(Because the driveshaft carried straight engine torque rather than multiplied transmission torque, its diameter could be remarkably small, like a transmission input shaft.) 750 inches in diameter and 5.25 inches shorter to make way for a separate clutch shaft inside the bell housing. 650 inches in diameter, while the manual-transmission shaft was. For the automatic-transmission cars, the shaft was 87.25 inches long and. It was constructed in SAE 8660 nickel-chrome-moly alloy, delicately ground, shot-peened, magnafluxed, and coated with a scratch protectant. The driveshaft is in fact a stiff, solid length of steel, but we won’t call it plain. How the driveshaft works is actually far more interesting.Ĭourtesy of eBay, here’s a closer look at the stamped-steel torque-tube housing and the driveshaft that runs inside it. It’s been described as a “giant speedometer cable,” but that’s not accurate either. It’s been called “flexible,” when in fact it’s not (although it is indeed bent). But any similarity ends there it doesn’t function like a rope in any real sense. The Tempest propeller shaft has been described as a “rope drive,” and in side view it does sort of resemble a jump rope with a child holding up either end. And between them, transmitting the power to the rear wheels, was a driveshaft with an obvious bow in the middle that, for many, has seemed to defy understanding ever since.

At the opposite end of the 112-inch wheelbase was a Corvair-based transaxle with swing-axle suspension, highly unorthodox for an American car at the time. Up front, the Tempest Trophy engine was essentially the familiar 389 Pontiac V8 with its left bank removed, creating a 194.5 CID slant four.

1960 issue illustration above) were flabbergasted by its unusual drivetrain. When General Motors unveiled the ’61 Pontiac Tempest in the autumn of 1960, the workbench magazines like Popular Science (Sept. The unusual driveshaft setup on the 1961 Pontiac Tempest has been called a “rope drive” and described as a giant speedometer cable, but how it really works is far more interesting.

1967 pontiac tempest