From 1935 to 1956, the bold Silver Streak trim was a Pontiac trademark. Here’s the story behind the signature styling feature. 

 

 

The original 1926 Pontiac, brilliantly conceived by General Motors president Alfred P. Sloan as a “six-cylinder Chevrolet,” in his words, was a big seller and a major money maker for the auto maker. Sloan and his staff accurately predicted that American car buyers were heading upmarket, and they were shifting from open to closed body styles. The Pontiac met those desires perfectly, and since it was based on low-cost Chevrolet components, it sold at a very profitable markup.

In 1929, however, Chevrolet was upgraded from a four-cylinder engine to a six, eliminating the chief product differentiator between Chevy and Pontiac. And when the Great Depression arrived, sales volume collapsed across all the GM divisions. Pontiac sales cratered, falling from a quarter-million units in 1928 to 51,000 in 1932. As a cost-saving measure, the Chevrolet and Pontiac operations were combined for 18 months, and GM executives seriously studied killing the Pontiac brand altogether.

To the rescue came Frank Hershey, chief of the Pontiac design studio under GM styling czar Harley Earl. The son of a well-to-do Detroit family, Hershey worked for Pasadena coachbuilder Walter M. Murphy and spent a brief time at Hudson before he came to GM. Hershey enjoyed a long, distinguished career in the Motor CIty, lending his considerable talents to the 1948 Cadillac tail fin and the 1955 Ford Thunderbird.

With the Silver Streak styling theme, a wide band of bright metal that ran straight down the centerline of the hood and deck, Hershey accomplished two feats: He cleverly disguised the Chevrolet-based sheetmetal, and he gave Pontiac something it badly needed: a visual brand identity. The distinctive look would continue for another two decades. Here’s a look at the Silver Streak through the years.

 

Introduced on the 1935 models, the Silver Streak theme proved to be a hit. Sales leaped to nearly 179,000 units, launching Pontiac briefly into fourth place, trailing only Ford, Chevy, and Plymouth that year. Also note the all-steel Turret Top, a new GM feature for 1935.

 

Here’s the Silver Streak look refreshed for 1937, as depicted in a Pontiac press photo. When Hershey left Pontiac to take over the Buick studio in early 1936, Virgil Exner took his place, continuing the Silver Streak theme. The bright metal band widened and narrowed through the years with annual model changes.

 

Silver Streak trim and other flashy touches on this 1940 Torpedo Eight Sport Coupe help to provide the look of a more expensive car. But if you look past the gingerbread, the Chevrolet origins of the body pressings can still be discerned.

 

The Silver Streak theme dominates the design of this 1944 full-sized clay study, with hidden headlamps on either side. The proposal never made it to production, obviously.

 

When production resumed after World War II, the Silver Streak motif picked up right where it left off, as on this 1948 Deluxe Torpedo Convertible. Both six and straight eight engines were available in these years, and in 1948, Pontiac offered Hydra-Matic for the first time.

 

For 1952, the Silver Streak element employed five narrow bright metal bands separated by four more narrow bands in body color. Pontiac ranked fifth in sales in 1952, trailing Buick but leading Oldsmobile and Dodge.

 

In the final two years of its existence in 1955 and 1956, the Silver Streak theme was revamped with two bands of brightwork on the hood, while at the rear, a pair of short, vestigal streaks rode atop the taillamp fins. This latest look was called TwinStreak Styling.

 

The 1957 Pontiac wears no Silver Streaks, but it’s easy to visualize how they would have looked. The trim was pulled at the last moment by Pontiac’s new general manager, Semon E. “Bunky” Knudsen. The division had slipped badly in sales, falling behind Buick and Oldsmobile, and once again Pontiac was on the chopping block. Knudsen was resolved to save the brand by giving it a more youthful image.  “You can sell a young man’s car to an old man, but you can’t sell an old man’s car to a young man,” he often noted.

In one of the more famous moments in Pontiac lore, Knudsen declared the Silver Streak era finished, saying the chrome bands looked like “an old man’s suspenders.”  Reborn as GM’s youth and performance brand, Pontiac would soon have a new styling signature: a sporty twin-opening grille.