When I was a kid, car magazines were life. I chewed them up and spit them out as fast as they showed up. My dad’s a Pontiac guy so we got some Pontiac magazines and while I cannot remember the specific title, one of them always had tech stories and features about this guy Nunzi in New York. He was a big guy with kind of poofy hair and a mustache that was industrial strength. As all of this stuff was shot in black and white, the dude had a really interesting presence for kid gawking at his photo. Anyway, year go by and I never really think about this person or any of that stuff and then all of a sudden, I am searching around YouTube and his name floats to the front of my brain. I search Nunzi and son of a gun, I find the video below.
This video is a few years old now and I’m not sure if Nunzi is still messing with Pontiacs, if it still plays with his own cars, or if he has retied to greener pastures but if this was his last project, it is effing awesome on every level. Seriously. What you are looking at here is a 1963 Pontiac Tempest powered by a 145ci “half a 389” Pontiac Super Duty four banger. The engine uses all Pontiac parts. This does not have an Edelbrock head on it, it has an iron Pontiac head on it. It uses a Pontiac crank, a period NASCAR Pontiac AFB four barrel carb, and even a proper Pontiac Super Duty harmonic balancer. The camshaft is aftermarket apparently and we only mention it because we mentioned everything else. The car uses a Jerico four speed that is being shifted with the clutch. Judging by the sound, I THINK this car has a split header on it. It screams good and the thing freaking runs 11s! No nitrous, nothing. Just a really pissed little motor with Pontiac parts!
One other thing I love about this video is the fact that there is a modern four banger car in the other lane. While Nunzi runs solo, you can hear the other machine. It’s engine is a screaming, overhead cam, modern piece of engineering. The 145ci “half a 389” four banger is the opposite. It is a relatively low revving, torque making iron lump.
Boy is this cool!
Brian I think you should post this at least once a month. This car is truly one of the tops of all the cars/race cars/art that I have seen in my life, and that oh so good noise that the Poncho 4cyl makes is better than any dirty movie.
I will keep hoping that Nunzi one day just shows up at my place, gives me the keys to this beauty, and says Happy Birthday Ted..
I think Nunzi’s 63 Tempest is everything you mentioned. Except its a SD 194.5 ci.Trophy 4 cylinder. Just saying and thanks for posting this and the video. High 11:00 second 1/4 ET as fast as a lot of modern day hot rods!
I ran the trophy 4cyl in a ford jeep in 70s and 80s ford baja racing and sand drags, I never lost a drag race and I raced every thing. I punched it to 200ci, run a ran air VI head porter and with dome pistons with a holly 600 and full roller cam, lifters and rockers. Believe me it screams.
I am working on another one now, stroking to not sure what yet between 4 inch and 4.3 inch, depending on rods and piston selection I find. The head is 455HO completely worked over and a larger cam. Will be fun and yes going into a Jeep.