Pontiac Bonneville Special

The Pontiac Bonneville Special was a concept sports car shown at the General Motors Motorama in 1954, the first two-seat sports car prototype that Pontiac had ever built. Designer Harley J. Earl conceived it and Homer C. LaGassey Jr. and Paul Gillan hand-built it as a grand touring coupe with a fibreglass body, a Plexiglas bubble canopy and gull-wing doors. Its name came from a visit Earl made to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah to watch speed trials, and it was the first General Motors vehicle to carry the name that Pontiac later gave to its full-size performance car. Two prototypes were built, one metallic bronze and one emerald green, so that both could be unveiled at the same moment in New York and Los Angeles. Power came from a bored out, high compression 268 cubic inch straight-eight with four Carter carburettors, rated at 230 bhp and coupled to a four-speed Hydramatic automatic. Styling details such as the twin Silver-Streak bands, fender louvers and tailfins passed into later Pontiac production cars, and both cars still existed in 2008.