In the 1960s, Pontiac modestly described its trend-setting GTO muscle car as “The Great One.” See the swagger on display in this original 1967 commercial spot.
Led by 42 year-old general manager John DeLorean, in 1967 the Pontiac division of General Motors was riding high. The popular brand continued to hold down a solid third in the U.S. sales charts, topped only by the perpetual volume leaders, Chevrolet and Ford. The GTO, Pontiac’s trend-setting entry in the ’60s muscle car wars, had a good year as well, with nearly 82,000 units sold.
With its vibrant looks and exciting performance, the GTO played an essential role in shaping the Pontiac division’s youthful, dynamic image in the ’60s. As former Pontiac boss and DeLorean mentor Bunkie Knudsen liked to say, “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,” and the youth-oriented marketing formula moved a lot of merchandise.
Careful not to mess with the GTO’s success, Pontiac made only minor tweaks to the recipe for 1967. The exterior design received a minor facelift, displacement was bumped from 389 to 400 cubic inches, and the optional Tri-Power 3×2 carburetor setup was replaced with a single Quadrajet four-barrel. In these years, Pontiac modestly used the tagline “The Great One” in all its marketing efforts for the GTO, including this confident 1967 commercial spot. Video below.
For the 1967 Pontiac engineering and Pontiac’s advertising had to scramble to come up with something different. The Pontiac TIGER theme ( 1963-1966 ) was abandoned because the President of GM and his cronies at the 14th floor didn’t like it and the advertising that went along with it including all those exhibitions of burning rubber and speed and the Tiger theme itself were just too much. Of course today all the performance car companies are doing it again-but they didn’t have the Ralph Nader threat.
That is why the GREAT ONE logo came about.
Ed (Chevy) Cole was a driving force to discontinue one of Pontiac’s famous icons, the famous Tri-Power 3-2bbl carburetion set up that had been used from 1957-1966. The question became how do you make the same horsepower on a 4bbl. carburetor. Pontiac engineering enlarged the 389 to 400 cubic inches and the 421 to 428 cubic inches ( really a 427) and changed the valve angle in the cylinder head to accept larger valves and to straighten the ports. This Tri-Power deletion also effected Buick and Oldsmobile. Oldsmobile for 1966 had finally got a 3-2bbl. set up like the old J-2 which was last used in 1958 to help in it’s ability to sell performance.
The ban was created to ban all GM multi carburetion, However Ed Cole Being the father of the modern Chevrolet V-8/and Corvette and Corvair and it’s former General manager managed to save Chevrolet division from the multi carburetor ban because the 427-435 hp. Corvette was available with a 3-2bbl set up as well as Corvair also had multi carburetors too.
It so happens that there is a long list of things Pontiac was banned from doing because of the 14th floor at GM, like Radial tires standard on the 1964 GTO, Disc brakes on the 1964 GTO . Stopping Pontiac from making a true sports car.
Does this 1964 Pontiac sports car look familiar??? Much of it’s body shape ended up as a 1968 C3 Corvette taken away from Pontiac;
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/6e/df/2e/6edf2ec55120879f392e3e6dc05776b2.jpg
Why did Pontiac go out of production is a question asked by many people loyal to the brand. I had a 97 Grand Prix GTP and loved the look and performance of it but the division seemed to lose it’s way into the early 2000’s.
Seems to me it was the U.S. Government after hearing what Bob Lutz had to say on the subject; below;
October 27, 2013
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Bob Lutz is not a man who can be contained within 140 characters.
This past weekend he spoke at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles as part of the “Inside the MotoMan Studio” series, hosted by friend of Autoweek George Notaras (past events have been with Ralph Gilles and Derek Jenkins). Lutz talked at length about his childhood in Switzerland, early memories working for Ford and Chrysler, the time he swayed BMW management away from building Mercedes-like luxoboats, and what Lee Iacocca was really like behind closed doors. (Answer: he didn’t like Lutz, but he did like vinyl-roofed Imperials.) The full interview can be seen above.
Lutz also signed a copy of his infamous cigar-smoking Opel photo. You know, that photo.
More importantly, Lutz also discussed the fate of GM upon his Second Coming, which began in 2001 and ended shortly after the 2008 bankruptcy. When GM applied for the federal bailout, the government’s men — the “Feds” — took a look at GM’s portfolio.
“The Feds basically wanted to get GM down to Cadillac and Chevrolet,” said Lutz. “They said, ‘you don’t need all these brands. You need one prestige brand, and one mass-market brand.'”
Read more: http://autoweek.com/article/car-news/who-killed-pontiac-ask-bob-lutz#ixzz52DrOSkIl
Buick was necessary because the Chinese loved Buick. GMC was necessary because it was a different customer from Chevrolet, and it made money. Hummer and Saab were already leaving the room. Chevrolet and Cadillac — that much was obvious, at least.
That left Pontiac. Now, Lutz had great ideas for Pontiac, starting with the G8 and the Solstice — both of which gave the impression that the company was on its way to making a resurgence. “It had been mismanaged for a number of years, you know, with ‘we build excitement,’ and the excitement was only in the plastic body cladding, mechanically there was nothing about Pontiac in the ’90s that would make your heart beat faster.”
The bombshell had been that Pontiac was well on its way to moving to an entirely rear-drive platform. (Can you feel the air being sucked out of the room?) The next G6, said Lutz, was moving to a compact RWD architecture, shared with — that’s right — the Cadillac ATS.
Pontiac was on its way to becoming a niche performance brand, a cut-rate BMW while looking like BMW. Then, the government stepped in.
Said Lutz (at 2:14:39): “The Feds said ‘yeah, how much money have you made on Pontiac in the last 10 years?’ and the answer was ‘Nothing.’ So, it goes. And, when the guy who is handing you the check for $53 billion says ‘I don’t want Pontiac, drop Pontiac or you don’t get the money,’ it doesn’t take you very long to make up your mind
I like the part where the fed said you don’t need all those brands You need one prestige brand and one mass market brand.
The REASON those in-between brands were created was to cater to the MIDDLE CLASS. What was the Government saying to G.M. brass?? were they saying the middle class is dying?? or by their action were they saying they were helping it die???