Text by Patrick Bell.
We are going to look at some Pontiacs for today’s feature, mostly from the sixties and seventies with one from the fifties for good measure.
First off we have a pleased-looking young lady with a new ’68 Firebird hardtop that probably is hers. It was purchased at McKissick Pontiac in San Leandro, California, and appears like the base model dressed up with the Rally II wheels and a remote control outside mirror.
This one is a dusty looking ’61 Catalina Convertible Coupe, one of two ragtops offered that year. It was the least expensive but the Bonneville actually outsold it.
What a difference eleven years made back in the day. A ’53 Chieftain De Luxe 4 door sedan and a ’64 Catalina 4 door sedan. Both of them are wearing ’64 Illinois plates.
Dad taking a photo of junior and Mom at a roadside pulloff likely in California. They have a first year ’64 GTO hardtop that is a basic model with the only option I can see is a radio. They are traveling somewhere or possibly on a camping trip.
Here we have another ’64 model, this one a LeMans hardtop parked in front of a house in Tujunga, California. The house is still there but has changed quite a bit over the years.
A ’65 GTO hardtop in a nice shade of maroon. Down the street is a ’57 Chevrolet with a V8. Across the street is a ’63 Mercury Comet 4 door sedan.
Ranger Joe assisting a family with directions in the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia. They are traveling in a ’66 Catalina station wagon with a load on top.
Now let’s head north of the border to Banff, Alberta, where we have a ’65 Pontiac Parisienne Sport Sedan in blue. Under the awning from the left is a blue car I don’t recognize and a red ’59 Chevrolet. I believe the blue license plates are from ’70 and the green from ’71 so an early seventies photo in the summertime.
Back to California where we have a ’66 Catalina 4 door sedan and a ’67 Mustang hardtop. Someone left some stuff on the hood of the Catalina.
At a Florida beach in a ’68 GTO Hardtop Coupe. This one looks well dressed and is my favorite year for the GTO, although I wouldn’t turn any of them down.
We’re traveling through Texas with a ’70 Catalina or Executive 4 door sedan just passed on by. It has a license plate that was first issued in ’75. On the horizon to the right of the highway may be a couple of oil pumps.
Everyone had to have a compact model in the seventies, so this ’73 Ventura Coupe or Hatchback Coupe from California was Pontiac’s entry in the early part of the decade. This one is equipped with a 350 V8 and looks good in the Rally II wheels.
The Firebird Trans Am was and is a popular performance car and was boosted up to legend status with a movie series. This one is a ’77 or ’78 model, and looks good in dark brown with a saddle interior. It appears to be in a church or perhaps a school parking lot.
In this image, we have a ’70 Bonneville 4 door hardtop. Behind it is a ’80-’85 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser, and further back is the tail lamp of a ’82 or ’83 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera.
Thanks for cruising with us today and everyone stay warm!
Let’s go camping this year.
Sure, it will be fun in the GTO with the kids.
Imagine doing that now. Nice dream.
The GTO camping shot, and the lead picture (woman with the new Firebird) are my favorites from this group of pictures. Great shots at capturing a moment in time that’s hard to envision now.
The blue car at Banff (8th picture) is a 1959-61 Austin Westminster
https://www.hertspastpolicing.org.uk/content/police-history/police/austin-a99-area-cars
Thanks Bernard! I have never been around Austin’s so they can stump me easily.
I owned one of those Austins and spotted it easily, a woman cruised past me in a 67 Pontiac convertible yesterday first Poncho Ive seen for a while.
Great pictures!
Picture #11 (highway shot) was actually taken in New Mexico, rather than Texas. Wagon Wheel sits along I-40 about 50 mi. east of Albuquerque.
In the modern shot, you’re getting passed by a BMW rather than a Pontiac:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/N7MQ7DuQJAeNXj2L6
Yup. I thought that looked familiar. Just West of Clines Corners, an epic truck stop, and home of well-advertised clean restrooms since 1934 🙂
Thanks for the correction, Eric. I did too much presuming…
You’re welcome! And I’m really enjoying reading your commentary on these posts.
The burgundy paint on the GTO looks even better in person.
Circa 1989 I was involved with a gal whose DD was a $200, beat to death, 1967 Pontiac Catalina in that same color. But the parts of the body that hadn’t rusted away, that paint still shined and looked absolutely beautiful.
Pontiac in the 1960s sort of reminds me of what happened to Plymouth in the 1950s, they were absolutely wonderful for a while but then the stylists just lost the plot (Plymouth in 1959 as covered yesterday, Pontiac in 1969).
Surely Pontiac could have come up with more attractive cars after the 68seven in the face of changing market conditions and consumer tastes.
The ’61 Catalina convertible was such a good design for a full size car. (The Bonneville, to me, has just too much rear overhang.)
I was always curious why Pontiac installed the driver’s side mirror so far forward. (I know Brits and Japanese cars did that). I can’t recall another US maker doing that in the early ’60’s.
Someone left some stuff on the hood of the Catalina.
In the trunk, too, from the sag. Was its two-tone paint a factory option in ’66, at a time when vinyl roofs went mainstream?
Quite the difference between the ‘53 and ‘64 Pontiacs, although they are 11 years apart. To me the biggest change in car styling in the shortest amount of time are the ‘54 and ‘57 Mopars. Virgil Exner’s grand slam for 1957 defined his entire career. He really didn’t have much after this, but he really didn’t have to, such was the enormity of the Forward Look ‘57’s. Sort of like Orson Welles, whose Citizen Kane defined him for the next fifty years.
My first car was a ’77 firebird. I loved that car!
Have to differ with you on the ventura, it appears to be a 71 or 72 . Rear windows were a little more squared off and we all know what happened to the bumpers in 73
Father had a 61 Ventura 389 my favorite has always been 72 Catalina 421
Good eye!
Also a nice contrast with the 53 Chieftan.
I owned a very clean 53 chieftan two door that I bought in 1976 with 36,000 miles on it!
I’ve always been a Pontiac fan. Many hours cruising the strip in a 64 GTO with 3 deuces and Hurst super shifter.
That maroon GTO with the poverty caps reminds me of boyhood camping trips with my young parents. We did them in a ‘67 Camaro and ‘65 C10–both with poverty caps, of course!
Nice shots – Pontiac was a great choice in the 60s👍🤩
I love looking at these photos. My brother purchased a 68 Firebird, 400, automatic in 1980 for $350. It only had a bad transmission. He still has it. No one wanted the 60s muscle cars and they were cheap to buy. When I was in HS, you could pick up a Camaro, Mustang or GTO that ran and drove with a decent body for under $1,500.
You sure don’t see many old Pontiacs like you did in the sixties . The oil embargo of 1973 – ’74 changed our automobiles dramatically with much smaller and lighter vehicles . Today , motorists want economy with fuel prices like they are .
Some nice Pontiacs ! I love the ’61:convertible . Unfortunately , there aren’t many old Pontiacs on the road these days , as most of the cars are imports , like Toyotas , Nissan or Hondas . People want economy with today’s fuel prices . What a difference 30 years makes !
Had a 77 t/a in the same color with t tops… The ex always wanted one. A guy at work was always buying cars, throwing a lot of money at them and selling them at a loss. This one had a tweaked 400 with a four speed. Had new carpeting in the box, new t top seals.. Lots of work done to it.. Well the wife was then afraid to drive it due to the power it had… I drove it for a couple of months until the title arrived in my name.. That period I had it was in the winter, not the best thing in the snow..!!! Well I referred to the color as ups Brown. I put it for sale at the end of my driveway and a ups driver bought it… Would be worth a few schekls now for sure