That engine, the Pontiac OHC 6, saw its showroom debut for the 1966 model year as the base engine in the Tempest and LeMans. Here's a magazine advertisement for those cars, featuring a snazzy ...

A look back at the OHC 6-powered Pontiac Tempest. ... John Ethridge likened Pontiac's six to the XK-series Jaguar engine, ... which is remarkable for any six-cylinder these days.

As Leno tells it, then-Pontiac boss John DeLorean was a fan of the Jaguar E-Type (which launched in 1961 with a dual overhead cam inline-6) and wanted to build a competitor.

Did you know that the Pontiac Firebird had an overhead cam engine? No, the Lotus designed LT5 with those exotic dual overhead cams from the Corvette ZR-1 never nestled under the screaming chicken ...

Because while the four-barrel OHC-6 came with 215 horsepower, the 326-cubic-inch (5.3-liter) V8 that was also available in the LeMans in 1967 was rated at 250 horsepower.

The first Pontiac inline six had an L-head design and 186.5 cubic inches of displacement. By 1932, it had grown to 200.4 cubic inches and could produce 65 horsepower.

The 215 cubic inch inline 6-cylinder producing 140 horsepower was a more common overhead valve engine, not the 230 cubic inch Pontiac overhead cam 6-cylinder power plant that would be introduced ...

That engine, the Pontiac OHC 6, saw its showroom debut for the 1966 model year as the base engine in the Tempest and LeMans. Here's a magazine advertisement for those cars, featuring a snazzy ...