Posts from ‘Pontiac’
2005 Pontiac Bonneville GXP
There are a handful of cars that really put General Motors’ Pontiac division on the map–memorable, exciting vehicles around which the Pontiac brand forged its image of sporty, near-luxury substance–and one of those was the Bonneville. The Bonneville name was first applied to a pair of Pontiac concept cars introduced at the 1954 General Motors Motorama. The moniker was first applied to a production model in 1957, when it became a topline version of the Star Chief convertible.
1972 Plymouth Satellite four-door sedan
Summertime is car-show season, and we always try to take in as many automotive get-togethers as we can. Local cruise nights, marque-specific dealership-lot shows, fancy concours gatherings, or what have you… it’s all good. Our Chicagoland home base has plenty of these kinds of events to offer, and in the upper Midwest, car folks know to take advantage when the weather is warm (or, let’s face it—flat-out hot), because it won’t be long before summer’s over and the cold and snow come again.
1963 Oldsmobile Jetfire
Legendary Chicago Cubs second baseman Ryne Sandberg racked up nine Gold Gloves during his 17-year career as a big-league ball player. That’s a number Ryno can point to with pride, and it’s a number even casual baseball fans can appreciate. Not that the famously modest ex-Cub spends much time defending his career, but if he had to, the stats are there.
1956 Chevrolet
You can probably come up with a reasonably long list of things that are quintessentially American. My short list might include Monday Night Football, ketchup, and the Super Big Gulp. However, if you’re looking for a little heritage to go with your national icons, I might suggest that there are few things more fundamentally American than baseball or the automobile.
1985 Buick Electra
Which of the following events was more jarring? The addition of Elmo to the cast of Sesame Street, or the introduction of a front-wheel-drive Buick Electra? Both events, coincidentally, took place in 1985, and both events were met with a certain amount of grumbling.
Review Flashback! 2009 Pontiac G8
2009 Pontiac G8 GXP
We lost Pontiac sometime in 2010. A few fleet-special G6 midsize sedans were made available as ’10 models, though many of them found their way into rental fleets before the end of 2009. After that, the lights went dark at General Motors’s Performance Division.
1984 Hurst/Olds
If you were looking for a diverse collection of affordable sporty cars, you’d probably want to set the time-machine dial for 1984. You would be hard pressed to find a broader collection of fun-to-drive rides at any time other than the mid Eighties.
My Favorite Grilles: Fifties Edition
Is your favorite grille on Frank’s list?
Collectible Automobile publisher Frank Peiler has been working around automotive publications since the early Seventies, but his love of cars goes back much further than that.
What Was The Zimmer QuickSilver?
Zimmer QuickSilver
Culinary mashups are hot right now. Chicken and waffles, that time-tested soul-food classic, is now so Twitter-active that even KFC has gotten in on the deal. As a vegetarian, I have never indulged in the savory crispy/maple-y buttery promise of chicken and waffles, but I have good things to say about the improbable pairing of peanut butter and pickle relish. Really.
Auto designer Donald Healey as seen in a Lord Calvert Canadian whiskey ad.
If you’re my age (around the half-century mark), you’ve been programmed since high school to fully appreciate the dangers and potentially disastrous consequences of drinking and driving. And, indeed, since I began college in 1983, the legal penalties for operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol have become significantly harsher.
