I was a latecomer to Chinese cuisine, not having had any until well into my adolescence. This isn’t to say I wasn’t used to foods originating from outside the United States, as I grew up eating the occasional west African meal prepared and served by friends of the family or colleagues of my Liberian father. I had even spent an entire year of elementary school with my family living in upcountry Liberia, being fully immersed in the culture and culinary traditions which were almost completely devoid of Western influence.
I’ve been told I was a picky eater up to a certain age, but I’m not sure how much of that is actually true versus me just liking what I liked. I also grew up eating and enjoying a variety of German-origin foods from my mother’s side of the family. These included Braunschweiger, which is like smoked Liverwurst. I would eat slices of this sausage with glee on Ritz crackers, but wouldn’t touch it today with a ten foot pole (with no offense to anyone who likes it). All I know is that when I was ready to experience Chinese food, it changed my life, without hyperbole.
Sesame chicken from historic Orange Garden. North Center, Chicago, Illinois. Saturday, May 28, 2022.
I wasn’t immediately ready for some of the more exotic dishes, but I remember chicken fried rice tasting impossibly good, to where I just kept eating before my body could register that I was full. My younger brother, being the adventurous kid, was the one who had encouraged me to dive in, telling me about how sweet and sour chicken tastes much better than it sounds, and also that soy sauce was like “Chinese salt”. It was all so great, and writing about it now makes me want Chinese again this weekend. The eggroll may be an appetizer, but I tend to save it for last, wanting to fill up on the actual meal first to where if I’m full, I can just save the roll for later. Let’s just say that I wasn’t ready for the hot mustard the first time I tried it.
Is there any way to explain the sensation of a big dollop of hot mustard on an eggroll to someone who has never had it? I’m not sure what I was expecting, though it might have been something along the lines of the kind of spicy mustard that would go on a bratwurst, which is not even close. The nasal sensation is akin to diving the wrong way into a pool and ending up with a sinus cavity full of heavily chlorinated water, except that you then also need water to extinguish the flames inside your mouth. You’re lucky if your nearby glass of water also has crunchable ice in it.
Someone (my brother, anyone) could have told me to use sparingly, and maybe someone did, but I saw mastery of the hot mustard at the time as something similar to how I would later learn in my college years to smoke cigarettes without coughing. Go me. The main difference with the mustard versus menthols, though, is that once you get past the burning, the hot mustard just hurts tastes so good. The eggroll with mustard is one of the things I look forward to the most when I eat at any number of good, local Chinese restaurants I have access to: pulling that eggroll out of its greasy, wax-paper sleeve, drizzling a line of hot mustard on it, and wolfing it all in six or seven bites. The hot mustard is an acquired taste, and I have acquired it.
The frontal styling of the full-sized 1970 Pontiacs is also an acquired taste. My goodness. I remember noticing one of these for the first time when I must have been about four or five years old while my family was visiting friends in St. Louis, and thinking that something seemed really off about its “face”. It literally scared me. Why did it have what looked like six headlights? I was used to storybooks featuring monsters that had an extra set of eyes, or tentacles, or what have you, but on a car and to a kid with a then-burgeoning fascination with cars, it was highly disconcerting to see what looked like two big warts on either side of this car’s huge proboscis, which was also not the most subtle feature.
What are those things? Are they vents? I used to think they were housings for the front turn signals, but those are clearly beneath the bumper. I understand the “beauty mark” look on women, and can appreciate a well-placed mole, whether natural or applied with makeup. The front of the big, ’70 Pontiacs, however, is proof that more of a good thing is not necessarily better. It’s almost like the stylists didn’t know when to stop adding elements.
This car looks 1000% percent better without those things, as evidenced above by a quick-and-dirty retouching I performed on one of the illustrations from the factory sales brochure. Our featured car was in stunning condition, though, and I got a smile from its driver who was clearly and rightfully proud of piloting this otherwise pretty and quite rare ride. No 1970 full-sized Pontiac was available in that shade of mustard yellow, and the wheels, dash pad, and interior seemed to indicate that this was a mild custom, thought I thought it was tastefully done.
Standard power for most 1970 Bonnevilles came from a new, 455 cubic inch V8 that developed a whopping 360 horsepower and 500 lb-ft of torque, with a 370 hp version in the wagon. The Bonnie convertible, on the senior 125-inch wheelbase, weighed just under 4,200 pounds to start, and just over 3,500 of them were made. There was also a convertible available in the entry-level Catalina line, with its shorter 122″ wheelbase, for about 10% less money than the Bonneville. About 3,700 of the latter were sold for 1970. There was never a midrange Executive drop-top available.
I suppose one could say that the full-sized 1970 Pontiacs, with their six-eyed look, might have been the precursor for getting people ready for the high-tech 1983 Pontiac 6000 STE that would feature six headlights. Like hot mustard and the ’70 Pontiac’s frontal styling, STE also took some getting used to until the 6000 range got composite headlamps for ’86. I’m actually okay with the ’70 Pontiacs now, understanding that their look was supposedly inspired by classics of the ’30s. Within that context, I sort of get what the stylists were going for, even if the success of the execution was questionable. In the meantime, and as I continue to explore more cuisines from around the world in this new year, I do so with an appreciative spirit and an understanding that variety is what keeps things interesting. Here’s to the 1970 Pontiacs of the world who refuse to go unnoticed.
Lakeview, Chicago, Illinois.
Sunday, August 11, 2019.
Brochure pages were as sourced from www.oldcarbrochures.org.
I agree with your “revision” of the 1970 Pontiac front end, Dennis!
Thank you! I wonder if this look was actually in the running in the final renditions, without the round things.
The beauty marks (nicely put, by the way) are throughly overshadowed by the Edsel-esque grille placed between them. Given the death of the Edsel a decade earlier, it’s surprising how such a grille found its way into production given the similarity.
Or, maybe, it was a moment of “we are GM; people will buy whatever we produce”. Either way, that grille is a travesty which only amplifies the travesty of that front end. Yes, it was keeping with the theme of 1930s era styling themes, but wearing a flour sack made into a dress was another 1930s era thing that nobody mimicked.
The rest of the car looks fine. And while those wheels could easily be aftermarket, they keep making me think they could be original equipment – but on what? Perhaps it is their similarity to the 15″ wheels used on higher trim Ford Econolines in the late 90’s and early ’00’s.
Hot mustard? Not a dipping sauce for egg rolls but still a great compliment if used judiciously.
Yes, I feel like I’ve seen those wheels before. They have a very 90’s look to them.
Jason, it’s interesting you mentioned the Edsel, because then I started thinking about what else could have inspired this look. The renderings for the ’69 Stutz Blackhawk prototypes were probably out by that point, so I wonder if Pontiac took inspiration from that whole look.
And I think you’re right about the wheels. They do look very Econoline-esque to me, and you outta know!
The 1970 Pontiac and I have always had a difficult relationship. My grandma bought a new 69 Catalina, so I became quite familiar with the details on that car. Overall, I liked the styling quite a bit. Then this came along the next year, and . . . oh my.
That front always looked strangely cobbled-together and even a little roughly finished, with the way those plain, flat front panels fastened to fenders that were not really made for them. But I can now see that they were trying to transition to the 71 design. That would make a really good feature piece – those awkward 1-year style transitions. I am thinking also of the 1952 Studebaker that kinda sorta tried to predict the split grille of the 53.
The rear is easier to understand. The bumper of the 69 contained an indentation where the taillights were put in 70, so I guess that was a natural progression – especially if they were trying to get away from the drooping hockey stick look of the prior few years.
And hot mustard on egg rolls – yes please! In my area, most Chinese places tend to be buffets, but I like finding an old-school order-off-the-menu place. I found one, but then Covid caused them to shut down their dining room and it has been carry-out only. I am afraid the aging owners are going to close it.
That could be a whole CC or QOTD, JPC… “awkward 1-year style transitions”. In some cases 2 years.
One recent one that comes to mind is the last of the 9th gen Civic’s into the 10th gen. The 10th gen’s C-shaped taillights (on the sedan) were kinda predicted by the later 9th gen (2014 & 2015) Civic’s taillights.
I’m sure all of us could come up with several examples of that.
I’m not necessarily a fan of taillamps in the bumper, and I don’t hate the hockey stick taillamps of the ’69, but I did view the 1970 rear lights as an improvement. The altered placement of the taillights seemed like a completely organic and natural move from 1969 to ’70.
But, yeah. I was just flipping between pictures of the ’69 and ’70 full-sized Pontiacs from the front, and wow. The ’69 front was very clean. It had a prominent nose, but hey, so do I. It all worked nicely. And then 1970 happened.
I will say that absent the extra pair of round things up front, the’70 look does pull together better, even though it lacks the clean linearity (is that a word?) of the ’69.
The big Pontiacs’ styling always seemed a bit schizophrenic to me from one year to the next, and ’70 was not one of its better years, IMO. I’m a sucker for a big GM convertible, so I can give even the worst styling a pass on a droptop. This one looks best in profile view to me, as I’m not a big fan of either front or rear. I do think this car would look better and exude a certain masculine elegance in a darker color, like the green in some of the brochure shots, or navy. The hot mustard shade is just a bit brighter than the Vega my mother owned, although that car was more Gulden’s than hot. I’m sure this guy knew what he was doing and what look he wanted, and the car is in beautiful condition, so good for him. To me the overall look screams “Very Angry Bird”, which has a certain charm too, I suppose.
Hot mustard is requisite with certain Chinese food. I tend to like it stirred into fried rice or eggdrop soup more so than on an eggroll, but again, to each his own.
Now that you mention it, a “BIG BIRD” custom plate would have completed the picture.
The brightness of the yellow, as you mention it here, is a good tie-in to the Jim Grey’s piece from within the past 7 days of that ’67 Impala fastback that seemed to have been resprayed a brighter shade of red than was available from new. I tend to think that larger cars look better in shades that aren’t quite as eye-popping, but a bit more subdued.
A bold move by Pontiac recreating the Edsel horse collar only 10-years removed from the original. While we may find fuzzyman’s attempts to create a 1970’s Edsel amusing, here it is in the metal.
I always thought these were odd looking when I was growing up – what is up with those circular vents? Still better than the monstrosity Pontiac created for 1971.
Tom, I agree that the ’71 look was just as extreme as the ’70, even if it lacked the round things. And since you mentioned it, I’d love to see Fuzzyman’s take on an updated ’70 Bonneville!
The moles on the front seem like they could have been a sort of compromise in the design studio. Someone probably came up with a Bonneville design that had solid body-colored panels on both ends of the car; a debate ensued; and in the end, the compromise was that the panel on the back could stay if the one on the front was broken up a bit. That big body-colored expanse around the tail lights stands out pretty boldly, especially in this mustard yellow!
As for the Chinese Mustard, I will admit to enjoying it on egg rolls during periodic dives into fast-food Chinese; but it has been a relatively recently acquired taste. This is due to having grown up with a father who hammered the idea that nothing that came from an “American” Chinese restaurant was authentic and that we’d best not be eating that stuff. Hence, I grew up with one Chinese parent and barely ever ate Chinese food at a restaurant until I was out on my own after college…whereupon the American in me kicked in and I fully embraced egg rolls, “crab rangoon”, duck sauce, and all manner of formerly-forbidden condiments. 😉
American Chinese restaurants don’t serve authentic Chinese food? Next you’re going to tell us that the Olive Garden isn’t real Italian. 🙂
(Worth a watch, if one is into such things. It just makes me hungry!)
How am I going to make to dietary cheat day on Saturday? Why, oh why, Jeff did you post this delicious-looking video on a Tuesday?
And to be a fly on the wall during the hypothetical debate you described. Haha
I may be in the minority but I have always liked the front end of the 1970 Pontiac full-sizers, especially the Bonneville. It’s, big, bold, brash and in your face. Like it or hate it.
It definitely makes a statement. This could definitely be seen as a positive especially in contrast to many of the rounded, nondescript cars of the ’90s.
For the “six headlights”, it don’t bother me a lot and I guess someone at Pontiac thought it was a good idea and re-use it later with the 6000 STE.
Now, beside that Bonneville convertible, there’s one more rarer model of that model year to find is the Canadian 2+2, while dropped in the US after 1967, it soldiered in the Great White North until 1970. http://oldcarbrochures.org/Canada/GM-Canada/Pontiac/1970-Pontiac-Full-Size-Brochure/slides/1970_Pontiac_Full_Size_Cdn-02-03.html
I do like the 2+2 as illustrated, especially that red and black example with those killer chrome wheels. I suppose that more accurately naming it a “3+3” would have left a few people scratching their heads. 🙂
The round grills that are being discussed covered the horns. I had a 1970 Catalina wagon. Weird,but that’s what they were.
Dad had the 1970 Executive Safari, the fifth Safari he bought new.
While the styling was something you got accustomed to that wagon was also his last Safari because the front end was seemingly always out of alignment – something the dealer said was the result of Pontiac softening the suspension for a better ride.
Did you have that same problem? Dad never bought another Pontiac after that.
I never had an alignment problem. Just the usual nylon coated timing gear that would flake off and clog the oil pump.
Thank you for solving the mystery for me, and now I don’t think I’ll ever forget this. Thinking about the cars of the ’30s that had the long horns mounted on various points of the front end, I could see how these round things on the ’70 Bonneville might have been meant to invoke that look when seen directly from the front.
Believe the nose job may be a through back to highly successful 59 Pontiac split grille and 69 Grand Prix. Pontiac seemingly kept playing with front ends like this for years. Had a 74 GRAND VILLE with burnt orange with black vinyl top and interior! A friend called it my HALLOWEEN car. I liked the color combination! Perhaps this mustard p was just trying to KETCH UP! 🤔
groan;)
Several friends have often told me I belong in the PUN iteniery! 😉 Just can’t help myself. Glad you commented.
Nice!
Someone else pointed out in the comments that Pontiac seemed to try out a lot of different styling themes for their big cars after the second half of the ’60s, and I agree. And the color combo of your Halloween Grand Ville sounds beautiful to me.
Thanks, The HALLOWEEN Grand Ville was a stunning 4 door with black cloth interior. Unfortunately it had a problem with cooling system. This was apparently a problem with others,and Pontiac did reimburse for repairs. A seal somehow failed with transmission fluid getting into radiation! When cap was removed it looked like diaper dodo! When car was repaired, I decided it was best to trade!
Nice find! One doesn’t exactly see 70 Bonneville convertibles on every street these days.
The nose is atrocious, undeniably, however I have always kind of liked it because it’s so bad. I admire the boldness and enjoy the unusualness, even if it is a little hard to look at. My theory is that they were trying to have some consistency between the front end styling of the other full size models with the Grand Prix, their image car. That style worked on the GP, no so much on the B bodies. I’m sure Bunkie Knudson loved it.
That is an illuminating photoshop you did. I also have a theory on the “beauty marks” (great comparison!). They were indeed an afterthought because it was felt that with just the plain surface between the grille and headlights, it was too plain and something was needed to break up the space. I rather like how your modification looks. THAT would have been even more of a bold choice.
I see you blurred the driver’s face, which I haven’t noticed you do before. What is your thinking behind that?
Hi, Jon – I blurred the driver’s face only because I wasn’t exactly being complimentary about this car’s styling up front, and I didn’t know what the readership was going to say about it. Seven-plus years later, and I’m still always surprised when an owner chimes in on a car I’ve written about. I’m just that guy that doesn’t want to hurt feelings if I can help it. :). I suppose I just as easily could have left her face unblurred. I loved that she seemed to be enjoying her Bonneville and the weather in this summer day. She seemed very nice.
That makes sense. I was thinking when I saw the blur that maybe you were going to totally slam the car or the mods, which would not be your style at all. You were polite and respectful, as usual, of course.
I expect that to drive a car like that, one has to be very confident and the opposite of sensitive to what others think.
Like you Joseph, I was a latecomer to takeout “Americanized” Chinese food. In my case, it was in my early twenties. That being said, as a little kid, my Mom, very early in her cooking-for-the-family carrier, would serve up Chung King’s Chicken Chow Mein. And when you learn things as a kid, they tend to stick. For the longest time, I thought that this was the ONLY Chinese food.
Once in my early twenties though, I was introduced to a whole new world of food, and like you, enjoyed the egg rolls, learning the hard way NOT to over do it with that mustard. For me, I like a perfect balance between the duck sauce and the mustard (about 2:1, respectively) on the egg roll. the perfect bite, IMHO.
I say “Americanized”, because as Jeff Sun points out above, it’s anything but authentic. In our extended family, my step-daughter-in-law is from Taiwan, and I’ve had some of her cooking. That’s the real deal, even if I have to bring Benadryl and an epi-pen to dinner. She likes the sesame oil (so do I), but after consuming WAY to much Japanese cuisine after discovering Sushi (also later in life at 34), I developed an intolerance to Sesame. That’s too bad, because that is hands down one of the best flavors on this planet. She tends to over do it with the Chinese red peppers too, so TUMS on standby is a must as well…
But I digress…. (when don’t I? 😉)
The Pontiac? – I like it, weird proboscis and all, but I think I like JPC’s grandma’s ’69 a bit better, drooping hockey stick taillights and all.
Nice adjustment to the dark emerald green ’70 brochure pic. I’ll take a convertible just like that one please, with a white or tan top and matching interior!
Edit: For me, the wheels on the subject car are a nice touch!
Rick, I really like that ratio of duck sauce to hot mustard, and think I need to try that out. Now that thanks to both you and Jeff Sun I’ve decided on Chinese food this weekend, it’s now a matter of putting certain tastes to the test!
And though I’m a “factory stock” kind of guy most of the time, I also liked the wheels on this one.
”What are those things? Are they vents?”
“The round grills that are being discussed covered the horns…”
True. Motor Trend at the time said the circles were “visible horns”, too. In their ‘new car’ issue.
“… bold move by Pontiac recreating the Edsel horse collar only 10-years removed”.
Actually is related to Pontiac’s split grille and nose aka “beak” style that was around the mid/late 60’s, see pics of the ’69 Grand Prix and ’67-’69 big Ponchos.
I’m just glad the horn covers lasted for just one year. I wonder if there were any proposals for the ’71 models that included them, but I actually doubt it, given the newly supersized and widened grille.
Looks like I’m in the minority, but I’ve always kind of liked the ’70. In my hometown for years there was a red on red ’70 Parisienne Cheviac ragtop with a factory 454. All of us car guys lusted after that one, I’ll bet there wasn’t more than a dozen 454 rags sold in the whole of Canada.
Vancouver BC has a number of great places to get “real” Chinese food, and it’s great when you are in the mood but it’s still nice to have a good feed of egg rolls, sweet and sour etc. once in awhile. With good old sinus clearing hot mustard!
BTW, hard no on those wheels for me. Pontiac Rally 2s on this one…..
One of these days, I would really like to venture outside of the kind of meal I normally order at a Chinese restaurant. There are some authentic restaurant choices at the Asia On Argyle area on the north side of Chicago not far from where I live, but for now, I’m so hungry for some of that Americanized cuisine I have grown to know, love, and crave.
It’s that time of the week again. Let’s see what Joseph will talk about today. Cars and what? Food! Hmm….
As a child of mixed German/Australian (OK, British) heritage, our fare was very basic and (I now realize) my mother wasn’t a good cook. Although she always served up the good ol’ Aussie meat-and-three-veg to Dad and I, her favourite snack was always Liverwurst on black bread – a nod to her German roots. We lived in a ‘continental’ part of Melbourne where you could buy the real thing, and I still remember my Grandma’s delight when Mother took some home to her when we visited. No, it never did anything for me.
While I too enjoy Chinese food, especially when it’s spicy, I haven’t had the egg rolls and mustard. I don’t get out much any more, but the last few years thanks to my daughter I’ve become familiar with Japanese food, which is much more subtle. Rather than clobbering you with Szechuan pepper (which I love) from the first bite, Japanese food seems to rely on the cumulative effect of the entire meal, gradually building up the spiciness in your mouth.
When I first saw a 1970 Pontiac in a magazine’s “New US Cars” feature, I thought it was ugly. The grille just looked totally out of place for 1970 – weren’t grilles supposed to be full-width these days? A counter-cultural grille? I read later it was supposed to be a nod to the great American classics (specifically Duesenberg), but there’s too much of a gap between the inspiration and the execution. Like the Excalibur, it doesn’t quite work.
Didn’t stop me building one! Mine’s red. And on Rally 2s, though a bit larger.
That’s a beautiful model, Peter – you have quite the collection and I appreciate you sharing some of them here! I also love Japanese cuisine and haven’t had it for a really long time. I used to be reasonably good with chopsticks, but I’m so out of practice right now.
Ha! My daughter always uses chopsticks, but when my order comes to the table, they always bring me a fork. Much appreciated.
I’m glad you like seeing the models, Joseph. Here’s another view.
Speaking as an enthusiast of models of all kinds, that is a truly excellent job you have done on that car.
Thank you. Some fifty years experience behind this one. 🙂
Love your model of the ’70 Bonne convertible. One of my favorite GM full-sizers.
Loved Bonnevilles from 1958 till 196?. Bit this is pretty awful.
Dave
The ’70 is definitely not my favorite. But I can always appreciate a nicely kept and treasured ride. Plus, I love the ’74 AMC Matador coupe, so many have questioned my taste, anyway.
When I was very young, at a restaurant my father gave me Tabasco when I asked for ketchup for my french fries. I’ve never forgiven him.
Oh, wow. I can only imagine. Still better than mayonnaise.
If there was ever a front end design that screamed for hidden headlamps, this is it!
Now that would be an interesting look.
Wow, was the ’70 Pontiac front end a train wreck. What were they thinking?
As the 1960s progressed, Pontiac in my mind could do no wrong in styling: 1962, 63, 64, 65, and then 66. Just wow; it kept getting better.
Then 1967 happened. I couldn’t understand the bifurcated front end treatment (except for the hidden-headlight Grand Prix) and that weird gash on the lower quarter panels ahead of the rear wheels (reminiscent of today’s so-called character lines). 1968 wasn’t much better, with the big proboscis.
But then all was right with the 1969s, even if the taillight treatment looked a little funky. However, I was definitely not a fan of the 1970 model at the time! Now, it looks better to my eye, but I’d still prefer a ’69 or ’66.
About Chinese food, I didn’t sample it until I went away for college, and I love it now. Before college, growing up in Pittsburgh, I remember our next-door neighbor going for take-out chop suey — that was the extent of my knowledge of Chinese food.
You mentioned cigarettes, the one vice that I got started on during my college years and then continued off and on for too many more years. I don’t remember coughing when I started or getting sick — except for the one time I chain-smoked through half a pack.
I guess I’m not the only one who sees Pontiac this way. Year after year, better and better. Then boom…’67… Wha…. Suddenly Pontiac left the room.
I can see how the ’67 front-end look might have been polarizing after the tamer-looking ’66, but I actually like the “split-level” ’67 look. It seems like an edgier take on the stacked headlight look without taking it too far, but again, that’s just me. Others here like the ’70 front clip.
I smoked for seven years and while I don’t remember regularly chain-smoking as a rule, I did smoke many back-to-back cigarettes both when I was working as a landscaper / groundskeeper and also during many nights out clubbing. I don’t remember it ever making me ill, but it definitely would today.
With you every step of the way, though I’m all in on the trunk level ‘69 hockey sticks. I loved the 70 as a kid, but in retrospect…eek
When this car was just a few years old, I also gladly ate liver wurst. On white bread with Miracle Whip. Several years later, I got violently ill shortly after eating after my final such sandwich.
Fortunately (for me), this car remains pleasantly palatable. I was “Bewitched” by this frequently bagged on Bonnie after seeing several on the Bewitched TV series at a tender age, and have never barfed as a result! I don’t see it as glamorous as I once did, but I remain endeared to its bountiful personality.
I can’t deny it’s not for everyone, and agree with JPC that the front panel joined with the fender is rather crude. But, I’d still welcome the opportunity to take one of these big Bonnevilles to a good German restaurant. Just hold the liver wurst!
Bewilderingly bewitched by this Bonneville……
I love a good literary device, and alliteration is right up there with me! I tend to associate not “Bewitched” with Pontiac, but rather “I Dream Of Jeannie”. I used to love both shows.
Joseph… You have a unique way of taking a small detail from a car, building a story on that detail, which may or may not have anything to do with the car, then seamlessly shifting from one into the other. Color me impressed once again!
My first experience with hot mustard happened when I was in first grade, living in Portland, Oregon. Grandma was visiting from Montana, and Mom took the three of us out to a Chinese restaurant that would become a staple during the fairly short time we lived there. My taste for spicy food was probably a bit odd for a young child, as I had gained an affinity for Tabasco from about the age of five after watching my Uncle Allen douse almost everything he ate with the stuff. He was a burly, outdoorsy man, and I was trying to emulate him. Before long, applying liberal amounts of pepper sauce/horseradish/whatever to my food became the norm. I remember there being three jars of condiments at every table at our favorite Chinese restaurant, one of which was the hot mustard. I was warned that the hot mustard was pretty serious stuff, so I did approach it carefully. Even with that, I well remember wondering what all the fuss was about for 2-3 seconds… then it hit me like a hammer! All these years later, I’ve expanded my “heat sources” to many other things besides plain Tabasco, but it’s been awhile since I’ve had hot mustard… and now I’ve got Chinese food on the brain.
On the subject of the 1970 Pontiac… I like ’em. I do prefer the frontal appearance with the round grilles, as the “Bunkie beak” leaves a lot bare sheetmetal betwixt the headlamps and the radiator grille. This look is taken to the extreme on the 1971-75 Grand Prix, where single round headlamps in squared bezels float in an ocean of body colored emptiness. The early Jeep SJ Wagoneers and Gladiators also had round, fake grilles in a similar position. I always thought they were cover plates for optional fog lamps, as the holes they’re covering are just the right size for PAR 46 sealed beams. It doesn’t appear that anything of the like was actually offered (the holes were eventually used to stuff park/turn signals in on the military M715), so them being there is puzzling. And for the record, I like the early 6000 STE with the sealed beams better than the later composites, but two thumbs up for the Matador coupe!
Thank you so much.
I totally get your affinity for Tabasco and spicy food having started with you emulating an uncle you admired. I like that association. I think it might have been a similar thing for me when I was learning to really like the super-hot, very spicy Liberian dishes I ate when I was kid. That cuisine was from my dad’s people, which this American kid then realized were my people, and if that was what Liberians ate, I also wanted to be good at it.
That’s a great observation about those Jeeps. I don’t know nearly enough about them to know they never came with factory fog lamps in holes that look like they were designed for them, but somehow on a big Jeep, those round things look okay whereas on the Pontiac, they look questionable.
Bunkie Knudsen seems to have had lasting influence not only at GM, but on those big Fords of the early ’70s given his very short tenure at the latter firm.
I heard years ago that the original front nose was supposed to use a rubber bumper like the 1969 Bonneville or GTOs of that period.
It seems like a late design change to use the chrome bumper. You can easily find lots of nos grill inserts for this car, to me that confirms some production confusion. If you follow big Pontiacs you can find design images using a rubber nose.
If I’m not mistaken, the 1970 full sized Pontiac was the last car that the old Indian head logo was used on. It was only used as the high beam indicator that would light up when the high beams were on.
Thumbs down on the color.
Very nice writeup! 🙂 However, to me the ’66 Bonneville was the hi water mark of Pontiac’s big car design. 1967 on up they just got mostly stranger and stranger. Graceless huge lumps for the most part. DFO
I came of age in the late 60’s and subscribed to Motor Trend. So awed to read that Pontiac was exposing their horns on their 1970 Bonneville/Catalina. So are they horns, vents, or beauty marks? Has anyone looked behind them for wiring? Has anyone restored them?
A little late in responding, but I’m 90% sure there are horns behind those little circular grilles.