Wednesday, May 6, 2009

“Pontiac is a Name to Remember" - Daryle Lambert – Made for speed.


Now that is a Car - lhmopars.com



I wasn't around at the beginning of the Pontiac legend but I was there for their heyday. Oakland Car Company of Pontiac Michigan started this great tradition for the Pontiac brand in 1907 and it was founded by Edward Murphy. However, it was only two years later that it was gobbled up by General Motors in 1909.
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General Motors didn't really expand the Pontiac brand until 1926 when it introduced the “Chief of the Sixties" series. For around twenty five years Pontiac was known as a family car but that was soon to change in the fifties. Street racing and movies featuring James Dean created a new era for car enthusiasts.
My first car was a Chevrolet Bel Air two door hard top from 1955. If you are familiar with the fifties then you know my car had to be pink and gray, like everything else that year. Cars, kitchen appliances, clothing, furniture and even your underwear and socks had to be pink and gray. I thought that this car made me the cat's meow. My friend David Cox, who later became the mayor of a major eastern city, owned a Pontiac at the same time and we raced on the streets on many occasions. I'm not sure that I can really tell you who won most of the time but I think that I did and he probably would say he did.
The name that most older citizens would recognize as a Pontiac brand would be the Bonneville and I am sure this name came from the Bonneville salt flats that were used for testing the fastest cars of the day. But people that have a need for speed remember when Pontiac equipped a standard car named Tempest with the high powered engine and called it the GTO. This car was a real racing streak. The 389 cubic Inch V-8 was like nothing before it. In fact today it is known as the first muscle car. Later came the Firebirds and Trans Ams. Why am I telling you all this? It is because this fantastic line of cars is going to be put out to pasture. There will no longer be that image of young men testing themselves by driving a car at speeds that should only be achieved by professional drivers. No longer will you see Pontiac in the NASCAR series.
You are asking how this information can make us money, aren't you? I have shared with you in past blogs for the 31 Club that the mean age for collectors is about 45 years and that collectors attempt to re-capture their past. So people in their 60's will remember all the hubbub that surrounded the Pontiacs. But what should we look for? Anything associated with the Pontiac automobile. Advertising, manuals, hood ornaments, hubcaps, photos, ownership papers, trophies and there must be hundreds of other items that you will find if your search includes Pontiac memorabilia.
Isn't it interesting how the events of history create new collectibles almost everyday? There should never be a time when there isn't something exciting coming forth in the collector market and you should always be prepared for it.


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