Poor Pontiac; until it’s superb new ohv V8 arrived in 1955, it was saddled with a flathead inline eight that dated back to…at least 1930 or so. But Corvette envy was burning hot among all of the divisions, and Pontiac just couldn’t wait until 1955 for their first two seat “sports car”. Yes, under that long hood sat the venerable 268 cubic inch eight, but hopped up to make some 230 hp. I found a picture of it to share with you, which shows off its four side-draft carbs.
The same engine also powered the 1954 Strato Streak sedan concept.
That’s a rather pudgy design.
Here it is, with its four Carter YH side-draft carbs.
There were two Bonneville Specials, a red and a green one. Here’s the rather unusual rear end of the restored green car. Hmm…
I hate to be the one that has to rain on these GM Motorama (bad)dream cars, but compared to a production 1954 Ferrari Pininfarina coupe, the Bonneville looks painfully amateurish.
Here’s the cockpit, including the lever for the four-speed Hydramatic. I won’t ruin it for you by showing the Ferrari’s.
The Strato Streak looks kinda cool. Who could guess how well it would’ve sold if put into production? I didn’t notice the suicide doors until about my third look. That Pontiac straight 8, the Hudson Twin H and the last generation of Ford flathead V8 were the last hurrah for side valve technology.
There were a few other hangers-on. Packard was still selling its old flathead 8 in 1954 too. If we go down to 6s, Plymouth/Dodge was selling them in 1959 and Studebaker in 1960. I think Rambler had one even later. As I think about it, Stude trucks kept offering the old Commander six all the way to the end, and the Dodge Power Wagon through the end of its production in 1968!
But you are right that by 1954-55 that technology was a dead end street.
And lets not forget all the small engine makers that kept using L-head tech WAY longer than they should have or needed to.
Find a picture of the Chevrolet Biscayne Motorama show car and I think you’re going to find more than a bit of similarity in the body and roofline. The Biscayne came off cleaner, however.
That green Bonneville special looks like Virgil Exner snuck into the studio one night and messed with their drawings. 🙂
Yes, even by 1950s standards, the Bonneville is hopelessly garish. Excessively long hoods being a shortcoming both designs share.
GM always put styling before practicality on its dream cars. The result is obvious here. Nobody planned for electrical equipment. The coil is leaning against the head, and the VR is on a weird flange off the head.
Compare with the Dodge FireArrow, which was designed for production and actually produced by Ghia. Beautiful engine compartment, with a proper place for everything.
https://robbreport.com/motors/cars/1954-dodge-firearrow-ii-rm-sothebys-monterey-auction-1234623893/
My goodness what a contrast that Ferrari makes, and what an outstanding masterpiece it is. So far ahead of its time. At the beginning of the post I was fascinated with the Pontiacs…that has now been thoroughly vaporized.
I just hoping – although I think it’s doubtful – that those Bonnevilles have air conditioning. Otherwise driving them at the beach, not to mention dry lake beds in Utah, would be pretty much out of the question.
The Strato Streak looks more like a possible Buick design than Pontiac. Just change the grille from concave to convex, and VIOLA, early 50s Buick, sort of.
I’ve managed to take pictures of both Bonnevilles (I can’t find my pictures of the green one – they must be on prints!). In contrast to the prevailing opinion here, I kind of like the Bonneville. The wheel on the back has to go, and the tail is too short and the hood is too long, but overall it’s an interesting car, especially from the front.
The Pontiac straight eight appeared in 1933 and in some respects was very modern. It had a block and crankcase cast in one piece, and a relatively short stroke. It was the last US straight eight to use a single-barrel carburetor, though (until about 1940 I think), with consequent poor fuel distribution, and retained cast iron pistons until model year 1953! It had a reputation for being very durable, however, and was one of the reasons Pontiacs had good resale value in the postwar era.
The Bonneville Special’s rear wheel reminded me of this. Maybe a copy was lying around GM Art & Colour.
I love looking at pictures of yesterday’s tomorrow. A good book about that, if you’re into that stuff as much as me is Yesterday’s Tomorrows by Joseph Corn and Brian Horrigan.
https://www.amazon.com/Yesterdays-Tomorrows-Visions-American-Future/dp/0801853990
In the Tomorrow’s Future Homebody magazine, it appears that one thing that’s sadly consistent between 1946’s vision and a much more recent one (62 years later, the film Wall-E) is the road-going motorized couch. I think we’re getting closer and closer to that every day. 🙁
(with attachment this time)
The 1954 Strato Streak sedan concept, oddly enough, was B-pillarless but had full-door construction, not a four-door hardtop like the 1953 Cadillac Orleans Motorama Show Car.
I really like the Strato sedan. I think it would have sold well if it had been released.
The Pontiac Bonneville Special looks like grandpa in the morning before he puts his dentures in. What a maw on that thing.
Hmm no opening windows on that inverted fish bowl the back end is a mess a souped up flathead running thru a slush box, ah cancel my order thanx all the same.
Not only did Pontiac have their own Corvette style Autorama car, so did the other divisions. Some were pretty ghastly, especially the Buick and Cadillac, which displayed a lot of their main lines design cues. I think that this was done to make the buyer of a typical Oldsmobile or Buick feel that their 88 or Special was “related” to that hot job on display. The point of these cars was to sell more everyday Chevys not display evolutionary or future improvements. That’s why the dream car usually looked like a hacked up production design.
The Ghia cars were functional coach built vehicles, these had been built in this manner for years. Nash had Pininfarina style their mid 50’s cars and this Italian look was copied by other Detroit manufacturers.
The question of good taste in design is an interesting one. American manufacturers had produced many internationally lauded designs, the ’49 Cadillac sedanette was a recent one. Detroit built what would they thought would sell to their customers. The simplicity of elegant design is often an acquired taste, many Americans still had memories of the Victorian era which was known for fussy over decoration. However as the ’50’s progressed the “Mid Century Modern” design gained popularity and eventually was incorporated into American car styling.
That blue-green coupe is a fine looking car, but does it have that horrible front grille?
I have to wonder why the front end is sitting so high. Aaron65’s photo of the other car shows the same thing, Weird, nowadays with that stance you’d think it had AWD.
And I can’t imagine the language from your typical fifties mechanic confronted with four carbies to tune on a straight eight! One thing about those old flathead engines, you can get a nice low hood line.
The Strato Streak front bumper is definitely the inspiration for the production 1956 Pontiac front bumper.
I love show cars and definitely believe in preserving them. That said, they aren’t all a home run. The Bonneville Special is pretty awful. Looking at the front, this is all I see.
Olds really was on the bottom of the Sloan styling ladder back then, and through the sixties, tbh. You definitely got the feeling they never won any of the divisional bake-offs to set one of the bodies for the next cycle.
I don’t know, the Olds F-88 version of this Bonneville is much better looking.
When it comes to Harley Earl era GM design only Cadillac and Chevy were generally tasteful, everything in between whether production or motorama was just festooned with tacky details until Bill Mitchell classed up the joint.
Pininfarina on the other hand designed a handful of distinct cars and spread those same barely altered designs across the hundreds of cars various companies contracted them with. Ferraris still looked basically like that 1954 Pininfarina Coupe when the C2 Corvette was wrapping production.
The rounded, sloping rear of the Strato- Star didn’t inspire any future production Pontiacs. The ’55 Olds 88 Delta show car had a similar rear treatment. The Olds has the same
roundness, even cleaner than the Pontiacs, with a simple narrow bumper. Almost as if Earl had been inspired by the Ferrari/Pininfarina coupe’s rear styling.