A Pontiac in 1926 started at $745, much cheaper than the most basic Buick

A Pontiac in 1926 started at $745, much cheaper than the most basic Buick, the $1,150 Model 24, also equipped with a six-cylinder engine. The first V8 from Pontiac was released in 1932 – it was a modified good old 4.1 liter Oakland engine with 85 horsepower. In principle, Oakland ceased to exist in 1931, because he, in fact, did not really need this engine.

In 1938, for Cadillac and Pontiac, the appearance of a gear lever on the steering column was announced. For Pontiac, this option cost only $10.

At the 1941 Chicago Auto Show, the four-door Pontiac Streamliner attracted a good third of the attendees. Its special design at that time provided almost record sales – 330,361 cars per year.

After the Second World War, Pontiac sales became much more modest, and the overall style became quite conservative. Then, on July 1, 1956, the son of the former President of GM, Simon Knudsen became the general director of the division, and he was quite young for such a position – only 43. And now Knudsen, with the support of 31- year-old John DeLorean, began to change the company.

In 1968, Knudsen said in an interview with Time Magazine that Pontiac's big problem at the time he took over was the “retired” image. “Grandma went to church on weekends” – it was about the Pontiac of the 50s.

Then Knudsen ordered a change to the front end of the 1957 model, which was only a few weeks away from production. And in the 1957 model year, he was able to bring to market the Star Chief Custom Bonneville convertible with a 5.7-liter V8 under the hood. Of course, the convertible was more than exclusive – only 630 of these cars were produced.

The completely redesigned 1958 Bonneville was already available in a coupe and convertible body styles. And development continued. In March 1958, two variants were released – PK and PM – with a 6.1 liter V8 as an alternative engine. The engine in the PK version produced 315 l/s and PM-330.

In 1959, Pontiac launched an advertising campaign claiming that the company's cars have the widest track and are very stable on the road. And in 1960, Pontiac won the NASCAR Championship and the NHRA Drag Racing Championship.

From 1959 to 1971, many of Pontiac's advertising brochures featured beautiful illustrations by Art Fitzpatrick and Van Kaufman. The illustrations have always emphasized the width of cars and depicted cars in various glamorous places – in the center of Paris, at fountains, at expensive restaurants and hotels. Or like the 1950 Bonneville in the picture above, in a ski resort. All this contributed to the company's entry into third place in sales in the United States by 1961.

Officially, General Motors did not race during 1962. However, Glenn Roberts won the qualifying and the Daytona 500 in a Catalina out of the hands of mechanic Smokey Janek. Joe Weatherly, racing a Pontiac trained by Bud Moore, won 9 races and the NASCAR Grand National championship that same year.