The Pontiac One was not a GM factory concept car, but in a different tomorrow it could have been.

It would be easy enough to assume the Pontiac One, as far out as it is, was a factory concept vehicle. No, it was privately designed and built—but there are some General Motors connections. Dave Crook, the car’s talented builder, was a GM illustrator and technical instructor, and he commissioned the design from Harry Bradley, a former GM designer.

Bradley (1939-2023) is no doubt one of the most prolific and influential stylists in the world of American automotive design. After four years on the GM styling staff, he joined Mattel in 1968 as its first Hot Wheels designer, where his creations were mass-produced by the millions. Among his many full-sized credits are the Dodge Deora for the Alexander brothers and the 1995 edition of the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile. As a contributor to the Sketchpad series at Rod & Custom magazine and an instructor at the Art Center College of Design in LA, he influenced and inspired countless young car builders and stylists.

Working from Bradley’s drawings, Crook, a skilled builder with several noted customs already under his belt, spent four years on his own time transforming a stock 1970 Firebird into the Pontiac One. The front subframe and rear floorpan were Z’d, the roof was chopped three inches, and the roof was laid back five inches to achieve the impossibly low sillhouette.

While the front end was crafted in fiberglass from Crook’s own molds, he formed much of the rest of the bodywork using lead and traditional metalworking methods. The custom windshield and glass are not acrylic plastic, the usual workaround in customs and factory prototypes, but real safety glass. Despite its wild appearance the Pontiac One is fully functional—a running, driving car with a stock 350 CID Pontiac drivetrain.

Reportedly, GM styling vice president Bill Mitchell was thrilled with the Pontiac One when he saw it. Indeed, it’s his kind of dramatic design. There was talk of adopting the car as a quasi-official GM concept for Pontiac displays, but the plan was a poor fit with corporate policy at the time and it never came to pass. The one-off was eventually acquired by a German collector, and as of this writing it is currently listed for sale by CarJager, a broker in Paris, France. The asking price is 215,000 euros, or $252,000 U.S. dollars.     -Photos courtesy of CarJager.