1967 Pontiac Tempest - Cammer

I don't know if it's more amazing that this 1967 Pontiac Tempest has never been cloned into a GTO or that it still has its original six-cylinder engine. The period correct Crager's and heavy duty leaf springs are amazing too. 

 

In a day and age when V-8 engines ruled the roost, Pontiac's overhead-cam six was certainly a horse (power) of a different color.  Something tells me that had this '67 been powered by Chevrolet's more mundane six-cylinder engine it would have been tossed decades ago. 

Also known as the "Pontiac Cammer", Pontiac built them from 1966 through 1969 and dropped them in into the base models of Tempest's and Firebird's. Why? That's a good question seeing that Chevrolet's  six had been the base engine in the Tempest from 1964 and 1965. And after the Cammer was dropped, Pontiac went back to using it as well.  

Legend has it or not, and the story varies somewhat depending on who you're getting it from, but the idea for "OHC-6" stems from the early '60's brainchild of the then head of Pontaic's Advanced Engineering team, John DeLorean. Yes, that DeLorean. DeLorean championed a Pontiac sports car that was similar in concept to Chevrolet's Corvette with one of the big differences being instead of being powered by a V-8 like the Corvette was, it would have a six-cylinder engine. Ah, but not just any six; Mr. DeLorean implored his team to think outside the box and take inspiration from Mercedes-Benz. 

GM executives ex-nayed DeLorean's Pontiac sports car known as the Banshee, although many styling attributes of it found its way into the 1968 Corvette. They did, oddly enough, green light  it's engine. At least for a little while. 

Why the expensive and complicated cammer made it into production is a head scratcher considering that it, save for a performance setup that was available on it, didn't provide significantly stronger performance than the Chevrolet-six did. Also, Pontiac's "base" 326 cubic-inch V-8 engine was cheap as dirt and made more horsepower and torque. Engineering for the sake of engineering's sake? Perhaps and there's nothing inherently wrong with that but it ain't a good way to run a railroad. With few takers for it, easy to fathom why it wasn't around very long.  

The Pontiac OHC-6 is now little more than a footnote in the annals of GM engine history; if anything its fiberglass reinforced timing belt rather than a chain helped advance the state-of-the-art of overhead camshaft engines. Personally, I bristle at the idea of separating this car from it's original engine after all these years - regardless of its unique and different pedigree. Perhaps the series of owners its had over the years has felt the same way.