In the late 1950's - early 60's in the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota area, a guy named (insert name here) built / owned a '31 Model A slant windshield Fordor hotrod that was fairly radical for its time. It retained the fenders, black with white interior, blown Cadillac with (I think) a Hydramatic or B & M Hydrostick. Also, lots of chrome, Halibrand wheels with slicks, etc. all nicely done and it was named Tempest II. It appeared in some car shows in the early 60's ... I'm not sure if it ever got any magazine ink. He cemented its reputation as a bad-ass hotrod by laying down about 15 car-lengths of rubber when leaving a shopping center car show in West St. Paul. The marks were still visible a long time after! The last I heard of it was about 1979 or '80. I saw what was alleged to be the body shell in primer at Greg Fleury's shop in Prior Lake. I'm just curious if it has survived in any recognizable form. I generally don't pay much attention to "moredoors", but this was an exception ... sort of like the homely girl with the Victoria's Secret catalog model body: I tend to overlook the shortcomings. Can anyone fill in the blanks? Former members of the Amblers, Torquers or other area clubs might have known the car and/or owner, although I don't know that the owner had any club affiliation.
my dad was in the Innocents Minneapolis car club and he remembers the car very well. i have large display ofthe Innocents Minneapolis car club and i have the Tempest II Hot Rod magazine feature in the display. The owner of the Tempest II was not in the Innocents Minneapolis car club. George Lang was the owner and driver of the Tempest II.
A PM has been sent to Sport Fury. Thank you all for the reponse ... I was surprised when this popped up since it's been a while since I posted it. I'm still hopefull that someone has some current information on Tempest II. Probably my foggy memory (it's only been about 50 years !!) but I always thought that George Lange was in one of the St.Paul clubs.
your best bet would to contact the gopher state timing association. they have a facebook group. another facebook group that could help is the minnesota street rod associaton facebook group. i have no doubt you will find it.
Bill, Sportfury, I'm hijacking your thread here a little but would either of you know any history on this '32 and the Rythym Rod's Club in MPLS? http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=848240 Thanks, Eric
I'm pretty sure George was in the Torquers in Minneapolis. He died in a car accident at a young age. The car was also a winner a the drag strip. A true triple threat. I have no idea what happened to the car but I have often thought about cloning it.
bobw: Thanks for the great pictures (and for correcting my Mad Cow diseased memory on George's club affiliation). The car looks somewhat dated by today's standards, but Tempest 2 was a pretty radical ride for the Twin Cities in 1960 or so. Bill
showed in Fargo ND in 1961 at the Toppers Show in the fargo Civic I was 16 when I took the pics with a Brownie starflash thanks mom for the ride and admidt $
Thanks for posting ... especially the interior shot. Are the Toppers still an active club? I knew of them back in the early 60's when I lived in the Midwest ... pretty large club as I recall.
The car was WAY before my time, but my mom and her family grew up about 3 blocks from the shopping center that was there, "Signal Hills". It's still there in a reduced form. The land development project took out most of the strip mall about 20 years ago, a section of it still exists though. I'm guess the street that the Tempest 2 left it's mark would've most likely been Robert St. My mom talked about stoplight races on Robert St. from the 50's-60's.
some of the guys in GSTA told me a lot about him and also a dennis heapy on FB did shows with George in 1961 George was killed when a car on a overpass come don on his car below and killed him as I was told GSTA had a web site and a face book presence but most knowledgeable members are in their 70s or above
I'm drawing a blank on this. I started going to the GSTA and the other Twin Cities shows in about 1960, but I don't recall the Rythym Rods. I may have seen the '32, but that's a long time ago!
The owner was George Lang, a member of the Torquers club. Here is a pix with the 1st incarnation with the Cad/671/2port. He was a dealer for Engle cams and several of us bought cams/kits thru him back then 58-61.
Long story short, according to Rosco Gordy: Tempest 2 was rebuilt into a street rod in the late 70's - early 80's by someone in the Twin Cities. The car was sold about 3 years later at the NSRA nats to an out-of-state buyer. After that, the trail goes cold ... anyone have a more recent history on (the now former) Tempest 2? BobF: Thanks for the engine picture and details on George. I always remembered the car as having a blower ... I'm glad that my memory isn't completely gone!
Billsill45 - I recall George having a 471 with 6-2's on it prior to the 671 and Hilborn 2 port, can't find the pix now, taken probably at a GSTA (armory) or St.Paul auditorium show. I don't recall him actually racing it at MN Dragways, maybe the Tar Pits (Twin City Spdwy) with the blower and Hilborn setup. I know John Foster did allow him to make some "exhibition" runs but wouldn't allow a class or number to be assigned due to no roll bar.
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