1964 Tempest an original

Jan 10, 2024

BY BUD WILKINSON | REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

It was 55 years ago that Rick Dufresne's grandfather traded in his 1959 Pontiac Catalina at Weisz Pontiac in Ansonia. He received $1,034 for his trade-in and handed over $1997.38 for a new 1964 Pontiac Tempest in dark blue.

The Tempest came with loads of options: automatic transmission, power steering, power brakes, whitewall tires, a push button radio, remote controlled mirror, two-speed wipers, backup lights, retractable seats and undercoating.

Sales tax on the Tempest was $67.38 and the registration fee was a mere $5.Dufresne, who lives in Naugatuck, has a black-and-white snapshot of himself and his two brothers standing in front of the new Pontiac on Easter in 1964. He also has the original bill of sale for the car, which provides the details of his grandfather's transaction.

Better yet, he also has the actual car, which eventually passed from his grandfather to his father, from whom he bought the Tempest in May 1995 for $1. "My father charged me a dollar so when we went to motor vehicle there was a number on (the bill of sale)," he said last weekend when showing off the automotive heirloom.

It's not a show car. There's a dent in the front grill and the upholstery on the front seat is fraying in one spot; understandable considering that it has nearly 82,000 miles on the odometer.

The Tempest is essentially stock, except for a 350-cubic-inch V-8 engine from a 1971 Pontiac GTO that Dufresne put in it to replace a small factory six-cylinder engine that "couldn't get up a hill," and a minor interior modification made by his grandfather.

"On the dashboard, there's a little hole there. He drilled a hole and wired up a cigarette lighter for grandma — he and grandma were heavy smokers — so she could have her owncigarette lighter; didn't have to reach over to his cigarette lighter. The headliner when I got the car was yellow. The whole headliner was yellow. I squirted it down with 409 and it just oozed nicotine."

Rick Dufresne has owned the 1964 Pontiac Tempest for 24 years. It's primarily used on weekends, including for going to church, and occasionally for taking teenagers to proms. Besides getting a new motor, it also got new paint about year after he acquired it. "(My grandfather) paid $3,032 for the car. I paid $2,500 for the paint job," he said.

The Tempest had been sitting, covered in burlap, when Dufresne and a friend went to look at it at his father's house back in 1995. Dufresne recalled, "There were seeds and feathers and fur and everything everywhere, and I said, ‘Man, what a piece of …’ and he said, ‘Aw, it's beautiful.’

"It certainly needed a paint job. The wheels were old Kmart wire spokes that were rusty. A couple of tires were flat. It needed some work but I drive it every weekend."

The Tempest was Pontiac's base model small car in 1964. The Lemans and GTO models, which had the same body, cost more. It can only be speculated that his grandfather was simply looking for reliable transportation when he bought the car in March 1964. "Back then, I was 13 years old and he was an old guy. He was probably 50. When you’re an old guy at 50, you don't buy a GTO," he said.

One noticeable aspect of the car is the location of the ignition in the dashboard. "The ignition is on the left-hand side and I don't know why it was there. I don't even know if it was there in the GTO. Left-hand side, so I could stand outside and just reach inside and turn the key," Dufresne said.

When Dufresne does take the Tempest to occasional car show, it does get noticed. "Some people don't know what a Tempest was. They know the name GTO. All of the Tempests have been destroyed. They’ve all been crushed at some point. This is a Tempest. Probably a lot more rare than any GTO," he said.