Just...wow...ebay find

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=110306170567

Cliffs notes version:

Guy lists 1963 Pontiac Tempest, ex drag car, pretty ratty Through the help of some honest ebayers and investigation car is now believed to be one of 6 ever built (and possibly only 4 remaining) Lemans Super Duty coupes.

Bidding has gone appropriately insane.

nice, but i would rather spend insane amounts on a '64 GTO convertable. Or spend less and clone one using an LSx

Wow...the seller aquired it through a storage lien!! What a find.

Wow... talk about a "barn find"....

That's amazing. We can all hope for such luck...

Let's say it sells for a cool $100k - which it may very well do at this rate. I would take the money and buy myself a Porsche GT3 and put a picture of the old car up on the wall :) That's a hell of a trade-in.

Another reason to bring home rusty project cars

What a story! Started out at $500 and is now at 80K with one guy offering 160K to end it early. And the car is essentially a basket case with no motor! Just goes to show ya these type of finds are still out there! Amazing.

That car has been THE topic of discussion on the Pontiac boards - it's pretty much the find of the decade. Restored it may be worth $600k.

Crazy. I don't understand paying that sort of money for a car in that sort of condition.

Also, the seller doesn't seem at all grateful for what he's come across... and it's only $ to him, he was selling it anyway...

I took some photos of one of the other surviving SD Lemans a couple years ago, they're posted on this thread: http://forums.performanceyears.com/forums/showthread.php?t=487583 This car was originally owned by George Delorean, John Z. Delorean's brother. At the time of these photos two years ago the car had just been sold for reportedly $650,000.

As you probably know the 61-63 Tempests and Lemans had a transaxle that was somewhat based on the Corvair transaxle. The Super Duty cars used a special version called a 'Powershift', which what essentially two Powerglide transmissions in series along with a clutch. As you can imagine, they weren't very durable when put behind a 500hp V8.

stuart in mn wrote: I took some photos of one of the other surviving SD Lemans a couple years ago, they're posted on this thread: http://forums.performanceyears.com/forums/showthread.php?t=487583 This car was originally owned by George Delorean, John Z. Delorean's brother. At the time of these photos two years ago the car had just been sold for reportedly $650,000.

Hard to believe the car in your pictures is worth $650,000. Also hard to believe that a car worth $650,000 would be displayed without being roped off.

**Not doubting your figures...just amazed at what some folks will pay for some cars.

One could argue that any old car isn't worth that much money, but it's all about the provenance and rarity, and supply and demand. Look at what Shelby Mustangs sell for, and outside of the name and a few strategic modifications they really aren't much more than an old Ford....

As far as not being roped off - the local Italian car club has a show each summer, and one of the members has a Ferrari 250 swb. He drives it to the show, parks it and walks away. I suppose this thing is worth a couple million.

stuart in mn wrote: Also hard to believe that a car worth $650,000 would be displayed without being roped off.

Also hard to believe that a $650k car would be displayed with a roll of paper towels as a hood-prop.

Edit: I can not get the picture to post but it is found here http://forums.performanceyears.com/forums/showthread.php?t=487583

jrw1621 wrote:

stuart in mn wrote: Also hard to believe that a car worth $650,000 would be displayed without being roped off.

It has an aluminum front end with hardly no hood hardware. I would not let anything much more substantial then a roll of paper towels near the aluminum front end on any of the early drag cars...

ends in 8 hours. over 85g's right now

The guy should have thought better about what time it was ending, although i guess if you want it you will stay up to bid. It'll be kinda interesting to watch the last 5 minutes of the auction, i bet.

Keeps going up as the end nears. $90.5K now.

Wow. 226.

damn, i missed it. I wanted to keep hitting refresh to watch how fast it went up.

yeah I was watching this the last minute, it was 90.5 until the last 20 secs then when I reloaded again it was $226,521.63. Crazy.

Shot up in the last 20 seconds, that guy must be on cloud nine !!

Just wow. $226k. How cool would it be to be standing in this guy's shoes with a find like this?

Interesting sniping action at the very end.

stuart in mn wrote: One could argue that any old car isn't worth that much money, but it's all about the provenance and rarity, and supply and demand. Look at what Shelby Mustangs sell for, and outside of the name and a few strategic modifications they really aren't much more than an old Ford.... As far as not being roped off - the local Italian car club has a show each summer, and one of the members has a Ferrari 250 swb. He drives it to the show, parks it and walks away. I suppose this thing is worth a couple million.

It might be worth a couple of million, but you can't do more than, say, $50k worth of damage to it. The VIN tag is the valuable part.

$226k for a rusty old barn find. Amazing.

Holy cow!