In 1954 vice president of engineering at General Motors Oliver K Kelly called Packards head of Research and Development John DeLorean to offer him a choice of jobs across the five divisions on General Motors. DeLorean who at the time also had the choice of moving to Studebaker with whom Packard had just merged settled on becoming assistant to chief engineer Elliot 'Pete' Estes at Pontiac.
By 1963 John had become chief engineer at Pontiac, and Estes had become general Manager when they together with engine specialist Russell Gee and chassis engineer Bill Collins convinced the GM management to let them offer a $296 performance package on the Pontiac LeMans Coupé and Convertible body stiles that included a 325 hp 6.4 litre / 389 cui V8 motor normally found in the full size Pontiac Catalina and Bonneville models, from whence the 'Wide Track' strap line was born and named it GTO a name John picked up from the
Ferrari 250 GTO.
The Pontiac GTO with initial production limited to 5,000, by a disbelieving Pontiac Sales Manager Frank Bridge, was an instant hit with
Ronnie and the Daytonas, the youth market at which it was aimed and GM Management. The GTO was responsible for transforming the image of the brand from an 'aunties car' to a youth orientated performance brand with over 32, 000 units built in 1964.
As the GTO was launched John DeLorean moved on to the development of the
Pontiac Banshee a concept car to compete with the Chevrolet Corvette which was killed by GM's top management. DeLorean seen as Pontiacs golden boy was promoted to head of the entire Pontiac division and given the consolation task of turning the Chevrolet Camaro into a Pontiac Pony Car with the proviso that there could be no alterations to the sheet metal except to the front and rear panels.
By incorporating a signature Pontiac split grill with built in bumper at the front and a version of the rear strip lights seen on the
two Banshee concept cars the Pontiac Pony car was easily distinguishable from it's Chevrolet sibling, Having failed to acquire the Banshee naming rights from rocket scientist Eugene F. Lally, who had successfully raced a Corvette powered special of the same name, for less than ¢50 per car, the name Firebird which had been previously used by GM on three seriously out landish
gas turbine concept cars, was eventually adopted for the Pontiac pony car.
The absence of marker lights, Federally mandated in 1968, and the E suffix on the registration plate confirm this as most likely one of the
five variations of the 1967 model line up.
The Ram Air bonnet / hood suggests this car had the top of the range 6.6 litre / 400 cui motor installed when it left the factory.
Just over 100,132 1967 Firebirds are thought to have been manufactured of which 9,980 were convertible.
Thanks for joining me on this Wide Track Country edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres', I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to
come back now !
The week started with Pick Up Monday which featured this '58 half ton Chevrolet Apache 31 with jet age detail trim.
The 5 part potted history of Morris continued on Tuesday with a look at this '55 Morris Oxford II was fitted with a B Series motor thanks to the merger between Austin and Morris in 1954, this Oxford came fitted with a column shift for the manual gearbox, 9 inch hydraulic brakes and an interior heater.
On Wednesday GALPOT visited the Six Hours of Silverstone where several teams second entries beat their number one siblings including the #2 Audi e-tron quattro of Tom Kristensen, Loic Duval and Alan McNish which beat the #1 Audi driven by reigning world sports car drivers champions Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fässler for overall honours and the Tourist Trophy.
Americana Thursday's post featured this Lincoln Continental Mark III which once belonged to an acquaintance Loory Munro. The Mark III allegedly came about when Ford President Lee Iacocca instructed Ford Design Vice President Gene Bordinat to "put a Rolls Royce grill on a Thunderbird" in September 1965.
This 1956 Feerari 290MM chassis #0606 was featured in Ferrari Friday's post the car won the Swedish Grand Prix in the hands of Phil Hill and Maurice Trintignant before ending up in Brazil where it was involved in an accident that
killed Fernando Mafra Moriera who raced under the name of Rio Negro.
Yesterday's post featured this DeLorean DMC-12 a car that was heavily re engineered by Lotus to make it production worthy.
Photo Courtesy Jerry Entin and IMS Archive
Thanks to US Racer Jerry Entin I have been able to put right a few error's to a blog about the McLaren M15 I wrote a couple of years ago. Today's McLaren M15 post includes some photo's from the International Motor Speedway Archive such as the one above showing Bruce McLaren talking to Denny Hulme sitting in the car that Denny's 1970 Indy 500 challenge was to end in.
Thanks for joining me on this GALPOT Weekly #16/13 edition of "Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres". I hope you have enjoyed catching up with the last seven posts using the links provided. Thanks also to every one who has left comments, liked either and or the individual blogs or "Gettin' a li'l psycho on tyres" facebook page. Looking forward to the next seven posts for which I hope you will join me daily. Don't forget to come back now !
