I promised everyone another serving of the cars I found along Route 66, but before I do, I wanted to share with you a discovery from my Route 66 adventure. Not Pontiac Michigan, but Pontiac Illinois, located between Joliet and Bloomington on Old Route 66 (who knew?).
Just like Pontiac Michigan, Pontiac Illinois is named in honor of Chief Pontiac, a leader of the Ottawa and Chippewa tribes during the mid 1700’s. The city includes a number of good history museums, 22 outdoor murals, and the Pontiac-Oakland Museum and Resource Center.
While a museum specilizing in two discontinued GM nameplates might seemd a bit too small and specialized, both the vehicles and the quality of the displays set this one apart. Just check out this ’59 Bonneville Tri-Power Hardtop. Period correct, and perfect to the smallest detail.
I took this shot to capture the Bonneville’s quad tailfin design, an expression of GM’s “bigger is better” design philosophy used throughout the late fifties and eary sixties. While the museum is operated by a husband and wife team who own a number of the displays, this car was on loan from a local enthusiast. As I recall, they had owned it from new, which could help explain the incredible condition.
Incredible, but on closer examination, not perfect. Note the aftermarket anti-theft lock knob. Tsk Tsk!
I’ve commented before that auto shows seem over populated with top trim level cars that include extremely rare options. Having said that, I feel museums are the apppropite venue for such displays, so I approve of this Tri-Power badge on the Bonneville’s flanks.
What’s Tri-Power you ask? Simple- Pontiac’s top power package for 1959, consisting of three two barrel carbs. Pontiac’s Tri-Power induction system was first offered in the 1958 370 cubic inch V8. 1959 ushered in the 389 V-8; together they delivered 315 HP.
As I understand it, the museum owns about four times as many cars than they can display in the available space, so they rotate stock on a regular basis. If you visit next year, you may not see this G-Body Grand Prix, complete with the factory “snowflake” alloy rims. While it appears to be a rather a rather plain-Jane model, the car has spent time in South Africa. To read the story, click here for more information.
As you can see, the museum covers all eras of the Pontiac-Oakland line including this ’34 coupe.
This camping diorama includes another special model. While the ’64’s wagon body style is unusual, I’m actually referring to the nameplate.
That’s right, it’s a Canadian Pontiac, the Parisienne. Under that Pontiac sheet metal it’s essentially all-Chevy, sitting on a Chevrolet 119″ X-Frame, Chevrolet engines, transmissions, suspension, brakes, etc. GM sold around 1,600 of these wagons. A Chevy pretending to be a Pontiac.
Next to the Parisienne resides this shop mock up from the mid-sixties. Between the oil cans and ’48 Pontiac, there’s lots of eye candy, but that complicated electronic tester drew my eye. I can hook up and run current diagnostic test equipment, but I’d have to spend an hour or two reading the Operator’s Manual before attempting to diagnose with this tool. Some of you may have noticed the engine stand and assumed it holds a Pontiac V-8. If so, you’d be half right.
A close look revels it’s the Tempest four, Pontiac’s version of a slant in-line four. I knew the engine shared parts with the 389, but this display clearly shows the shared genes.
Those familiar with Pontiac history know the significance of this G-body based Gran Prix. In a bold move, John DeLorean moved a full sized nameplate onto mid-sized platform, and offered the personal luxury car to the masses. In a couple of years, the colonnade Grad Prix, Monte Carlo, and Cutlass Supreme would follow the lead of this model, sell in big numbers, and pour profits into the GM coffers.
No Pontiac museum would be complete without a Trans Am, and this one did not disappoint. Personally, I love the Gothic style lettering used on this model year.
I haven’t included every car I saw on display, but I did want to include the only Oakland on the floor. This is a ’29 model, and represented one of the last of the Marque. Oakland dealers started to offer Pontiacs in 1926, and the new nameplate caught fire. Five years later, the Oakland nameplate disappeared and Pontiac carried on without it’s big brother.
2014 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Pontiac GTO, and to commemorate the occasion, the museum includes this pair of convertibles. Since we’re running out of 2014, I’d expect a new display here sometime over the winter.
To close, I’d like to draw your attention to the glass enclosed library at the rear of the museum. If you’re a Pontiac enthusiast and looking for information on your car, you can either contact the museum and place a request for available data, or drop by and explore on your own. While the museum charges a fee for this service, it looks like a library worth exploring. As I said up top, despite the narrow focus of this museum, features like this resource library set it apart from the crowd.
That wagon looks perfectly normal to me 🙂
Nice tour, what an unlikely place..
One of the Cheviacs sold in the UK in the 60s.Just to add to the confusion regular Chevys and Pontiacs and the Acadian were also sold!
The photo doesn’t show it well but Canadian Pontiacs were not “Wide Track”.
The split-grille, wide-track 59 Pontiac is one of my favorites and was a pathbreaker at the time though I don’t remember seeing many with fender skirts, an overused addition on many restorations today, IMO. As a kid, I thought these cars looked great in all models. Our neighbor purchased a new 59 Starchief four-door sedan all in a rich gray color (no two-toning). While it had the handsome full wheel covers with Pontiac Motor Division lettering, she did not order whitewall tires. Somehow it looked just right without them. Would love to visit this museum.
+1 the 59 is one of my favourite Pontiacs,a refreshing change after the ostentatious 58s.
My grandmother, who lived across the street, had a ’59 Starchief when I first started driving. I didn’t get to drive it as much as I would have liked but still have fond memories of that car. My father had a six cylinder Ford (with Fordomatic) and the seemingly unlimited torque available from the 389 was quite the heady thing to the 16 year old me; I probably used up more rear tire in a single tank of gas than my grandmother did in a year. In retrospect that is probably why I didn’t get to drive the ‘chief very often.
I had no idea there was a Pontiac car museum in Pontiac, especially given how many times I’ve passed through over the years. I’ll definitely check it out next time I’m up that way.
To most folks here in Illinois, this is the type of vehicle one associates with Pontiac……
One of my cousins did thirty years there. He retired as a captain about ten years ago. And like the cons, he got as far away from there as he could. 🙂
I’m not a Pontiac fan but I stopped in there a year ago. The do have a nice collection.
The only Pontiacs that I ever really liked the looks of is the 1959. I almost bought a 59 Bonneville several years ago. I not going to say what I planed to do with it because I don’t want the purist getting all upset.
As long as you’re travelling Route 66 looking for cars, you should know about (maybe you already do) the little free museum in Glen Rio at the Russell’s Truck and Travel Center.
http://www.russellsttc.com/NewMuseum.html
I recently travelled from Oregon to Texas with my son. We got there in the middle of the night and the museum was closed. So, he sweet-talked the girls at the counter into letting us take a quick look.
We stopped there (it’s on the Texas and New Mexico border), and I can recommend it as well, but the Russell museum has a very strong Happy Days vibe.
The cars all belong to the Truck Stop owner, and he digs on muscle cars from 1955 to the present. Great cars, but they are everything you’d expect to see at a typical weekend car show.
Only one Oakland! Sales for both Oakland and Oldsmobile seemed to pick up near the end of WW1, but then both slipped back in the early 20’s. Adding the companion car Pontiac to Oakland put them back into the top 8 for sales.
I’m familiar with the GM brand proliferation early in the century. Alfred Sloan thought there was no such thing as too much of a good thing. Olds-Viking, Caddy-LaSalle, Oakland-Pontiac. I know LaSalle was a down market Caddy, was Pontiac the same for Oakland?
Yes. But Oakland died in the Depression, and Pontiac survived by sharing a body with the Chevy (1929 IIRC), the first example of that at GM, and forerunner of things to come. Using the Chevy body allowed Pontiac to squeak by, until its fortunes picked up in the later thirties.
And Buick – Marquette too.
Buick-Marquette was another companion make as I recall too….
Pontiac started in 1926, Lasalle in 27. The viking and marquette were 1930 only. Only the Viking went up market from Olds. The rest were lower priced than the parent.
Sloan thought there were gaps in GM’s lineup. I assume price gaps. But Classic Car Database shows this for 1925:
Chevy $525-825 sales 300,000+
Caddy $3185 – 5000 sales 16000+
Buick $1150 – 2925 sales 190,000
Olds $890 – 1375 sales 17000+
Oakland $1095 – 2115 sales 27000+
Olds looks like the weakest line. I do not see a price gap. But Buick and Chevy probably gross $200 million, Cadillac is about 50 million, Olds is less than 20 million and oakland is at least 27 million.
I have never heard of this museum, like some others here. Thanks for the enjoyable tour.
Love that 59, especially in that copper color that seemed to sweep the industry around that time. I also enjoyed that shot of th Trophy Four. I had known that it was half of a 389, but did not realize that it kept half of the 389s 90 degree v angle as well.
for more on the half 389 read Paul’s post on 1963 lemans
This museum is fairly recent, maybe since 2009? It does need more publicity for car fans, some would assume it would be in MI.
I went there 2 years ago, and had heard about it from Pontiac fan site “Performance Years”.
Wow, what a neat place. If I make it over to that part of Illinois (isn’t that almost Egypt?) I will have to check it out. Sounds like a nice weekend trip from Western Michigan.
I’m not sure I mentioned it above, but it’s a free museum (donations accepted), which makes it even more attractive.
In addition, it’s not far from Chicago- Call it one and a half hours from downtown Chicago, three hours out of Indianpolis or South Bend, and three and a half hours from Kalamzoo, MI.
It is a fair trip from Eastern Michigan- A one way trip from Pontiac, MI to Pontiac, IL would take almost six hours.
3.5 hours from Kzoo? Nice!
I’m not familiar with the Pontiac, Illinois area, but that would make a nice overnighter. My wife and I both like Pontiacs, so that could be a winner…
I downloaded the PDF of the story of that 1982 Grand Prix, it was quite interesting. I’d forgotten how good those looked without all of the extraneous crap that used to get plastered on them, the padded vinyl roofs and the fake wire wheels, etc.
This one is a great representative of the late brougham era that didn’t have all of the unnecessary gingerbread but provided a nice personal sized coupe that was liveable without the compromises of a Camaro or Firebird. If I had to live with a Brougham, that one would be it!
No 6000 or ’87-’91 Bonneville on display yet?
Yes, an AWD 6000 STD (err, I mean STE!!!) would be just the thing. I’ve only seen two of them and they were both in the junkyard, too far gone to consider bringing back.
Jeez, that 1959 copper Bonney is just gorgeous.. What an era! Try to imagine anything that outrageous today.. Those days are sadly long gone.
I’d rather visit a museum dedicated to Pontiacs than any other make. And I’m a MOPAR guy!