You could say the Pontiac GTO story starts here: with the launch of the 1962 Pontiac Tempest LeMans.
The introduction of the Pontiac Tempest LeMans in 1962 is noteworthy from a couple of angles, but one thought immediately comes to mind: It was the the LeMans that eventually begat the sensational 1964 Pontiac GTO, which kicked off the entire muscle car movement. So without the LeMans, who knows? Maybe there would be no GTO, at least as we know it.
The LeMans began with humble enough ambitions—basically, as an appearance package for the Tempest Custom Sport Coupe and Convertible. The Tempest, of course, was Pontiac’s entry on the Senior Compact Y-body platform at General Motors for 1961-63, which also included versions for Buick (Special) and Oldsmobile (F-85). In the original Pontiac commercial below, the announcer ticks off the LeMans equipment list: GM’s wide and comfy bucket seats, a floor mounted shifter, nylon pile carpeting, and some extra trim and badging.
Of course, the ’62 LeMans also included the innovative Tempest driveline, with its distinctive bent propeller shaft, rear transaxle, and swing-axle rear suspension. Both manual and automatic-transmission versions were offered, each borrowing extensively from the Corvair parts bins. Engine choices included GM’s 215 CID aluminum V8, but it’s interesting to note that in this spot, the half-a-V8 194 CID Trophy four gets the spotlight. In performance tune with a four-barrel carb and a 10.25:1 compression ratio, the slant four was rated at 166 horsepower. It was no GTO, certainly, but it was a start. Video below.

​For decades, Allegheny Ludlum and its successor company have held on to the bulk of the 11 stainless-bodied Ford products that resulted from three different collaborations between the two companies. A source of pride for the company and for the Pittsburgh region in general, it seemed that the cars would forever remain in possession of the specialty metals company. However, in the face of a tough economic climate, Allegheny has decided to sell three of the cars, apparently the first time a complete set of the stainless Fords has ever hit the market.
"We didn't make the decision lightly," said Natalie Gillespie, a spokeswoman for Allegheny Technologies Inc. "But we decided it's only appropriate to utilize every lever we have...as we're faced with this extraordinary economic challenge."
Even before the coronavirus pandemic hit, Allegheny started out 2020 downsizing its salaried workforce "to align cost structures to demand levels," according to its first-quarter shareholders report. With sales down five percent year-over-year and with tougher times ahead due to the pandemic, the company has temporarily idled some of its facilities, cut executive pay by 20 percent, furloughed non-essential workers, and made various other cuts in expenses.
While it didn't seem like the five stainless Fords that Allegheny had held onto until just recently cost much to keep around - they'd been relegated in recent years from regular parade duty to the occasional car show and recruiting fair - the cars also weren't doing much for the company's bottom line. After all, most of its business these days comes from the aerospace, defense, and energy sectors with automotive sales accounting for just 7 percent of its business.
In the Thirties, however, Allegheny envisioned entire cars built from its stainless steel. The company was already supplying Ford with stainless for trim and radiator shells so, as Walt Gosden wrote in Special Interest Autos #60, December 1980, Allegheny took the next logical step of stamping entire bodies out of stainless. Six 1936 Ford Tudor Touring Sedans - which used standard Ford chassis and running gear - resulted, and by the end of the run the tougher stainless had reportedly ruined Ford's dies. Each of the six went to Allegheny district offices around the country and remained on the road as demonstrator vehicles well into the 1940s, by which time the bodies remained intact and in good shape but the chassis had racked up hundreds of thousands of miles and had worn out like any other 1936 Ford with that many miles would.

​The two companies didn't collaborate again until 1960 when Allegheny stamped body panels, bumpers, grilles, and exhaust systems for two Thunderbird coupes out of T302 stainless and then sent those to Budd for assembly. Then again, six years later, Allegheny and Ford collaborated to build three Lincoln Continental convertibles, two of which went on to receive updates to 1967 Lincoln Continental appearance. According to Gosden, both the Thunderbirds and the Continentals somehow ended up weighing about the same as their production counterparts. (According to Frank Scheidt of the Early Ford V-8 Foundation, the stainless 1936 Ford weighs anywhere from a couple hundred pounds to 500 pounds more than a comparable production 1936 Ford.)
Allegheny made the latter five easy to keep track of: It held on to the two Thunderbirds and two of the three Continentals and eventually bought back the third Continental before the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum in Cleveland obtained one of each.
The six 1936 Fords, however, Allegheny sold off after their use as demonstrators. Allegheny re-purchased two of the six over the years and the Crawford tracked down another to compile the first complete set of the three for public display. A fourth passed through a number of private owners before it was donated to the Early Ford V-8 Museum in 2016. Two remain unaccounted for.

Of the five remaining in Allegheny's possession, the company recently donated one to the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh. "It was our way of ensuring that a piece of Allegheny Ludlum's legacy is retained in Pittsburgh," Gillespie said. One of the Lincoln Continentals will remain with Allegheny Technologies, but the three others - one 1936 Ford, one 1960 Thunderbird, and one 1966/1967 Lincoln Continental - will head to auction this fall at the Worldwide Auctioneers Auburn sale.
"They're fantastic," Gillespie said, "but we want to make sure these three are kept and maintained by somebody who loves them."
At what is perhaps the only time any of the 11 stainless cars has previously come up for auction, the 1936 Ford that has since joined the Early Ford V-8 Museum's collection bid up to $550,000 at the 2009 Mecum Monterey sale. Leo Gephardt, the owner of the car at the time, later told Hemmings Classic Car that he valued it at about triple that price.
According to Worldwide, the three will cross the block as one lot with no reserve. Worldwide's Auburn sale is planned to take place September 5. For more information, visit WorldwideAuctioneers.com.

Article courtesy of Hemmings, written by Daniel Strohl.

​To showcase its all-new 232 cubic-inch inline six engine, in 1964 American Motors introduced a limited-production Rambler Classic and called it the Typhoon.

In 1964, American Motors wasn’t really in the performance car business. After all, it was in ’64 that the company introduced its famous print ad proclaiming, “The only race Rambler cares about is the human race!” But every now and then the Kenosha carmaker would show a little style and flash, for example with the 1957 Rambler Rebel and the clever Twin-Stick transmission. Here’s one more interesting example: the limited-production 1964 Typhoon.

​By the early ’60s, AMC’s venerable inline six engine family, first produced way back in 1941 for the Nash 600, had grown horribly obsolete. Plunking down $45 million, a serious investment for the little automaker, AMC engineered an all-new six-cylinder engine line and a manufacturing plant to go with it. Justifiably proud of the new Torque Command Six, as it was called, AMC whipped up a special edition of the Rambler Classic 770 hardtop, its top of the line mid-sized model, to serve as a showcase.

​While the old Rambler six was conservative to a fault (there was still an L-head version in production well into the ’60s) the new Torque Command Six, above, was state of the art. With a bore of 3.75 inches and a stroke of 3.25 inches, the layout was generously oversquare, while the roomy 4.38-inch bore spacing allowed plenty of coolant circulation. And down below, seven main bearings and a fully counterweighted crankshaft provided a stiff and sturdy lower end.
The initial displacement was 232 cubic inches with an output of 145 hp, but the engine was continually revised and refined over the years, enjoying an impressively long production life. In 1970 American Motors acquired Jeep and in 1987 American Motors was in turn acquired by Chrysler, and so it came to pass that Jeep vehicles used an updated version of this same basic engine package through 2006.

​The new inline six was a $59.95 option in the Classic and Ambassador for 1964, but standard in the limited-edition Typhoon, which is distinguished by its Solar Yellow exterior paint and gloss black roof, along with a blacked-out grille, black-insert side trim, and unique badging. Additionally, all Typhoons apparently (we’re not entirely certain) sported a black vinyl interior with bucket seats and a console. Based on the Classic 770 two-door hardtop, the Typhoon received a late mid-year introduction in April of 1964, and only 2,520 were produced. Still, a remarkably high number of them seem to have survived, so you’re likely to encounter one from time to time in the hands of a dedicated AMC enthusiast.

​Purists will say the 1958 Hawk isn’t truly a Packard. That may be so, but it’s certainly an interesting car.     

In gearhead lore, the 1958 Packard Hawk was created almost by accident. Roy Hurley, the Curtiss-Wright CEO who was in charge at Studebaker-Packard in the final days of the Packard brand, asked chief designer Duncan McRae to create a customized vehicle for his personal use. As this single custom car was completed, somehow the decision was made to add it to Packard’s meager production lineup for 1958. As a result of this unusual provenance, the Packard Hawk is sometimes referred to by S-P enthusiasts as the Hurley Hawk. (For more on the final Studebaker-based Packards of 1957-58, see our feature, The Packardbakers.)

​Hurley had recently traveled to Europe, where the Maserati 3500 Gran Turismo Allemano, a $10,000 exotic with bodywork by Carrozzeria Allemano, had caught his eye. So to please the boss, McRae borrowed two of its features, the low, wide grille opening and the aggressive hood scoop, and adapted them to the Studebaker Hawk K-body hardtop shell, as shown above. A fiberglass hood and bolt-on front fascia replaced the Studebaker Hawk’s neo-classical vertical grille theme, while a pair of plated dagmars were added to the familiar Stude front bumper.

​Another feature that distinguished the Packard Hawk from its Studebaker siblings was the luxurious interior, finished entirely in premium leather. To create an aircraft-style ambience, as McRae recalled it, the upholstery wrapped over the doors, extending past the door glass, so part of the leather lived out in the weather, as shown above. The feature is definitely novel: We can’t think of another postwar production car that shares it. Doesn’t seem terribly practical.
From time to time, automotive writers have been known to observe that the Hawk failed to save Packard. In truth, that was never in the cards as the brand was essentially already dead. The 1958 Packard line was offered mainly to satisfy the few remaining dealer contracts, so the automaker would not be compelled to take back the remaining parts, tools, and inventory. A mere 2,622 Packards were produced in 1958, and 588 of them were Hawks.

​The flat-top era at General Motors lasted only two years, but it left a memorable impression.on the automotive world.

The flat-top cars of General Motors for 1959-60 were created during a tumultuous period for the automaker’s styling shop. At that moment, the studio was carefully navigating the transition from Harley Earl to Bill Mitchell as leader of the operation. And meanwhile, the GM designers were thrown for a loop by Virgil Exner’s stunning 1957 Chrysler line, which seemed to obsolete everything they had on the drawing board.
In response to the challenges, the GM stylists cleared their easels and for 1959, they came up with some of the most distinctive cars ever produced by the company. One of the more striking innovations was a bold, blade-like roofline for the four-door hardtops that soon became known as the flat top.

​The Flying Wing, as the automaker preferred to call the cantilevered top configuration, was the creation of a young Japanese-American GM stylist, Bug Sugano, in early 1957, with support from Carl Renner, who developed the concept for production. Since all five GM car divisions shared their interior structural sheet metal for 1959, all five brands got their own versions of the simple yet dramatic greenhouse package: Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, and Cadillac.

​With all five car brands sharing a common roofline, on their four-door hardtop body styles at least, the company’s product line presented a unified look across the price range—not such a common occurrence at GM in those years. Following their existing naming conventions, Chevrolet and Oldsmobile called the body style a Sport Sedan, while Cadillac chose the name Four Window Sedan, having a multitude of four-door styles for buyers to choose from. Buick took the simple route: Four-Door Hardtop. For its version of the flat top, Pontiac chose the name Vista, underscoring the design’s excellent 360-degree visibility (glass distortion notwithstanding). Even after the flat tops were discontinued for 1961, Pontiac continued to use the Vista model name for its four-door hardtop styles.
While the flat top era proper at GM lasted only two model years, Cadillac soldiered on for one more year with a variation on the theme (below). The Four Window Sedan style for the SIxty-Two and De Ville models in ’61 used a modified Flying Wing with less rear overhang and a more prominent rear glass. But sales were poor as the more conventional six-window four-door outsold the flat top by more than a five-to-one margin, and the body style was killed off permanently for 1962. Automotive fashion was evolving once again, toward more formal limousine-style roof treatments.