Hey Pontiac History buffs.

[Texasscout]

What do you think a rusted out 63' Pontiac Tempest with no motor or transmission would sell for on ebay?



http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Ponti...QQcmdZViewItem

[Boston]

Wow! The bidding started at $500 and 71 bids later was almost 1/4 mil. Wtf, no motor or trans. Does the winning bidder have the matching numbers?

[naughty240]

Im sure there is a good reason its that high. But wtf is it?

[SwivelHips]

NEVER seen one of those, must be super rare or ???

[Boston]

I think I found the answer at Wikipedia:

Perhaps the most famous Tempests built were 1963 cars. Just 11 in number, they were built at the Pontiac plant in Michigan over Christmas 1962.[citation needed]

[Red_G35]

Apparently driven by Stan Antlocer

[XCELR8]

rare factory built race car. no surprising. low production, one off, tons of history, etc. buyer will track down orig trans/eng i bet and bring it all back.

[Texasscout]

Read the entire listing, it's a wild story.

[TURBOTOM]

Thats amazing, I have seen this on a bunch of other forums!

[SwivelHips]

One of the original SD's, okay.

[Texasscout]

My reading of all the questions posted seems to imply that Jay Leno was bidding on this. I hope he was the one to win it. He would have the resources to restore this car back to it's orginal glory.

[HomieG35]

$2.76

[g35 chippie]

They call those swiss cheese Catalinas. There are big holes drilled into the frame to reduce weight. Probably has aluminum bumpers. Super Duty 421. Bad *** car.

[Texasscout]

Yeah, they found the aluminum front clip in Florida. Nobody knew where the car was until now.

[fecurtis]

Great story, I read about it on Autoblog a few days ago.

The eBay auction for this 1963 Pontiac LeMans Tempest started out innocently enough. Obtained after owner died. Appears to have original interior but no motor, no transmission. Body has a little rust and some dents. There's stuff in the trunk, but no key to open it. Opening bid nine days ago was a mere $500. After one week, eBay seller 123ecklin will pocket $226,521 before auction fees. What happened between Day 1 and Day 9 is an amazing story.

The car's plexiglass windows, unusual suspension setup and a dash plate bearing the name of a racetrack tipped the owner to its racing history. But what he didn't know is that the car is one of only six 1963 Pontiac LeMans Tempest Super Duty coupes ever made. Hemmings recently did a story on the rare cars in which they listed all ever built. This one looks to have been driven by Stan Antlocer and was the fastest drag car in 1963 before disappearing.

Reading through the questions on the auction gives us reason to believe the seller truly didn't know the car's provenance. In his answers, he seems both surprised by the car's potential value as well as overwhelmed by the attention. He turned down an offer of $160,000 to end the auction early because he feared getting negative eBay feedback. That decision paid off. With only seven minutes remaining, the highest offer was $95,000. When the virtual gavel fell, eBayer ccsi2000 had bought a very rare, if a little rusty, LeMans for $226,521.