25 Years of High Performance Ask almost any enthusiast to name the make of car most consistently associated with high performance and chances are you`ll hear the name Pontiac . Small wonder . From its first tentative step in 1955 , when its long running inline engines gave way to a sparkling new overhead-valve V-8 , Pontiac has ladled out performance cars of incredible quantity and variety . An it`s still serving them up today . Pontiac`s line of exciting cars runs long and deep . The 55 lineup included the memorable Safari , along with Chevy`s Nomad the first station wagon equipped for show and go as well as workaday hauling . In 1957 came the fuel injected Bonneville , the car that demonstrated Pontiac`s firm commitment to enthusiatic motoring. The many hot models that would follow were not only fast off the line but good handlers and good lookers too . The 1959 model year saw the first of the famed Wide -Track Pontiacs , where even the family models aimed for high roadability as well as good straight line poke . Much later , the division brought forth a worthy rival for Europe`s best sports sedans at half their price , the exciting 1973 Grand Am . And throughout those halcyon days of high performance in the 60`s Pontiac`s syling was among the best in Detroit and arguably anywhere in the world .In fact consistently good styling -- clean and smooth yet somehow suggestive of performance -- was a major factor in forging Pontiac`s reputation for building cars that stood apart from their more mundane Detriot contemporaries.

Engineering played its part , too .When the age of compacts dawned in the early 60`s , Pontiac led the way with the new technology in a performance oriented product . The 1961-63 Tempest with its flexible driveshaft and rear transaxle was a novel and interesting approach to small car design in the U.S. , even though it was nowhere near as succesful as management hoped . But it quickly evolved into the Tempest Le Mans , from which sprang the GTO the most imitated car of its type . The GTO was the first of a new breed , the muscle cars", and it has remained the most revered . By the late 1960`s you could buy a mighty midsized machine under virtually every Detroit nameplate , but if owned a GTO you had the original .Today the GTO is  the car for that small army of muscle-car devotees for whom there is no worthy substitute .

Pontiac led the way again when a small segment of buyers began to demand American style grand touring cars . For 1964 it issued the Catalina 2+2 a very special wide tracker .Two years later the Tempest Sprint arraived with the first high performance six cylinder engine built in America since the Hudson Hornet of the early 50`s . The overhead cam Sprint six was so good that the auto writers eagerly compared it to immortal Jaguar XK engine . For 1967 , Chevy launched Chevy launched the camaro to better the Mustang ,Pontiac then launched it`s Firebird to better the Camaro .The f-bird was arguably better looking than its Chevy rival , and it was initially offered in wider variety of types , from the six cylinder sprint to the firebreathing 400 and , later the Trans Am .For 1970 came a stunning new design that was so right it would remain production for the next dozen model years . The new generation Firebird of today retains a character thats different from Camaro`s ; once again Pontiac has taken steps to make it different and , in many ways better .

 Its important to remember that sucesses like these were never easy for Pontiac . The reason ; it usually started at a disadvantage within the GM hierarchy . Because of higher sales Chevrolet always took precedent when new models were planned , and Pontiac often forced to borrow from Chevrolet .Yet it always managed to make it`s versions different from Chevrolet`s.thus the Safari differed considerably from the Nomad , the Firebird from the Camaro , the TransAm from Z-28.

In developing such cars Pontiac never tied itself to hidebound engineering practices nor relied on way-out solutions.Though high tech ideas were tried when they seemed necessary , tried and true components were never monkeyed with .The entire line of V-8`s through the last ones in 1981 stemmed for the same original design , something that can be said of no other makes performance powerplants , because it`s engineering was so good in the first place , there was no need to change the V-8 much . A car fan can be greatfull it wasn`t .