Vehicle Description
Vehicle to be offered for Auction sale January 19th - 22nd, 2017 at Russo and Steele's 17th Annual Scottsdale Arizona Auction at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick. Please contact us for more information.
While many regarded Pontiac as a maker of reliable but mundane family cars during the mid-1950s, this image was shattered soon after Semon "Bunkie" Knudsen assumed leadership and became the youngest General Manager of a GM Division in July 1956. His famous statement, "You can sell a young car to old people, but you can't sell an old car to young people", set the tone for Pontiac until the late 1960s, and echoed the growing importance of the burgeoning youth market to success in automotive sales.
Soon, a line of high-performance powertrain options were developed and made available, specifically targeted towards NASCAR competition; and despite GM's adoption of the AM A racing ban in 1957, Pontiac continued to emphasize performance. Developed as a traffic-generator for Pontiac dealers, the 1957 Pontiac Bonneville Convertible was a truly limited-production car with just 630 units produced. Unveiled to the public in December 1956, the Bonneville Convertible was also the rarest Pontiac built at the time. With a lofty base price of $5,782, the Bonneville came equipped with virtually every accessory Pontiac offered and in fact, there was only one way you could get it - fully loaded. Air conditioning and an externally mounted spare were the only available options.
The Bonneville's other distinction was in the area of performance. Contemporary published reports estimated the output of its fuel-injected engine to be somewhere between 295 and 310 hp. Meanwhile, Pontiac never released a specific rating for this engine, simply stating that its output was "in excess of 300 horsepower". Despite its size and bulk, the Bonneville proved quite effective when put to the test, reaching 60 mph in just 8.1 seconds from a standing start. The marketing plan for the Bonneville's debut was also unique. Each dealer in the United States was allocated just one car to sell, earning Pontiac a great deal of publicity and exclusivity in the process. In short, while Pontiac buyers realized that it meant something to have a fuel-injected engine; it really meant something more to own a fuel-injected Pontiac Bonneville Convertible.
Absolutely stunning, this highly original 1957 Pontiac Bonneville Convertible retains the buttery soft and beautiful original interior upholstery and full matching numbers mechanicals. Only 51,018 miles are indicated at the time of cataloging. Featuring excellent cosmetics and presented with high detail, this fuel-injected Bonneville is one of the rarest cars of its era. Beautifully restored, it is also a fitting link to the origins of Pontiac's 1950s turnaround and its stellar high-performance legacy culminating in the Catalina, GTO, Firebird, and Trans Am.
