Jul
8
Back in 1961, Pete Estes replaced “Bunkie” Knudsen as Pontiac’s Chief (no pun) and John DeLorean joined as chief engineer. The stage was set for the muscle car wars. Pontiac’s first entry was the 1962 Grand Prix hardtop sports coupe, which was more of a high-powered personal car. Read More
Jun
29
Our title should not be confused with the age old tradition of kicking the odometer back a few thousand miles. Sadly a common practice back in the day. We apply that phrase to what you experience when you open up the door and get in this pristine, time capsule Firebird with a scant 2,600 original miles. We sometimes call cars like this “reference cars’. We do that because restorers, concours judges can use a fine specimen like this to know what is correct on a particular model. Read More
Jun
28
General Motors banned racing involvement in 1963 severely hampering their ability to promote high performance vehicles. The engineers and marketing folks in the Pontiac Division knew they had to wage war against Ford’s Mustang and how they were going to do that became a big topic of conversation around the water cooler. They decided to do battle on the street. There are 3 fathers of what would become the GTO – Russell Gee, Bill Collins and John DeLorean. DeLorean is credited with selecting the name. At first, it was an option package for the redesigned Tempest. It was very successful. No matter how Pontiac pushed the international sounding GTO name, loyal followers called it the Goat. Go figure. Read More
Jun
11
When you offer a Vintage Bambi Airstream, you need to come up with a cool ride to pull it. We looked at a few candidates that were perhaps a bit more powerful but we kept going back to this Safari. The 1955 Safari was built using shared body components from Chevy’s Nomad station wagon. Read More
Jun
6
We are big fans of the traditional American station wagon. So when someone sends us one for consideration, we are both excited yet careful. There happens to be lots of junk out there passing themselves off as a classic wagon. Read More
May
13
We had a Coupe version of these big 2+2 Pontiacs with 421 and Tri-power. The last one no longer had the Tri-power but this one does. In addition to the Tr-power it has convertible top, a 4-speed transmission and the very desirable 8-lug wheels. Read More
May
1
This one knocked our socks off. We really like the design of the mid-sixties Pontiacs. These are big cars proud of the fact they have a very wide-stance. Sorry, meant wide-track. Senator Larry Craig has the wide-stance if we recall correctly. If this was some restored car we would like it but probably not agree to offer it to our readers. But that isn’t the case. This is a 27,000 mile documented, original car. That means nothing is new here. Read More
Apr
23
Tin Woodies replaced real woodies when manufacturers figured out it was easier to build cars out of steel. Woodies are beautiful works of art but they were difficult to maintain when new and very expensive to restore. We surmise that after tin woodies came the vinyl woodies that many more of us are familiar with. Read More
Apr
22
The wild mid-60s created the most extraordinary American cars. It was the muscle car era and it didn’t burn itself out. It was forced out by the government after the oil embargo. And then there were the clean air acts that required technology to leap forward rather clumsily. We went from the Boss 429 to the Mustang II – a favorite of Charlie’s Angels and nobody else. Pontiac was a real player in this era and I guess we thank DeLorean and two colleagues for the idea to stuff big V-8s into a mid-size chassis. Maybe he was influenced by Carroll Shelby transplanting a V-8 into a tiny British AC Ace? Anyway, GM’s use of the GTO badge miffed il Commendatore Ferrari. He couldn’t stop them, preferring to smirk at the notion the Pontiac was anything more than a poser. The editors at Car & Driver performed a shoot-out between the 2 GTOs for a cover story. It was a great story. Read More
Apr
10
We posted a Bubble Top Chevy 409 last week to rave reviews. It was a stunning example. Well Pontiac had a version of the same body and it is equally breathtaking. Look at the length of the front and rear sections of this car. And the greenhouse is so well proportioned. Today’s find is a rust free 1961 Pontiac Bonneville 2 door Hardtop Sports coupe ‘Bubble Roof’ in original factory ‘Jadestone Green Metallic’ color paint with original ‘Shelton Ivory’ roof. Read More
Mar
26
For 1936, Pontiac retains the distinctive “Silver Streak” chrome grill first introduced in ’35. Business Week magazine, “Salesmen will build their persuasive stories around the idea that the Pontiac is built to last 100,000 miles.” Read More
Mar
17
In the scheme of things, the decline of the muscle car shouldn’t make history so its demise isn’t on any list of important happenings of 1973. Here’s why. The Vietnam War ended, Watergate, Oil Embargo, Roe vs. Wade, World Trade Center completed, and the Yom Kippur War to name of few events that got in the way. One event did impact the muscle car’s extinction – the Arab oil embargo. Gas prices skyrocketed to .60 cents a gallon (a dozen eggs cost .45 cents) – if you could find gas. Read More
Mar
16
We’ve had a Woodie before – a real one but this is our first Vinyl Woodie. After they stopped making real Woodies for practical reasons, they began making fake ones called “Tin Woodies”. We like to think wagons built in the 50s are true Tin Woodies. But these Vinyl-clad beasts from the late 60s might fall into that category. They are quite popular now as boomers age and remember being carted around in them in the rear facing seats. Read More
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