It's the 60's and you are John DeLorean.

"Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast." (twostrokesmoke)
09/30/2014 at 12:56 • Filed to: None

So you decide you want to mix up something better than peanut butter and chocolate....what do you do?

You make the '64 Pontiac Banshee.

It's like a Camaro a Corvette and an Opel GT had a threesome and somehow managed to bare offspring with all of the good genes. What a sexy beast this was.

DISCUSSION (15)

K-Roll-PorscheTamer > Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast.
09/30/2014 at 12:58

looks kinda like an American Miura. Which is sex.

Dusty Ventures > Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast.
09/30/2014 at 13:00

It's the 60s and you are John DeLorean. So you decide you want to mix up something better than peanut butter and chocolate....what do you do?

Cocaine. I do cocaine.

Zohaibman72 > Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast.
09/30/2014 at 13:01

Even if a Pontiac Banshee came out and it was just a Corvette like the Trans Am is to a Camaro, it would have been good. Pontiac was often the performance brand but got the short end of the stick often. from little things, like Chevy Cobalt SS with no Pontiac G5 equivalent, to Getting no new Trans Am (2008), or a Corvette equivalent.

Pontiac would have had more staying power in GM as performance brand if it was a replacement for the Chevy SS brand and had a new firebird/corvette thing. Rather than becoming an badge-engineer

Sweet Trav > Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast.
09/30/2014 at 13:04

Personally, I would have taken the Pontiac Sprint OHC 6 and strapped a garret turbo it it, shoved it into a Tempest, instead of the 389.

Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast. > Dusty Ventures
09/30/2014 at 13:09

No, you wait until the 80's for that.

Dusty Ventures > Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast.
09/30/2014 at 13:15

*Sigh* Fine, If I have to

Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast. > Dusty Ventures
09/30/2014 at 13:21

Don't worry, in the 60's where you are, there are plenty of other things to spend your time on. LSD, all kinds of weed and pills of various sorts and dirty hippy sex, if that's your thing, maaaaaan. You won't be bored.

Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom > Dusty Ventures
09/30/2014 at 13:24

In that case you are ahead of your time, my friend..

Here, have a peyote button...

Dusty Ventures > Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast.
09/30/2014 at 13:26

You had me at LSD, Mr Floaty Talking Zebra

Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast. > Dusty Ventures
09/30/2014 at 13:32

Oh yeah, they also had the draft....so there's that. Not so fun.

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast.
09/30/2014 at 13:36

1964's Pontiac Banshee concept car pre-dated the Camaro/Firebird by 3 years (the mustang was just emerging as a production car in April 1964, GM's F-body cars were developed as a response to that)

It also predated the Mako Shark concept by a year, and the production C3 Corvette by 4 years, and the Opel GT concept car also by a year, and 4 years before the production car. Pontiac didn't produce a 2-seat sports car until the Fiero in the 1980s, and the Solstice in the 2000s. Paltry for the brand that was supposed to be GM's enthusiast brand... but John Z. DeLorean was a bit of a maverick, and the GM brass preferred Chevrolet in general, for everything from trucks to performance cars, unfortunately making Pontiac a badge-engineered tag-along to Chevrolet models.

Arguably the Pontiac Banshee concept car is the origin point for styling elements for the 67 Firebird, as well as influence with the C3 and Opel GT designs.

John Z. DeLorean was also the one who disobeyed GM brass to put a big block engine in a mid-size chassis, to make the Pontiac GTO, as well as being the champion of more modern engine tech, such as the use of overhead cams... and the Pontiac 'Sprint' line of cars equipped with an OHC inline 6-cylinder engine, which was a more european influence than just using pushrod V8s for everything.

He also was on board with GM's experimentation with rotary engines, and planned to use a wankel rotary engine in the DeLorean DMC12 early in it's development, but production constraints dictated a shared engine... sourced from Peugeot/Renault/Volvo's engine collaboration.

I have a lot of respect for John Z. DeLorean, despite his poor choices to take risks and illegal measures to try to help finance his car company in the 1980s. I also have a bit more affection for Pontiac than Chevrolet, and am still not happy that it was wasted as a re-badge brand, and unceremoniously amputated in a knee-jerk reaction during the extra-legal government bail-out in 2008/2009. (I also don't like Plymouth's or Mercury's demises, after being starved of their uniqueness, either.)

kanadanmajava1 > Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast.
09/30/2014 at 16:02

The front end is quite similar to Lamborghini GTV 350 concept presented in 1963.

Kinja'd!!!

Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast. > kanadanmajava1
09/30/2014 at 16:08

That is way classier than any Lambo has business being.

Goggles Pizzano > Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast.
10/01/2014 at 00:13

That tumor on the hood always bothered the hell out of me. For this reason I'd take the convertible.

Kinja'd!!!

kanadanmajava1 > Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast.
10/01/2014 at 02:43

Too bad they didn't retain the pop-up lights in the production version.