SOUL SURVIVOR. – Rants – Autoextremist.com ~ the bare-knuckled, unvarnished, high-electron truth…
By Peter M. DeLorenzo
Detroit. That I have a deep appreciate of every thing Pontiac is well regarded. I grew up immersed in this small business – appropriate in the thick of GM’s heyday – and Pontiac played a vital purpose in equally my formative decades and my early advertising and marketing occupation. Which is why when GM took the personal bankruptcy pill in 2008, I was crushingly disappointed to study that the Pontiac Division was one particular of the assets to be jettisoned. (And Hummer, way too, but fortuitously that nameplate has now returned.)
It’s difficult to think now, but Pontiac was just an additional GM division back in the mid-50s. It experienced a lineup of stodgy autos, and there was practically nothing to compose household about. The division existed underneath the GM company umbrella, but it was decidedly missing in just about everything when when compared 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 typical supervisor in July of 1958. Knudsen was supplied the assignment to inject some daily life into the division and raise revenue, and he was offered carte blanche to do it.
As a reminder, if you ended up a GM vice president and divisional basic supervisor back in the day you have been akin to a potentate working a small country. GM’s divisional common supervisors experienced enormous ability with obligation for engineering, manufacturing, product sales and marketing. Pondering about that in comparison with how points function currently, it does not seem to be real, since it was so drastically unique from modern auto small business it’s like reading from a fairytale guide. But make no slip-up, it was pretty real, and GM’s divisional general administrators had been like giants roaming the earth, swashbuckling their way by the day-to-working day of the company though earning essential, pivotal choices on the fly. Don’t forget, this was a company that debuted new automobiles every drop with new sheet steel and new capabilities to go with them. Once more, in comparison with how matters are completed these days, it is just jaw-dropping to ponder how the small business churned back again then. Indeed, as I’ve said several, numerous periods ahead of, it was a distinct time and a distinctive era, but GM’s heyday was definitely impressive in that the company soared for the reason that of it, even with the bean counters making an attempt to rein things in each and every phase of the way.
The only arena where by GM’s divisional typical managers experienced to acquire a stage back was when dealing with GM Styling, which was run with an iron fist by design legend Bill Mitchell, who inherited the mantle from Harley Earl. The clashes amongst Mitchell and GM’s divisional general professionals had been famous, and I will preserve those stories for a different column. But suffice to say, Mitchell received what he required for the most component, even if he experienced to play the divisional basic administrators off from each other to do so.
But back again to Bunkie and Pontiac. His to start with hires ended up two young and gifted engineers – Pete Estes from Oldsmobile and John Z. DeLorean from Packard. The demand to DeLorean was pretty specific: get Pontiac into the effectiveness business correct now. And considering the fact that Bunkie was a enormous racing enthusiast, every little thing was on the desk, from NASCAR to drag racing.
And all of a unexpected, very hot Pontiacs stuffed with major V8s started off to demonstrate up everywhere, from Daytona to Pomona. And even in our driveway. Given that Bunkie and his spouse were social pals with my parents, Bunkie commenced sending the hottest Pontiacs to our house precisely for my mom to push. Starting in the summer of 1959, we experienced a collection of Bonneville and Catalina convertibles that had been normally bright purple with a white best and a brilliant red interior. And they were always equipped with the hottest Pontiac motor at the time, which at to start with were being 389 cu. in. V8s with 3×2-barrell carbs, and eventually 421 cu.in. V8s. Useless to say, my mother beloved her warm Pontiacs. (And my brother and I did, far too, primarily given that he had just gotten his license and we would “exercise” mom’s vehicles at each individual chance.)
The transformation of the Pontiac Division is a glorious part of GM lore. Pontiacs went from staying sensible transportation equipment to some of the most popular vehicles in the sector. Giving functionality engineering and styling that just weren’t accessible anywhere else, Pontiac rode a wave of level of popularity that took the company – and GM – by storm.
I say GM because, keep in mind that section about GM’s divisional vice presidents becoming akin to potentates of their individual nations? Very well, that was real, until finally Pontiac – under Bunkie Knudsen’s tutelage – commenced to upset the pecking order in just the business. Prior to Pontiac grew to become a “problem” for the other common administrators, the GM divisional hierarchy was clear: Cadillac was up and off to the facet luxuriating in its very own rarified earth. Buick was up coming in conditions of status, with the super-well-known Chevrolet sucking up all of the air in the place simply because of its extraordinary product sales numbers, adopted by Oldsmobile, which just chugged together, and then the moribund Pontiac.
At minimum which is the way it utilized to be prior to Bunkie and his “pirates” acquired rolling. All of a unexpected, points had improved. Chevrolet, which fairly much experienced higher-performance internet marketing alternatives cornered within just GM, was being seriously pushed by Pontiac on all fronts. Chevrolet operatives became additional incensed with just about every Pontiac foray into their territory, and the intramural battles concerning the two divisions spilled above all the way to GM’s vaunted 14th floor, with whining Chevrolet executives complaining to prime GM execs that Pontiac was deliberately encroaching on Chevy’s territory. As you can consider, this didn’t sit perfectly with Knudsen and DeLorean & Co. The growing sales numbers, even so, have been in Pontiac’s favor so GM’s prime execs really a lot allow Pontiac go, which included even far more gasoline to Chevy’s hearth.
Then, in 1963, when GM issued its official ban versus the participation in racing as corporate plan (a monumentally chicken-shit decision, by the way), the divisional standard administrators had to comply. (This is when Zora Arkus-Duntov, somewhat than destroying the Corvette Grand Sporting activities, sent them to trusted racer buddies of the organization, for essentially no cost. And the company’s deeply embedded partnership with Jim Hall’s Chaparral vehicles went fully underground.)
The little-known collateral problems from that anti-racing ban was a GM internal edict that prohibited particular sized V8 from staying set in “smaller” vehicles, which is a joke considering all those lesser cars and trucks ended up big by today’s expectations. The Chevrolet operatives dutifully complied with the edict, whilst Pontiac operatives, led by DeLorean and Invoice Collins – the gifted engineer who deserves most of the credit for this up coming piece of automotive historical past – made a decision to go in a further route. Right before the racing ban, Collins had been hectic stuffing Pontiac’s 389-cu.in. V8s into “intermediate” Le Mans bodies, and the result was, useless to say, magical. But when the edict took influence, Pontiac was especially ordered not to stuff a V8 into a Le Mans to make it into a new Pontiac product.
Then, a bit of genius. Pontiac operatives made the decision to get about the ban by building the “GTO” a new choice deal on the 1964 Pontiac Le Mans. And the relaxation, as they say, is automotive history, as the original “muscle” motor vehicle was born. Chevrolet operatives were being apoplectic, but by the time GM company acquired wind of what was occurring, the GTO solution experienced turn into one of the most sought-right after high-performance possibility packages in the sector. And by 1966 it grew to become its possess independent design.
Pontiac was purple-hot, with its distinctive manufacturer of large-functionality engineering and some of GM Styling’s finest layouts coming in wave just after wave. From there, Pontiac would pile achievement upon achievements, achieving, at a person point, a few million in yearly revenue. The rebels out in Pontiac, Michigan, had gained.
And practically the ideal section? Pontiac was supported by sensational advertising and marketing, evidently some of the greatest and most unforgettable advertising and marketing in the motor vehicle business at the time. That pissed off Chevrolet’s advert company – Campbell-Ewald – on a standard foundation, which produced it even better.
As for the intramural fight among Chevrolet and Pontiac, it ongoing. Pontiac came out with the Grand Prix in 1962, and the extended-nosed ’69 version pushed by DeLorean was a different big strike. Chevrolet came out with the Camaro in 1967, but the Pontiac Firebird to some, was superior searching. The ’70 Camaro, which was dramatic in its possess ideal, was undercut by the fabulous ‘70 Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am and Firebird Formula. As late as 1984, when Pontiac arrived out with the mid-motor Fiero, the fight continued. Chevrolet insisted that it could not encroach on Corvette territory, so the Fiero was restricted to a 4-cylinder at intro and received a V6 ideal right before it was dropped. The 2nd-era Fiero, which I had the satisfaction of looking at, had “Corvette-killer” created all over it, but there was simply just no way Chevrolet operatives were going to allow for it to see the light of day, so they lobbied against it greatly, and it by no means did.
The Pontiac tale is well worth telling. And it is not just for the reason that of the amazing vehicles and nameplates like Bonneville, Catalina, Fiero, Firebird, Grand Prix, GTO and Le Mans. It’s due to the fact a bunch of maverick Legitimate Believers thumbed their noses at the corporate inertia that threatened to overrun GM at the time and dared to go up against an intramural corporate rival to deliver some of the very best and most memorable devices to occur out of Detroit.
I had the enjoyment of functioning on Pontiac advertising and marketing at D’Arcy MacManus & Masius from 1980-1985, and I will hardly ever forget about it. Even even though the small business was fast altering and Pontiac was starting to eliminate its identity inside the GM corporate monolith, the spirit of the previous ad greats that arrived prior to me and my ad colleagues was as intense, vivid and visceral as it could be. And we labored to make them proud each and every damn working day.
Is this a plea for GM to resurrect Pontiac? That is a difficult “no.” Pontiac existed in a fleeting instant in time and remaining its indelible mark on automotive background – never to be repeated, but never to be neglected.
And that is the Superior-Octane Truth of the matter for this week.
(Pontiac)
Editor’s Notice: This is Peter’s well-known ad for the 1981 Pontiac Trans Am Turbo V-8. As Peter suggests, “It was a diverse time and a diverse period.” More true phrases have been never ever spoken. -WG