Dream Cars: 2014 Pontiac Tempest |
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Topics: Pontiac Tempest
Opinions expressed by Bill Crittenden are not official policies or positions of The Crittenden Automotive Library. You can read more about the Library's goals, mission, policies, and operations on the About Us page.
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Bill Crittenden
January 19, 2014
This is one of my favorite Dream Cars because its so buildable, and when finished a truly usable car for daily driving. The parts are all there, the money just isn't right now.
So, basically, by now most die-hard Pontiac guys have seen Trans Am Depot's new Pontiac bodies for Chevrolet Camaros. The most popular seems to be the Bandit Trans Am since its lines fit so well over the new Camaro's. But they also built one called the 6T9 Goat, a body that stretched the styles of a 1969 GTO over the frame of the modern Camaro. It's not accurate, but it looks damn good anyway.
Well, I'm not a fan of doing the same things everyone else does, and I am a fan of plain Jane cars from years past. So here's my build:
To make the car drivable for the whole family and fun for summer road trips, I'd base mine on a V6, automatic transmission Camaro convertible. Now, you can't go around calling that a GTO, let alone one with Judge stripes!
With the 6T9 body kit, painting will have to be done. Nothing too outrageous here. I think I'd like it done in a "classic" color, something you don't see around the modern Honda showroom. My personal choice would be Mayfair Maize (light yellow). Crystal Turquoise looks nice, but not with a black top. Of course, I also would like painting it in the Library colors of white (Cameo White) with green wheels, but that didn't go over well with the rest of the family.
Yeah, you can't throw GTO badges and Judge stripes across a Mayfair Maize V6. Here's where the fun detail comes in: badging it a Tempest Sprint. Classic Tempest Sprints are rare animals in the modern age, and seeing a V6 in original condition, unchanged into a GTO clone, is an attention getter in any group of Pontiac guys who know what they're looking at.
It's the sort of detail that separates the car a casual muscle car fan would enjoy from the kind a Pontiac connoisseur would appreciate, all in an easily drivable drop top package that we can drive to work on the weekdays and pile into, aim in a general direction, and go exploring in on a weekend.