W Humble Posted January 27, 2019 Share Posted January 27, 2019 I would like to ask for some help. I got the new 1:12 die-cast (yeah, boo-hiss!) Pontiac Tempest Super Duty 421 racer for Xmas (from self) and it came with a stock LeMans interior, nothing like one would expect/be required for USAC/NASCAR racing. Fool that I am, I'm thinking about besides detailing the engine compartment, re-doing the inside too. Roll cage, instruments, etc. like Paul Goldsmith's Daytona Challenge 250 winning '63 from Ray Nichels garage. Can anyone assist in finding some good photos of the inside of that car? Again, figuring on some configuration of a roll cage from Plastruct rod, fire extinguisher, safety harness, etc. I don't even know if it ran the stock bench with a kidney pad, or a bucket seat. Sure didn't have carpet, etc.! I figure my task won't be too bad if it is gutted, minimalistic, and I'll have some surplus large-scale interior if any one could put it to good use? Any help would be appreciated, I wrote the first Tempest driveReport (for SPECIAL INTEREST AUTOS) on the Pontiac Tempest, including about 4K words on the '61-61 racing program which I was paid for but didn't see print, back in 1978 or 9. I interviewed Mickey Thompson, Bill Collins of PMD (who built the SD 421 LeMans 'in-house', believe it or not) and a number of other Pontiac movers and shakers. Hemmings, owner of SIA, much later published a Tempest article that was based on mine, even to using the same photos of a '51 sedan, without credit to me. Well, it was their property, but... ! Oh, the Goldsmith car outran some GS BB Corvettes, Ferrari GTO's, and Jags, and immediately after was bought by Mercedes and taken to Stutgart Unterurkheim to analyze; never seen again!! I sort of lost interest in USAC/NASCAR GN stuff after GM pulled out of racing and Fireball Roberts died in a F.O.R.D. Wick Humble Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkJ Posted January 27, 2019 Share Posted January 27, 2019 Wick, Sounds like a tough task. I would say just google it and see what you get. If not, just look at the way Nascar racers did their interiors back then and do it that way. If you do the project, I for one would be interested in watching a W.I.P. on the subject. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkJ Posted January 27, 2019 Share Posted January 27, 2019 There seems to be plenty of pictures in google of Goldsmiths 63 tempest. Here is just one of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agent G Posted January 27, 2019 Share Posted January 27, 2019 A 1960 Pontiac that won the Daytona 500. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agent G Posted January 27, 2019 Share Posted January 27, 2019 A 63 Chevrolet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W Humble Posted February 13, 2019 Author Share Posted February 13, 2019 Thanks! I'm sorry I didn't score an interior view or two when I wrote the article in 1979; lost opportunity. Probably could have still bought a Powershift Tempest for sane money back then! As Ziggy said: "When my ship came in, I was waiting at the airport!" I imagine I'll just do as suggested and make a generic interior; single bucket with harness, typical roll cage (nothing like today!) big tach, extringuisher, etc. I feel funny messing with die-casts, tho I have two Caddies that I've re-done, one '59 ragtop as a Larry Watson burgundy/silver 'kustom' and one '58 Eldo as an apochrypal "Stray Cats" semi-rat (flat black, moons, and decals/guitar, etc.) to add some small creative input. Laugh: the '58 engine came with a beautiful set of 12 plug wires! Good for my phantom V-12 Hemi in a restored JoHan '61 Chrysler (with transplanted Mono Trans-Am roof and glass!) that I bought new and customized Barris-style; awful! I have a d/c Datsun 240Z which I re-did to match my own resto-mod '71; it has been signed by Pete Brock and John Morton -- wish I'd had it when I spent two days with Mr. K (Katayama; Datsun legend) 15 years ago!! Wonder what to do with the remainder of the Tempest interior? Any needs out there? Thanks again! Wick H Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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