Tuesday, July 28, 2009
In the late 20’s Pontiac joined GM, and it
was positioned between Chevrolet and Oldsmobile in price and status. Its image of value and style made it an
instant success and everybody was happy.
However, after WWII and into the 50’s, Pontiac had become stagnant and
had begun to be viewed as an “unexciting” car that appealed to “older”
buyers. You know…your GRANDMOTHERS
car! The image was totally out of
touch with the up and coming young market that wanted zip and style and power.
In the Mid-50’s top GM management realized
the problem and was seriously considering killing Pontiac and folding it into
the Oldsmobile division. But
there was a faint glimmer of hope. There was one young executive that thought he could do
something with the ailing Pontiac division. So GM brass decided to give Semon “Bunkie” Knudsen 5 years
to try and turn Pontiac around. Five
years isn’t much considering it takes a couple of years just to get anything
new out on the market! Undaunted, Knudsen immediately assembled a group
of young, aggressive hot-rodders like Pete Estes and John Delorean and they
immediately went racing with the Bonneville and the Grand Prix cars, and hooked
up with hot rod drivers like Mickey Thompson and Fireball Roberts and suddenly
Pontiac was a force to be reckoned with on any racetrack.
Then it happened, GM pulled the rug right
out from under everyone, by banning ANY motorsports involvement in 1963. The stupidity of this decision has never
been fully explained or understood, but the results were predictable. It was a HUGE blow to all of GM and
their performance and racing divisions. Pontiac was especially hard hit,
because it disconnected Pontiac from its most successful program -- racing. The guys at Pontiac (Knudsen, Delorean,
Estes) were more than a little ticked off about the GM’s decision because they
were just starting to make some real progress with Pontiac, and now it looked
like all of that was going to go down the toilet with a giant sucking sound. The
die was cast and Pontiac knew they had to do SOMETHING or they were going to
die. Little did we know, all that
high-performance racing mojo was about to spill out onto the street and create
an American original called the Muscle Car.
As fate would have it, one day John
Delorean had a new 64 Tempest on the lift and was lamenting the fact that GM
had a 330ci displacement limit on midsized cars. One of the mechanics made the comment that the 389ci engine
would drop right in the car.
WHAT?!? There was a moment
of silence as those words hung in the air like a fat peach waiting to be
picked. A 389 in a TEMPEST?!? It was unheard of! it was insane! It was AGAINST THE RULES!!! All eyes were locked on Delorean as he
stared at the car…what would he do?
Delorean grinned…he was just enough of a
renegade to take the plunge, and throw his career on the line. Besides, he was still ticked off about
the racing ban. So he gave the go-ahead to load the 389 with a tri-power, stuff
a 4spd behind it, and shove it into the unsuspecting Tempest. Of course what he ended up with a
tire-shredding street machine that took his breath away. He knew he HAD to get something like
this on the market for all those young hot rodders out there!
So in one of the greatest gambles in
automotive history, Delorean dubbed the car the GTO (to give the finger to
Ferrari) and he and Estes basically “sneaked” the car past all the GM red tape
to get it on the market. By the
time GM got wind of the GTO, it was already selling like hot cakes with more
orders rolling in like waves. So instead
of firing Delorean, GM gave him a raise, and began to look for ways to get Chevrolet
into this new Muscle Car game.
All through the Muscle Car wars Pontiac was
at the leading edge. The Firebird,
GTO Judge, Trans Am, Bonneville, these were all great cars and they were
roaming the streets. Everybody
knew that you’d better be on your game and have your car tuned right if you
wanted to mix it up with a Pontiac.
As the 70’s rolled in with its fuel
shortages, and government regulations, (sound familiar?) the whole Muscle Car
movement came to a screeching halt.
In just a few short years, performance cars had all but vanished from
the scene, and Pintos, Vegas, and AMC Pacers puttered around loaded with
environmentalists pretending to save the planet. It was a dark time in automotive history, and everyone at
Ford, Chevy, Dodge, and all the others were trying to please the government and
put out those “responsible” cars. But
the old renegade spirit at Pontiac was not dead yet, and in a last act of
defiance, they stuffed a big engine into a black Trans Am, plastered a big
gaudy bird all over the hood, and gave it to a bunch of southern boys to make a
movie about running bootleg Coors beer over state lines. The result was “Smokey and the Bandit”
and the automotive world has never been the same since. That movie and that black Trans Am is
credited with not only reviving the auto industry at that time, but actually
changing the attitude of the American public from one of pessimism, fear and
worry, to one of confidence, laughter, and perseverance. What an amazing thing for a car to do!
From there on it became a slippery slope for
Pontiac, as bad designs, mismanagement, stupid ideas, and other big business BS
began to take their toll over the years.
So it really comes as no
surprise that GM is going to axe them. We all know that time marches on and nothing lasts forever
and we are OK with that. But
it’s only right to give credit where credit is due, and there is a huge amount
of credit that goes to the cars and the company that gave us so much hot
rodding history…….Thanks Pontiac……you may be gone, but your cars and legacy
will live on and on!
I definitely invite everybody to share
their Pontiac stories here.
Whether you loved ‘em, hated ‘em, owned one, never owned one,
whatever….. Let us
know what you think and have to say about them.
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