[Steve Barcak]

Originally Posted by poison heart

Why did he like those 4 bangers so much?

During the time that the 4cyl Tempest was being manufacturered, Pontiac was officially racing. Mickey Thompson was Pontiacs primary paid aftermarket parts designer, manufacturer, promoter, racer, etc for Pontiac engines and automobiles pertaining to drag racing, land speed records, endurance, etc.
Pontiac also had its own paid group for the NASCAR wars during this time too.
This lasted until Jan 1963 when Pontiac was forbidden to race anymore, that included racing engine development, formal racing and having aftermarket paid hot rodders like M/T. This corporate edict was brought to Pontiac from GM headquarters and was the beginning of what I call "corporate nonsense".
more info on this here- http://pontiacheaven.org/about%20pontiac%20heaven.htm

After Jan 1963 only Ford, Mercury and Chrysler were officially racing (though chev was allowed to get away with some, Pontiac did not). After Jan 63, Pontiac had to redirect to street performance and not racing.

If the ban wouldn't have happened, Pontiac would have been an absolute leader in the HP wars of the 60s and we wouldn't be dicking with round port and tunnel port stuff and trying to play catch up as it ended up. We would have wild, high hp stuff like this Pontiac M/T HEMI (shown below from my collection) that made 760 hp on gas in 1962... and over 1,100 hp on nitro.



And much wilder stuff too like SOHC, DOHC, 3 valve per cyl, etc. Despite all the handicaps and restrictions after Jan 63, Pontiac held its own and still built great cars and great motors. Still, it could have been much better and they were so close.

Steve
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