Out of all of the brands that have fallen by the wayside in recent years, none may be missed more than Pontiac. Mercury, Oldsmobile, Eagle and Plymouth died because their parent brands didn’t keep them up with fresh, individually unique products, and what they got might as well have been a Ford, or a Dodge. Hummer was always a niche brand, but when the H2 and H3 came out, it became blatantly obvious that GM was trying to capitalize on the namesake of the original military variant and between that and their not-exactly-deserved reputation for being the vehicle that best represented the 2008 market meltdown, GM did the right thing and shut that show down. Lincoln only just barely escaped, and are starting to recover. A car company fails for a reason, but in the case of Pontiac, what it came down to was a coin toss: did GM bet the bank on Buick, who was doing well in China, or on Pontiac, who in recent years had finally ditched the Tupperware body cladding, remembered the “performance” part of the Performance Division reputation, and had started slinging rebadged Holdens to success? Yep, hot rodders took another shot straight to the low quarters and just before Pontiac was slated to bring the Holden Ute over as the Pontiac G8 ST, the brand was dead.
The problem with a dead brand usually isn’t that the modern cars were a loss so much as the heritage of the past is lost, and in the case of Pontiac, there was a lot of it to lose. Pontiac had the GTO, a car that in every generation, strived to put performance first. The Trans Am, the visually bombastic powerhouse that had a racing pedigree and enough attitude for everyone to have extra helpings. Pontiac long stood as the wild child of GM’s group of manufacturers: they held onto hot motors the longest when the Musclecar Era tanked, and even at the lowest point of the Malaise Era, they were still trying to do the best with what corporate GM would give them. Not many people will remember the Grand Prix 2+2 Aerocoupe homologation special that was done up for NASCAR, but twenty to one, if you showed a kid a picture of a gold “Firebird” emblem on a black background, that they can make the connection to Smokey and the Bandit.
So, for today’s Question of the Day, we want you to check out these two videos from Trans Am Depot. One is the reveal of their “Bandit” edition Trans Am, the other is a look at the process of converting a fifth-gen Chevrolet Camaro into a 7T7 Trans Am or a 6T9 GTO. Don’t judge them just on the fact that they are building reskinned cars, but look at what they are doing: if some kid ever saw one of these and asked what they were looking at, you’d be forced into explaining what happened to Pontiac in the first place. Do these cars keep the flame of Pontiac’s racing legacy going strong, or is Trans Am Depot simply capitalizing on nostalgia?
I saw these reskinned cars at NY autoshow over the weekend. They looked really well done and attractive. There was a crowd around them all the time. I think its different with Pontiac and they should have been left alone. If GM had the balls they could bring it back I think. If the flunky fed govt made the decision you knew they were going to kill off Pontiac when this went down and I bet there was more to it.
This iteration actually looks pretty well sorted out visually. Hits the “required” buttons but still appears current and well proportioned. Compare it to the really awkward looking GTO nose job or the “forced vintage” looking Mustangs that appear form time to time and the difference is very apparent. Aside from the kinda silly (at least to me) looking bandit logos everywhere the rest of the package could be marketable by GM almost instantly.
I like the Lingenfelter (’71 455 SD inspired) LTA better.
However, given the overall shape of the 2016+ Camaro body, I think that a ’69 Trans Am inspired re-style would work best.
They are selling them faster than they can make them. This says to me, they are capitalizing on something? The Depot guys love Pontiac’s, so I would say they are trying to keep the brand alive, sure. But if there wasn’t a market for it, they wouldn’t be where they are today . . . Hell they are hanging around with Burt !
Like the cars or not, I think they are doing something right !
P.S. I like Kevin’s new Bandit Logo
“Mercury, Oldsmobile, Eagle and Plymouth died because their parent brands didn’t keep them up with fresh, individually unique products, and what they got might as well have been a Ford, or a Dodge. ”
Does that not also describe Pontiac also? Just Chevys with extra plastic cladding.
If GM had real brass balls they would take the Holden brand and move it these shores as the new Pontiac.
Yes I know it will never happen.
It’s their car, they did a really good job on the conversion, and it’s not my cup of tea… but who am I to pee in it? All-in-all I’m glad we have more hot rodders in the community.
and with those nice, PC words said above…. it seems more then a little nuts to chase your youth
When I see those Trans-camaros I’m reminded of an exercise where some took an ’04 GTO and hung ’70 Chevelle quarters and fenders on it to make a modern version of the Chevelle. Ugly was an understatement. If you want a Trans am, buy one. If you want it to perform and handle like a new car, Go pro touring. You’ll be better off $ wise in the long run.
“better off $ wise in the long run” is anybody who gets the car they want. If its pro-touring or one of these crazy conversions, its good to know anything is possible. I see future collectors items of Yenko – like staus here
I wish the big three would come together to start “Heritage Motors” They could share platforms from their line with simple re-bodies and make specific engines bringing out the faithful. Picture a 5th gen Camaro re-skinned as a Firebird (LS), Javelin (Hemi), and Cougar (Mod). The LX platform could make a GTO/442 with an LS, Roadrunner and Fairlane with a 5.4. A Hemi powered Mustang chassis re-skinned as a 2 seat AMX, I can dream for days. Chip Foose as the head of design. It will never happen, but the public would literally throw money at them. I’d personally never get out of debt.
I have one word that will answer that: Avanti.
Clockwork orange Pontiacs. No thanks. I’ll keep my 69 GP.