1961 Pontiac Tempest: a compact, and a rare aluminum V8

This record's own dek describes 1961 as the year of Pontiac's new compact Tempest, with a few more than 2,000 built with the optional Buick-built aluminum V8. This record's own overview states that the 1961 Tempest was a compact on a 112-inch wheelbase, with a secondary production summary reporting 98,779 four-cylinder Tempests and 2,004 with the optional Buick aluminum V8, of which 3 V8 cars had a manual transmission and 2,001 had Hydra-Matic.¹

This record's own production notes state that no performance-package counts exist for 1961, and that the Tempest performance story for the year is the V8 option itself. Those same notes observe that the Over-Drive table's two trim totals, 37,393 and 63,390, sum to 100,783, which equals the oldride source's own engine split of 98,779 four-cylinder plus 2,004 V8, but caution that both figures sit in the same Standard Catalog lineage, so the agreement is not independent confirmation.¹

This record's own production notes document an extensive search for a single combined Pontiac Tempest total conducted on 2026-09-25: the Over-Drive PDF was re-fetched and visually reviewed in full, printing only the two trim-level totals already captured here with no combined line, and its page-bottom Production TOTAL of 340,250 covers the whole 1961 Pontiac line, not Tempest alone. The same notes state that the Standard Catalog of Pontiac has no Tempest Total phrase anywhere in the book, and that automobile-catalog.com's production page likewise lists only the already-known figures, leaving the question unresolved with a Pontiac Historic Services request or a period trade digest named as the best remaining sources.²

This record's own production rows document the Tempest Standard trim at 37,393 across three bodies, a 4-door sedan at 22,557, a 2-door sport coupe at 7,432, and a 4-door Safari at 7,404, and the Tempest Custom trim at 63,390 across a 4-door sedan at 40,082, a 4-door Safari at 15,853, and 7,455 LeMans two-door coupes, with this record's own note stating that the Custom total already includes those LeMans coupes. The 37,393 Standard total and the 63,390 Custom total together account for the 100,783 combined figure this record's own notes derive by simple addition, without treating that sum as a sourced claim in its own right.²

This record's own prices section documents six body-and-trim price points, from $2,113 for the Standard sport coupe to $2,884 for the Custom sedan, with the LeMans coupe at $2,297 and the Custom Safari at $2,611. Its own note on the Standard sedan's $2,702 price flags that this figure equals the Catalina 4-door sedan price on the same table, and may be a transcription slip in the compilation rather than the Tempest's own price.²

This record's own specifications section documents a 112-inch wheelbase, a 189.3-inch overall length, and shipping weights ranging from 2,795 lb for the LeMans coupe to 2,980 lb for the Safari, with the 4-door sedan at 2,800 lb sitting between the two. This record's own identification section documents Tempest series 21 for both trims, with body 2119 the 4-door sedan, 2127 the 2-door sport coupe (LeMans coupe in Custom trim), and 2135 the 4-door Safari.²