Meet the 1963 Pontiac Tempest Super Duty, the World's Rarest Drag-Spec Wagon

The company's Super Duty program kicked off in 1961, two years after Pontiac quietly developed a race-spec upgrade for its 389-cubic-inch (6.4-liter) V8.

Due to all GM brands being banned from racing following the 1957 AMA gentleman's agreement, Pontiac offered this upgrade as an over-the-counter package in 1960.

Pontiacs fitted with this mill won seven NASCAR races and the NHRA National Championship that year. In 1961, a revised package saw Ponchos dominate NASCAR with 30 wins in 52 events. Pontiacs started scoring more wins at the drag strip too.

With its racing program on a high note, Pontiac began working on a larger 421 V8. However, the NHRA revised the rule book for 1962, mostly to prevent the new Super Duty engine from finding its way into stock classes. To counter this move, Pontiac decided to install the 421 in regular-production cars at the factory.

The company started out with the full-size Catalina, but some engines also found their way into the Grand Prix.

It's believed that Pontiac built around 240 Super Duty engines, some of which were fitted in a handful of lightweight Catalinas before GM ordered both Pontiac and Chevrolet to end their factory-backed racing efforts in early 1963.

And this is where the Tempest came in. As it turns out, Pontiac engineers found out of the impending GM ban on factory racing in late 1962.

Not wanting to let the SD 421 go to waste, they spent Christmas putting together about a dozen Tempests with the race-spec V8. It was a rather awkward choice.

While the Tempest spent the majority of its time in dealerships as a midsize, the first-gen model, built from 1961 to 1963, was a compact. Powered by a four-cylinder and a selection of underpowered V8s, it lacked the sporty image that the larger Pontiacs enjoyed.

But because it was smaller, the Tempest was also significantly lighter than the Catalina and Grand Prix. So why struggle to build lightweight full-size cars when you can use an already featherweight compact, right?

On top of that, the Tempest boasted a near-perfect 50/50 weight distribution thanks to its rear-mounted transaxle.

Word has it Pontiac built 12 Tempests with the Super Duty V8. However, not all of them were LeMans coupes.

For some reason, Pontiac took the high road and used six engines in four-door station wagon variants of the Tempest. Thus creating the fastest factory-built grocery getter of its time.

The Super Duty fitted in these wagons was identical to the mill found in the Catalina. Using a four-bolt, 3.25-inch main block, a 4.09-inch bore, and forged-steel crank and rods, forged-aluminum pistons, a pair of four-barrel carburetors, and an aluminum intake, the Super Duty was underrated at 405 horsepower. In reality, the engine produced more than 460 horses.

An exotic sighting at the drag strip, the Tempest Super Duty wagon turned low 12-second quarter-mile runs in the 1963 NHRA Winter Nationals. Impressively enough, the grocery getter was a full second quicker than the Catalina Super Duty and as fast as the lightweight "Swiss Cheese" variant of the full-size.

Come 2021, and it seems that only one of the six wagons that left the Pontiac assembly line in 1962 survived. The car in question is the famous Union Park Wagon, the only car that wasn't sold to professional racers across the country.

While the whereabouts of the other five wagons (as well as most coupe models too) remain unknown, the Union Park car has been carefully restored and features all the correct and incredibly rare factory racing equipment.

Having spent many years in the famed Randy Williams Collection, the Super Duty wagon was last seen in the spotlight in 2010, when it was auctioned off for a whopping $450,000. And until other Tempest Super Duty wagons surface, it will remain the rarest and meanest grocery-getter built in the 1960s.