By Peter M. DeLorenzo
Detroit. That I’ve a deep love of all the pieces Pontiac is well-known. I grew up immersed on this enterprise – proper within the thick of GM’s heyday – and Pontiac performed an important position in each my adolescence and my early promoting profession. That’s why when GM took the chapter capsule in 2008, I used to be crushingly upset to be taught that the Pontiac Division was one of many belongings to be jettisoned. (And Hummer, too, however fortuitously that nameplate has now returned.)
It’s onerous to imagine now, however Pontiac was simply one other GM division again within the mid-50s. It had a lineup of stodgy automobiles, and there was nothing to write down dwelling about. The division existed beneath the GM company umbrella, however it was decidedly missing in nearly all the pieces when in comparison with GM’s different divisions: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and Oldsmobile. However that might all change when Bunkie Knudsen was appointed a GM vp and the division’s common supervisor in July of 1956. Knudsen was given the project to inject some life into the division and enhance gross sales, and he was given carte blanche to do it.
As a reminder, if you happen to have been a GM vp and divisional common supervisor again within the day you have been akin to a potentate working a small nation. GM’s divisional common managers had immense energy with accountability for engineering, manufacturing, gross sales and advertising and marketing. Desirous about that as compared with how issues function at this time, it doesn’t appear actual, as a result of it was so dramatically totally different from at this time’s automobile enterprise it’s like studying from a fairytale e-book. However make no mistake, it was very actual, and GM’s divisional common managers have been like giants roaming the earth, swashbuckling their method by way of the day-to-day of the enterprise whereas making essential, pivotal selections on the fly. Bear in mind, this was a enterprise that debuted new automobiles each fall with new sheet steel and new options to go along with them. Once more, as compared with how issues are completed at this time, it’s simply jaw-dropping to ponder how the enterprise churned again then. Sure, as I’ve mentioned many, many instances earlier than, it was a special time and a special period, however GM’s heyday was actually outstanding in that the company soared due to it, even with the bean counters making an attempt to rein issues in each step of the way in which.
The one area the place GM’s divisional common managers needed to take a step again was when coping with GM Styling, which was run with an iron fist by design legend Invoice Mitchell, who inherited the mantle from Harley Earl. The clashes between Mitchell and GM’s divisional common managers have been legendary, and I’ll save these tales for one more column. However suffice to say, Mitchell received what he wished for probably the most half, even when he needed to play the divisional common managers off in opposition to one another to take action.
However again to Bunkie and Pontiac. His first hires have been two younger and gifted engineers – Pete Estes from Oldsmobile and John Z. DeLorean from Packard. The cost to DeLorean was very particular: get Pontiac into the efficiency enterprise proper now. And since Bunkie was an enormous racing fanatic, all the pieces was on the desk, from NASCAR to pull racing.
And hastily, sizzling Pontiacs filled with large V8s began to point out up all over the place, from Daytona to Pomona. And even in our driveway. Since Bunkie and his spouse have been social associates with my mother and father, Bunkie began sending the most popular Pontiacs to our home particularly for my mother to drive. Starting in the summertime of 1959, we had a sequence of Bonneville and Catalina convertibles that have been all the time vivid pink with a white high and a vivid pink inside. They usually have been all the time outfitted with the most popular Pontiac engine on the time, which at first have been 389 cu. in. V8s with 3×2-barrell carbs, and finally 421 cu.in. V8s. Evidently, my mother cherished her sizzling Pontiacs. (And my brother and I did, too, particularly since he had simply gotten his license and we might “train” mother’s automobiles at each alternative.)
The transformation of the Pontiac Division is a wonderful a part of GM lore. Pontiacs went from being sensible transportation units to a few of the hottest automobiles within the trade. Providing efficiency engineering and styling that simply weren’t accessible wherever else, Pontiac rode a wave of recognition that took the enterprise – and GM – by storm.
I say GM as a result of, do not forget that half about GM’s divisional vice presidents being akin to potentates of their very own international locations? Effectively, that was true, till Pontiac – beneath Bunkie Knudsen’s tutelage – started to upset the pecking order inside the firm. Earlier than Pontiac turned a “downside” for the opposite common managers, the GM divisional hierarchy was clear: Cadillac was up and off to the facet luxuriating in its personal rarified world. Buick was subsequent when it comes to status, with the super-popular Chevrolet sucking up all the air within the room due to its unbelievable gross sales numbers, adopted by Oldsmobile, which simply chugged alongside, after which the moribund Pontiac.
At the least that’s the way in which it used to be earlier than Bunkie and his “pirates” received rolling. Swiftly, issues had modified. Chevrolet, which just about had high-performance advertising and marketing alternatives cornered inside GM, was being critically pushed by Pontiac on all fronts. Chevrolet operatives turned extra incensed with every Pontiac foray into their territory, and the intramural battles between the 2 divisions spilled over all the way in which to GM’s vaunted 14th ground, with whining Chevrolet executives complaining to high GM execs that Pontiac was intentionally encroaching on Chevy’s territory. As you possibly can think about, this didn’t sit properly with Knudsen and DeLorean & Co. The growing gross sales numbers, nonetheless, have been in Pontiac’s favor so GM’s high execs just about let Pontiac go, which added much more gas to Chevy’s fireplace.
Then, in 1963, when GM issued its official ban in opposition to the participation in racing as company coverage (a monumentally chicken-shit choice, by the way in which), the divisional common managers needed to comply. (That is when Zora Arkus-Duntov, fairly than destroying the Corvette Grand Sports activities, delivered them to trusted racer associates of the corporate, for mainly free. And the corporate’s deeply embedded relationship with Jim Corridor’s Chaparral automobiles went fully underground.)
The little-known collateral injury from that anti-racing ban was a GM inside edict that prohibited sure sized V8 from being put in “smaller” automobiles, which is a joke contemplating these smaller automobiles have been large by at this time’s requirements. The Chevrolet operatives dutifully complied with the edict, whereas Pontiac operatives, led by DeLorean and Invoice Collins – the gifted engineer who deserves many of the credit score for this subsequent piece of automotive historical past – determined to go in one other route. Earlier than the racing ban, Collins had been busy stuffing Pontiac’s 389-cu.in. V8s into “intermediate” Le Mans our bodies, and the end result was, evidently, magical. However when the edict took impact, Pontiac was particularly ordered not to stuff a V8 right into a Le Mans to make it into a brand new Pontiac mannequin.
Then, a little bit of genius. Pontiac operatives determined to get across the ban by making the “GTO” a brand new choice package deal on the 1964 Pontiac Le Mans. And the remainder, as they are saying, is automotive historical past, as the unique “muscle” automobile was born. Chevrolet operatives have been apoplectic, however by the point GM company received wind of what was taking place, the GTO choice had turn into probably the most sought-after high-performance choice packages within the trade. And by 1966 it turned its personal separate mannequin.
Pontiac was red-hot, with its distinctive model of high-performance engineering and a few of GM Styling’s finest designs coming in wave after wave. From there, Pontiac would pile success upon success, reaching, at one level, 900,000 in annual gross sales in 1968. The rebels out in Pontiac, Michigan, had gained.
And virtually one of the best half? Pontiac was supported by sensational promoting, clearly a few of the finest and most memorable promoting within the automobile enterprise on the time. That pissed off Chevrolet’s advert company – Campbell-Ewald – regularly, which made it even higher.
As for the intramural battle between Chevrolet and Pontiac, it continued. Pontiac got here out with the Grand Prix in 1962, and the long-nosed ’69 model pushed by DeLorean was one other large hit. Chevrolet got here out with the Camaro in 1967, however the Pontiac Firebird to some, was higher trying. The ’70 Camaro, which was dramatic in its personal proper, was undercut by the fabulous ‘70 Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am and Firebird Formulation. As late as 1984, when Pontiac got here out with the mid-engine Fiero, the battle continued. Chevrolet insisted that it couldn’t encroach on Corvette territory, so the Fiero was restricted to a 4-cylinder at intro and received a V6 proper earlier than it was dropped. The twond-generation Fiero, which I had the pleasure of seeing, had “Corvette-killer” written throughout it, however there was merely no method Chevrolet operatives have been going to permit it to see the sunshine of day, so that they lobbied in opposition to it closely, and it by no means did.
The Pontiac story is price telling. And it’s not simply due to the fabulous automobiles and nameplates like Bonneville, Catalina, Fiero, Firebird, Grand Prix, GTO and Le Mans. It’s as a result of a bunch of maverick True Believers thumbed their noses on the company inertia that threatened to overrun GM on the time and dared to go up in opposition to an intramural company rival to ship a few of the best and most memorable machines to return out of Detroit.
I had the pleasure of engaged on Pontiac promoting at D’Arcy MacManus & Masius from 1980-1985, and I’ll always remember it. Although the enterprise was quickly altering and Pontiac was starting to lose its id inside the GM company monolith, the spirit of the previous advert greats that got here earlier than me and my advert colleagues was as intense, vibrant and visceral because it could possibly be. And we labored to make them proud each rattling day.
Is that this a plea for GM to resurrect Pontiac? That may be a onerous “no.” Pontiac existed in a fleeting second in time and left its indelible mark on automotive historical past – by no means to be repeated, however by no means to be forgotten.
And that’s the Excessive-Octane Reality for this week.
(Pontiac)
Editor’s Observe: That is Peter’s well-known advert for the 1981 Pontiac Trans Am Turbo V-8. As Peter says, “It was a special time and a special period.” More true phrases have been by no means spoken. -WG
Editor’s Observe: You may entry earlier problems with AE by clicking on “Subsequent 1 Entries” beneath. – WG
