Pontiac Bonneville: 1959 The beginning of Pontiac excitement

摘要

As this issue goes to press, General Motors is busily off-loading its last 450 new Pontiacs, most of them G6s. It's hardly a fitting final act for a brand that gave us some of the twentieth century's most memorable cars - the GTO, the Trans Am, and the Grand Prix, to name but a few. But Pontiac could have met a similarly ignoble end six decades ago, and thus never have even lived to see its glory days, if not for the success of one man, Semon E. "Bunkie" Knudsen, and one car, the 1959 Pontiac Bonneville. For much of the 1950s, Pontiac was the weakest link in an otherwise indomitable GM juggernaut. The brand's reputation for conservatism didn't jibe with postwar America's craving for glitz, glamour, and speed. Knudsen, an engineer and son of a former GM president, was named Pontiac's general manager in 1956 and given five years to effect a turnaround. Knudsen knew that Pontiac couldn't justify its existence as merely a nicer Chevrolet. Buick had already carved out a niche as the luxurious brand of choice among doctors; Oldsmobiles were renowned for their sophistication. Pontiacs, Knudsen decided, would be sporty. He immediately ordered the brand's theretofore trademark (but frumpy) chrome striping on the hood and the trunk removed from every car and added a new top-of-the-line model, the Bonneville, to attract younger buyers. In defiance of an auto-industry gentlemen's agreement banning racing, Knudsen committed to factory-backed NASCAR and NHRA teams, which soon enjoyed huge success thanks largely to the brand's newly developed V-8. He also assembled a team of hard-core auto enthusiasts, from a young John De Lorean on the engineering side to ad man and drag racer Jim Wangers.