'64 Pontiac Tempest Trans Am car--"The Gray Ghost"

[Terry Jessee]

I was digging through some stuff, rearranging my kit stash, when I discovered this conversion kit again. I got it last year, I think.

It's Herb Adams' '64 Pontiac Tempest that Bob Tullius drove during the '71 Trans Am season. It overheated a lot, but it was very fast when it ran right.

Here's a shot of it essentially as it exists today. Funny story about the car is that it was Adams' wife's daily driver, and he talked her into letting him build a race car with it. The work was done by a small crew of Pontiac engineers at the time.

The car was painted silver and was called "The Gray Ghost." Note that in these photos it's a hardtop.

There was a conversion kit produced. The story I get is that only about 25 of these kits were cast. The kit includes the modified body (note the door post), hood, bumpers and grill, and some other small parts. So far I've accumulated some Minilites from Reliable Resin, and a roll bar kit and racing tires from Plastic Performance Products. My example also has a nice set of decals. Once that first run was done, though, that was it. So I'd guess it's "rare" (a term that is way overused).

This is designed to go with AMT's '65 GTO kit. It'll take some grinding on the chassis to get rid of the exhaust system, but I was planning on building a sort of "super" curbside beyond that--maybe an open hood, maybe not.

I've seen photos of one of these built before, but I don't remember where.

Anyway, it's just another one of those projects I'd like to get to.

Terry

[fordsixty]

that is super cool terry. love that GTO. herb adam's test bed for the 1g A-body.

i will be watching this one. keep us posted.

[weasel]

i really like the 'old time' racecars, real cars, not a 'profile' car...

good on ya!!

have fun building it...