Pontiac Tempest LeMans 1963

Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in all the CAD-inspired, CNC-machined wonderment of contemporary automotive technology and lose track of what hot rodding is really about: having fun with cars, exercising your own skills and creativity, and leaving long black marks all over everything. Cars like Rob Freyvogel's '63 Tempest bring it back home for us again. Using parts he scrounged from eBay and swap meets, Rob made huge power from a big-block Chevy running E98 ethanol fuel. The key pieces are a pair of remote-mounted turbos borrowed from a Cummins diesel application and a trunk-mounted charge cooler. But while the approach is low-buck, it is by no means low-tech-Rob also cooked up a home-brewed EFI system. The best result at the track so far is 9.86 at 149 mph. Just to have a little fun, Rob cloaked all this homebuilt tricknology in an oxidized red paint job and a set of ashtray hubcaps-and to complete the scam, the engine is painted Pontiac blue and wears a 326 air cleaner. So as far as you know, this is just another derelict '63 Tempest shambling down the street . . . that is, until Rob stands on the throttle and lays down some big, black stripes. -Bill McGuire