[MikeNoun]

Originally Posted by Jeff Hamlin

The owner of the OHC Powered 1964 Banshee concept is a POCI/OHC Club Member.


IIRC the Black mockup shown above was to be a 3rd version that never came to be.
Below are a few images of mock ups I have on file showing some of the concepts on the above described turntables as well as a drawing showing consideration of alternative engine placement.

The black car was the XP-798 Scorpion, renamed "Banshee" for the 1966 New York Auto Show press release, but was not based on the earlier 2-seater Banshee. The Scorpion used a Corvette independent rear and a torque tube transaxle setup.

The XP-798 Scorpion was the final chapter of the whole Banshee story. The Scorpion (renamed Banshee) was the car that DeLorean made one last gasp presentation to GM in hope that he could build the car, but GM slapped him down, arguments and shouting reportedly ensued, and GM demanded that DeLorean proceed immediately with work on the Pontiac version of the Camaro. Because of DeLorean's stubbornness to give up on his Banshee/Scorpion project, the 1967 Firebird would not debut alongside the Camaro, but months later.

The Banshee design was based on the 1962 Chevrolet Monza SS design, and contrary to popular belief, the Banshee design was not "stolen" by Chevrolet to build the 1968 Corvette, and Chevrolet didn't kill the Banshee, claiming that Corvette sales would suffer. It was GM's decision to not build the Banshee, and it was a correct one at the time.

There's a ton of misinformation about the Banshee floating around the web, information based on 1990's articles that had a serious bias towards Pontiac propaganda. That misinformation keeps getting repeated whenever the Banshee topic pops up.

Mike