SOUL SURVIVOR. – Rants – Autoextremist.com ~ the bare-knuckled, unvarnished, high-electron truth…
By Peter M. DeLorenzo
Detroit. That I have a deep love of every thing Pontiac is nicely recognized. I grew up immersed in this small business – appropriate in the thick of GM’s heyday – and Pontiac played a very important part in both of those my formative many years and my early marketing vocation. Which is why when GM took the bankruptcy tablet in 2008, I was crushingly dissatisfied to study that the Pontiac Division was a person of the property to be jettisoned. (And Hummer, far too, but fortuitously that nameplate has now returned.)
It is really hard to believe that now, but Pontiac was just a different GM division back again in the mid-50s. It experienced a lineup of stodgy vehicles, and there was practically nothing to publish residence about. The division existed under the GM company umbrella, but it was decidedly missing in just about all the things when as opposed to GM’s other divisions: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and Oldsmobile. But that would all change when Bunkie Knudsen was appointed a GM vice president and the division’s basic manager in July of 1958. Knudsen was offered the assignment to inject some daily life into the division and maximize revenue, and he was specified carte blanche to do it.
As a reminder, if you had been a GM vice president and divisional standard manager back again in the day you have been akin to a potentate running a little nation. GM’s divisional basic administrators experienced immense power with duty for engineering, manufacturing, product sales and advertising. Contemplating about that in comparison with how issues function these days, it doesn’t feel genuine, for the reason that it was so substantially unique from today’s car organization it’s like reading through from a fairytale e book. But make no oversight, it was very real, and GM’s divisional basic professionals ended up like giants roaming the earth, swashbuckling their way through the day-to-working day of the business when generating important, pivotal selections on the fly. Bear in mind, this was a company that debuted new vehicles each and every tumble with new sheet metallic and new functions to go with them. All over again, in comparison with how points are finished nowadays, it’s just jaw-dropping to ponder how the business churned back then. Certainly, as I have claimed quite a few, several instances in advance of, it was a diverse time and a different period, but GM’s heyday was truly outstanding in that the company soared for the reason that of it, even with the bean counters attempting to rein factors in every single action of the way.
The only arena exactly where GM’s divisional standard professionals experienced to just take a stage again was when dealing with GM Styling, which was run with an iron fist by structure legend Bill Mitchell, who inherited the mantle from Harley Earl. The clashes amongst Mitchell and GM’s divisional standard supervisors were legendary, and I will save those people tales for another column. But suffice to say, Mitchell received what he wanted for the most component, even if he experienced to enjoy the divisional standard managers off against each and every other to do so.
But back to Bunkie and Pontiac. His initially hires have been two young and gifted engineers – Pete Estes from Oldsmobile and John Z. DeLorean from Packard. The demand to DeLorean was very particular: get Pontiac into the performance business suitable now. And due to the fact Bunkie was a big racing fanatic, every thing was on the table, from NASCAR to drag racing.
And all of a unexpected, scorching Pontiacs stuffed with major V8s started out to present up in all places, from Daytona to Pomona. And even in our driveway. Because Bunkie and his wife were social mates with my mother and father, Bunkie begun sending the best Pontiacs to our dwelling exclusively for my mother to generate. Starting in the summer months of 1959, we had a series of Bonneville and Catalina convertibles that were being usually vivid crimson with a white best and a shiny red inside. And they were often equipped with the most popular Pontiac motor at the time, which at 1st were being 389 cu. in. V8s with 3×2-barrell carbs, and ultimately 421 cu.in. V8s. Useless to say, my mom cherished her hot Pontiacs. (And my brother and I did, also, specifically given that he had just gotten his license and we would “exercise” mom’s automobiles at each and every opportunity.)
The transformation of the Pontiac Division is a wonderful aspect of GM lore. Pontiacs went from getting sensible transportation products to some of the hottest cars and trucks in the field. Supplying overall performance engineering and styling that just weren’t readily available everywhere else, Pontiac rode a wave of level of popularity that took the business enterprise – and GM – by storm.
I say GM due to the fact, recall that part about GM’s divisional vice presidents remaining akin to potentates of their possess nations around the world? Well, that was accurate, until finally Pontiac – underneath Bunkie Knudsen’s tutelage – started to upset the pecking order within just the business. Just before Pontiac turned a “problem” for the other general managers, the GM divisional hierarchy was clear: Cadillac was up and off to the side luxuriating in its have rarified globe. Buick was subsequent in terms of status, with the super-well known Chevrolet sucking up all of the air in the space simply because of its extraordinary income figures, adopted by Oldsmobile, which just chugged alongside, and then the moribund Pontiac.
At least that’s the way it made use of to be before Bunkie and his “pirates” received rolling. All of a unexpected, factors had altered. Chevrolet, which quite significantly had superior-performance promoting alternatives cornered in GM, was staying critically pushed by Pontiac on all fronts. Chevrolet operatives grew to become more incensed with each and every Pontiac foray into their territory, and the intramural battles in between the two divisions spilled around all the way to GM’s vaunted 14th floor, with whining Chevrolet executives complaining to best GM execs that Pontiac was deliberately encroaching on Chevy’s territory. As you can envision, this did not sit properly with Knudsen and DeLorean & Co. The raising profits quantities, nevertheless, have been in Pontiac’s favor so GM’s major execs quite substantially let Pontiac go, which included even a lot more gas to Chevy’s fire.
Then, in 1963, when GM issued its formal ban in opposition to the participation in racing as corporate plan (a monumentally hen-shit choice, by the way), the divisional normal supervisors had to comply. (This is when Zora Arkus-Duntov, alternatively than destroying the Corvette Grand Sports activities, sent them to trustworthy racer close friends of the corporation, for fundamentally free. And the company’s deeply embedded romance with Jim Hall’s Chaparral autos went entirely underground.)
The little-regarded collateral destruction from that anti-racing ban was a GM interior edict that prohibited particular sized V8 from getting put in “smaller” automobiles, which is a joke taking into consideration all those smaller vehicles ended up huge by today’s expectations. The Chevrolet operatives dutifully complied with the edict, when Pontiac operatives, led by DeLorean and Monthly bill Collins – the gifted engineer who warrants most of the credit score for this future piece of automotive background – determined to go in one more route. Prior to the racing ban, Collins had been occupied stuffing Pontiac’s 389-cu.in. V8s into “intermediate” Le Mans bodies, and the final result was, useless to say, magical. But when the edict took effect, Pontiac was specifically ordered not to stuff a V8 into a Le Mans to make it into a new Pontiac design.
Then, a little bit of genius. Pontiac operatives resolved to get around the ban by producing the “GTO” a new possibility package on the 1964 Pontiac Le Mans. And the relaxation, as they say, is automotive historical past, as the unique “muscle” automobile was born. Chevrolet operatives were being apoplectic, but by the time GM company bought wind of what was happening, the GTO choice had come to be one of the most sought-immediately after large-overall performance choice packages in the business. And by 1966 it turned its personal different product.
Pontiac was purple-incredibly hot, with its unique brand name of superior-performance engineering and some of GM Styling’s very best styles coming in wave immediately after wave. From there, Pontiac would pile achievements upon achievements, reaching, at 1 stage, 3 million in annual revenue. The rebels out in Pontiac, Michigan, had received.
And pretty much the ideal part? Pontiac was supported by sensational advertising, plainly some of the greatest and most unforgettable promotion in the automobile business enterprise at the time. That pissed off Chevrolet’s advertisement company – Campbell-Ewald – on a frequent basis, which made it even improved.
As for the intramural battle concerning Chevrolet and Pontiac, it continued. Pontiac came out with the Grand Prix in 1962, and the long-nosed ’69 version pushed by DeLorean was one more enormous strike. Chevrolet came out with the Camaro in 1967, but the Pontiac Firebird to some, was greater searching. The ’70 Camaro, which was spectacular in its personal appropriate, was undercut by the fabulous ‘70 Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am and Firebird Components. As late as 1984, when Pontiac arrived out with the mid-engine Fiero, the battle ongoing. Chevrolet insisted that it could not encroach on Corvette territory, so the Fiero was restricted to a 4-cylinder at intro and acquired a V6 correct in advance of it was dropped. The 2nd-generation Fiero, which I had the satisfaction of observing, experienced “Corvette-killer” created all over it, but there was only no way Chevrolet operatives were being heading to make it possible for it to see the light of working day, so they lobbied versus it greatly, and it under no circumstances did.
The Pontiac tale is worthy of telling. And it’s not just since of the magnificent cars and nameplates like Bonneville, Catalina, Fiero, Firebird, Grand Prix, GTO and Le Mans. It is since a bunch of maverick Accurate Believers thumbed their noses at the company inertia that threatened to overrun GM at the time and dared to go up towards an intramural corporate rival to supply some of the finest and most memorable devices to appear out of Detroit.
I had the pleasure of doing the job on Pontiac advertising at D’Arcy MacManus & Masius from 1980-1985, and I will under no circumstances ignore it. Even nevertheless the business was fast altering and Pontiac was beginning to get rid of its id inside the GM company monolith, the spirit of the previous ad greats that came before me and my advert colleagues was as intense, vibrant and visceral as it could be. And we worked to make them very pleased every single damn working day.
Is this a plea for GM to resurrect Pontiac? That is a tricky “no.” Pontiac existed in a fleeting instant in time and still left its indelible mark on automotive record – never to be repeated, but by no means to be forgotten.
And that’s the Substantial-Octane Reality for this 7 days.
(Pontiac)
Editor’s Take note: This is Peter’s well-known advertisement for the 1981 Pontiac Trans Am Turbo V-8. As Peter claims, “It was a different time and a distinctive era.” More true words and phrases have been under no circumstances spoken. -WG