[Banditone]

My favorite PONTIAC story is about JIM CHRISTIANSON and his 63 421 SD TEMPEST that was formerly owned by MICKEY THOMPSON. In 64 and 65 it was the fastest car in the SAN GABRIEL VALLEY CA. until he sold it in 66. Not to many guys got to drive a factory race car on the street.

[Banditone]

My favorite PONTIAC story is about JIM CHRISTIANSON and his 63 421 SD TEMPEST that was formerly owned by MICKEY THOMPSON. In 64 and 65 it was the fastest car in the SAN GABRIEL VALLEY CA. until he sold it in 66. Not to many guys got to drive a factory race car on the street.

[tom s]

in that same time period,Jess Tyree used to drive Mickeys backup Swiss Cheese car around to chase parts.That car is now for sale from the McGruder collection in AZ.

[WARIARGTO]

Reminds me of a story my dad told me about his '63 AFX Z11. That was one fast street car as well. One day mom was at the gas station on the way to pick up some grocerys in it and it loaded up and stalled, couldn't get it started. So the guy who owned the station was a friend of my dads, offered to push start it with the wrecker. She agreed, got it rolling, and when she let out the clutch it stalled the wrecker. Oh the days of compression...

[Glenn]

Speaking of the San Gabriel Valley and A/FX. I was racing at Fontana Raceway in 1966. That particular Sunday "Les Richie" was there with his A/FX Mustang. My buddies and I were about 3/4's down the strip watching Richie and another guy race. Fontana didn't have metal guardrails, but 6x6's sticking 3 feet out of the ground with a steel cable strung through a hole near the top.

When Richie was just about in front of us his rear wheel broke off right at the axle and rim. This sent his car tumbling. We couldn't see much because the track had dirt shoulders and when the car hit the dirt, dust blocked the view. We jumped the fence and found the broken wheel on the strip. We rolled the wheel back toward the wrecked car. About 50 to 100 feet before we got to the car we found Les' severed head, still with his helmet on.

Soon after that I sold my '65 GTO and was the last time I ever raced.

[jim brady]

Less's son Randy and I were in the army together in 1970, He still runs Performance Associates in San Dimos. A really nice guy. He still has a lot of 427 SOHC stuff.

[ March 28, 2002: Message edited by: jim brady ]</p>

[robert]

You know I don't believe that I'll ever have a better story than when I was talking to Arnie a few years ago at the Pontiac Nationals up in Ohio, and he told me that one night after the races he was so disgruntled with the Tameless Tiger that he just rolled it off of the trailer and into a ditch and then left it there.(The 1963 version)I immediately thought why couldn't I have been the one to find it. Well in those days I was but a pup and it never would have happened.But the story had a happy ending, he said that the guy that presently had the car was restoring it. Also he said that he was considering building another "63". You go Arnie.

[SD421]

Originally Posted by robert

You know I don't believe that I'll ever have a better story than when I was talking to Arnie a few years ago at the Pontiac Nationals up in Ohio, and he told me that one night after the races he was so disgruntled with the Tameless Tiger that he just rolled it off of the trailer and into a ditch and then left it there.(The 1963 version)I immediately thought why couldn't I have been the one to find it. Well in those days I was but a pup and it never would have happened.But the story had a happy ending, he said that the guy that presently had the car was restoring it. Also he said that he was considering building another "63". You go Arnie.

Back in 1996 at Palmdale Raceway in Cali I spoke to Arnie about the what happend to cause the Tameless Tiger wreck. I dont remember the specifics but he was sore as hell at Arnie Behling who was driving when he crashed it. Beswick had told Behling to fix something or other before racing the Tameless Tiger again & Behling didnt listen to Beswick. I think he crashed it at night and that might have been the thing Beswick had told him not to do, which was to race that car at night.

Don

[SD421]

Originally Posted by Banditone

My favorite PONTIAC story is about JIM CHRISTIANSON and his 63 421 SD TEMPEST that was formerly owned by MICKEY THOMPSON. In 64 and 65 it was the fastest car in the SAN GABRIEL VALLEY CA. until he sold it in 66. Not to many guys got to drive a factory race car on the street.

Jim Christianson told me a story back in 1996 about the time he ran out of gas on the freeway with the #749 LeMans. He said in those days you could break down somewhere and not worry about someone stealing the car. He went back the next day and filled her up and drove away.

-Don

[afx421]

Originally Posted by SD421

Back in 1996 at Palmdale Raceway in Cali I spoke to Arnie about the what happend to cause the Tameless Tiger wreck. I dont remember the specifics but he was sore as hell at Arnie Behling who was driving when he crashed it. Beswick had told Behling to fix something or other before racing the Tameless Tiger again & Behling didnt listen to Beswick. I think he crashed it at night and that might have been the thing Beswick had told him not to do, which was to race that car at night.

Don

ive talked to arnie a few times about the tamless tiger, as far as i know heres how it went, when it was still in stock sd form, on ihs way back from california, he had the wagon on the ramp truck and he was pulling the copue on the trailer behind it, and going through colorado in a snow storm, the trailer went completly sideways and wrecked the back half of the copue into a tree, it sat for a few years, then when the altered wheelbase cars came out, arnie cut up the already smashed rear half of the cuope and made it the altered wheelbase tamless tiger. arnie smashed the tiger a few times, after each wreck he just kept extending the fornt end- who knew in those days- and when arnie behling took it to a match race for arnie b that night, something was wrong with the nose, so arnie behling raced it without the nose on the car. i have footage of that on arnies dvd. and he wrecked it bad that night, only the roof and quarters were savable, it was stored in arnies barn until the 90s where it was bought and restored to the tamless tiger of the glory days .

[pont406]

Pictures worth a thousand words.

[beemergary]

I have a 63 tempest with a 421sd. TomS on the forums has one also. I race mine and drive on the street in the same form. Had 11.55 posted and it went 11.44 for a breakout at Norwalk this past weekend. Don't have a rollbar so don't push the 11.50 index Also have a 61 tempest wagon with a 421sd. Its really a show car thats been down the strip a few times. Can't image how cool to have all that power in the day. If we only knew then what we do now.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by WARIARGTO

Reminds me of a story my dad told me about his '63 AFX Z11. That was one fast street car as well. One day mom was at the gas station on the way to pick up some grocerys in it and it loaded up and stalled, couldn't get it started. So the guy who owned the station was a friend of my dads, offered to push start it with the wrecker. She agreed, got it rolling, and when she let out the clutch it stalled the wrecker. Oh the days of compression...

Mom used to drive our race cars on the street (a little bit).

Our '63 SD Catalina, aluminum front end, four speed car - was pretty much the family car. Dad would race it and if need be, swap the rear gears so they could drive it from Michigan "down home" to Missouri and back. They made that trip a couple times in that car.

One other story comes to mind: our '65 GTO had the battery in the trunk when we received it. There has always been something messed up with the electrical system on that car*, so there were a number of occasions where Mom would drive it to the corner market, do some shopping and then come out to find the battery dead.

I remember more than once that she called a tow truck driver for a jump start. He'd be talking to mom and I'd be in the back seat, little guy that I was, bouncing up and down saying "The battery's in the trunk! The battery's in the trunk!".

The driver would look at mom like "lady can't you control your kid?", walk to the front of the car and lift the hood. After a minute or two, he'd walk back to mom and humbly ask "...uh....lady....where's the battery in this thing?".

Mom would quietly answer: "The battery is in the trunk".



One of the many perils of driving a race car on the street. I won't even mention what is was like for my petite 5'4" mom to push the clutch in on those 4 speed cars!!

K

* one of the assemblers shot a screw through the main wiring harness. Even to this day if you hit the high beams it shorts the whole car out. I suppose sometime in the next 45 years I should get around to fixing that. (lol) In the meantime, we just don't use the high beams.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Our '63 SD Catalina, aluminum front end, four speed car - was pretty much the family car. Dad would race it and if need be, swap the rear gears so they could drive it from Michigan "down home" to Missouri and back. They made that trip a couple times in that car.

In fact, Mike Noun was kind enough to post some video on Youtube of this car for me. You can see it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj0M4DQhXKE

It just occurred to me that these home movies were made in SE Missouri, roughly 700 miles away from home.

I believe Dad made a couple of passes at George Ray's dragstrip while they were down there.

K

[SD421]

Being its Memorial Day, I remembered back in 1996 when Jim came down for the weekend. I had a hunch and was just looking for him online and his obituary popped up.
🥺 Jim and I at the Madras Raceway in 1995

https://www.royhetland.com/obituarie...s-christianson

[sdbob]

I read those stories about Jim Christianson in old 421 club newsletter. I thought also back then having a 63 421SD on the street. Wow! Racing a street hemi,409 corvette,SS Ford. Dave Strickler.