and deep. However, this automotive enlightenment hasn't manifested itself in the classic world in any meaningful way - until now.
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