The Great One

GTO, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Considered to be the first real muscle car, Pontiac's GTO started out as an option package on the midsized Tempest, and was available in coupe, hardtop, and convertibles. But, instead of a fancy stereo or two tone paint, the GTO delivered a 389 cubic inch mill and a stick shift, and a useful bump in performance. Further options included a Hurst shifter, a three-carb induction system, and a heavy duty ride and handling package.

The big engine/smaller car recipe is a classic one, but one that almost didn't get made. Since the fifties, there had been a "gentlemen's agreement" among the big three to not formally go automobile racing, and to further this, General Motors had a corporate policy limiting engine sizes in their mid-sized cars. Shoehorning the big 389 into the Tempest was against this policy, but Pontiac executives okayed a limited run of cars, fearing it wouldn't find a market.

They were wrong-the GTO went on to sell 10,000 units in it's introductory year, and went on further success on the sales floor as well as on the drag strip.

Pontiac Sports

Pontiac Sports, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Pontiac Sports, a sporting goods shop in Pontiac, Illinois, a town along historic Route 66.

I believe this sign has been rebuilt at some point-there are some stray outlets dotted around it.

Blast Off

Jet and rocket imagery was everywhere in the atomic fifties, and few companies took to it as much as General Motors. For a while their cars had rockets and swept wing jets everywhere, especially at the front. This one's an Oldsmobile Rocket 88. I totally dig the contrails molded into the sheet metal of the hood. You don't see that level of detail anymore.



Olds got an extra rocket at the back, too.



This sporty number's off a Pontiac



This one's a Buick, I think. It also looks more like a torpedo, but whatever.



And finally, a tribute to Northrop's flying wings, courtesy of Pontiac.

J.E. Brady

J.E. Brady, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

This week's Neon Friday post is a bit of a mystery. This simple sign is in the town of Pontiac, Illinois, along old Route 66. I've been through Pontiac a couple of times, but this was the first time I noticed this particular sign. It's kind of hard to see-there's a metal awning just below it (those are the awning's supports you see in front of the sign), so you can't really see it unless you're across the street.

I have no idea who J.E. Brady was, or what J.E. Brady did. The building has a martial arts academy in the storefront now. This sign looks to be in really good shape-the glass is intact and it's not especially rusty. I wonder if it still works, and have this odd fantasy that it's on a timer and still lights up every night at 6 pm.

Royal Bobcat

The (appropriately) fictional home of the Taylor family on Home Improvement, Royal Oak, Michigan has a special place in muscle car history as well. Located about fifteen miles north of Detroit, Royal Oak is close to the General Motors Tech Center in Warren, and like many Motor City suburbs had close ties with the industry.

It was also the home to Ace Wilson's Royal Pontiac. In the early sixties, Pontiac would send all of the cars slated to be road tested by magazines to Royal, where their engine wizards would make sure everything was running as good as it could. They also did some performance work on the side-they specialized in the big 389 mill-and this caught the attention of Jim Wangers at Pontiac. The company had been floating the idea of having dealers who specialized in performance cars and parts, and used Royal to test the idea. It was a rousing success, and led Royal to develop the now famous "Bobcat" performance packages for various cars, but mostly for the already stout GTO.

Bobcats were fearsomely fast cars, and were often hard to spot during a heads up stoplight race. This subtle badge was often the only telltale.