Vintage Pontiac Pics

[SS427]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: StealthBird</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
All 630 of the 1957 Bonnevilles were fuel injected, all convertibles, and all of them were loaded up with every available factory option, which again made them the heaviest of the Pontiacs.

The 57's typically sell for $120K-$200K now, one of the most expensive collector cars out there.
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I recently inspected a Black LS6 Chevelle for a customer and there was one of these in the owners collection. NEAT car to say the least and I had never heard of them prior to seeing it.

[StealthBird]

An odd thing about this first year Bonneville is that there's only one pair of Bonneville emblems on the outside of the car, at the rear 1/4 panels. The front fenders and trunk lid had huge &quot;Fuel Injection&quot; script emblems. Considering the Bonneville was a brand new model, you would think Pontiac would want people to know it's called Bonneville. But with all the publicity Chevrolet and Pontiac received about their new fuel injection, just seeing the &quot;Fuel Injection&quot; emblems were enough for the public to know this was the new Pontiac flagship luxury performance car.

[StealthBird]

The 57 Bonneville is also of great historical significance, as it was the car that brought the Pontiac Motor Division out of their stuffy image of the 40's and 50's into the their new role as GM's high performance division. Bunkie Knudsen arrived at Pontiac in 1956, and he immediately changed Pontiac's image. Using the newly revised 1955 Pontiac V8, he began pumping the parts bins full of high-perf equipment, from dual quads to aluminum parts, from drag racing parts to NASCAR items, he quickly transformed Pontiac into GM's high-perf division. For 1957, he brought out the fuel injected Bonneville as a statement.

Keeping this in the theme of this thread (vintage pics), here's the 57 Bonneville at the auto show.

[StealthBird]

The happy newlywed couple, check out what's in the background. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img]

[njsteve]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: StealthBird</div><div class="ubbcode-body">The happy newlywed couple, check out what's in the background. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img] </div></div>

What? Cinderella's two angry step-sisters? [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/naughty.gif[/img]

[StealthBird]

[img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/haha.gif[/img]

[olredalert]

----Stealth,,,If thats an original black Bonny and if the trim was always white then that would be the other black Bonneville. Not the one we yanked out of Chicago as it was black/red, and original paint. Its also possible that a few more black ones got out of the factory than I have been told.....Bill S

[StealthBird]

Here's another rare one from the engine archives.

Pontiac was very experimental back in the early 60's. While the work of their engineers was very advanced, Pontiac didn't have the engineering budget that Chevrolet had. DeLorean and Estes contracted well known drag racers and stock car builders to make super high perf parts for their Pontiac V8's, with the possibility they could use those parts for production, or add them to the Pontiac high performance parts catalog. Pontiac knew that once a part was in their catalog, that part could be considered legal for use in NHRA and NASCAR competition. And if the part(s) caught on, Pontiac could them to their production line.

Legendary NASCAR builder Smokey Yunick was under contract with Pontiac to develop some super high perf parts. With Pontiacs already dominating the 1961-1962 NASCAR season, Yunick turned his attention towards turbos. He came up with was a twin-turbo setup for the 1962 Pontiac 389, and he tested the setup to the tune of 900 hp back in 1961. Pontiac then scheduled a twin turbo setup for the 1962 model year, but canceled the project at the last minute. It was estimated the street version would have been around 550 hp.

These manifolds are dated 06/13/1961.

[StealthBird]

Mickey Thompson was another legendary racer and engine builder under contract by Pontiac. Mickey set the world speed record in his 4-engined Bonneville racer (&quot;Challenger 1&quot back in the 50's, and he also was heavily involved with Pontiac's drag racing program in the early 60's. In fact, Mickey received many of the rare SD421 cars in 1962 and 1963, and wreaked havoc on the dragstrips across the country.

He also developed some very interesting high-perf parts for Pontiacs. His cross-ram and 2x4 intakes were stuff of legend, but he also made some high end parts for Pontiacs. Before the 1964 Chrysler Race Hemi made its debut, and 2 years before the 1966 Street Hemi would hit the streets, Thompson built on Chrysler 1950's Hemi design and built Pontiac Hemi heads for the 1961-1963 389-421 Pontiac engines. Along with those heads, he built blower manifolds, and a host of other racing parts, even aluminum blocks, for Pontiac. The M/T designed Hemi heads were 100 hp stronger than factory Pontiac heads, and Thompson produced over 700 hp in race trim.

When GM's 'no-racing' mandate was passed down in 1963, Thompson went on to sell his parts independently. A lot of M/T Hemi heads were sold, and many still exist today.

[tom406]

Here's my Uncle Terry, circa 1971. Behind him is his Red/Red 1970 GTO 455/4sp convertible with A/C. It was a lightly used, welcome home present to himself upon returning relatively intact from Vietnam, and he traded in his 1968 Coronet R/T that remained in St. Paul MN during his tour. I don't know if you can see it in the downsized photo, but it has &quot;455 cid&quot; callouts on the fender AND &quot;RAM AIR IV&quot; callouts on the hood. Despite his cool rides, my uncle was not particularly a gearhead, and the RAIV hood decals were added by the original owner or dealer.

I was born in '69, and have fond memories of sitting on the console of this car, looking at the Hurst T-handle shifter, and cruising with my uncle to the CLARK station on Hwy 10 in Mounds View, filling up with gas and getting his KOOL cigarettes. I also got him in a bit of trouble with my grandmother, who while babysitting found me collecting grass clippings at the neighbors, putting them in a plastic bag, and informing her that I was gathering it for my uncle. Apparently he had some grass in bags but 3 or 4 year old me worried he was running low......