Bunkie, Pete, and Bonneville 1957-58 When Semon E.'Bunkie" Knudsen arrived in mid-1956 as Pontiac's new general manager, industry observers suspected that the 40-year-old division was in for a shakeup- Bunkie's father, William S. "Big Bill" Knudsen. had done as much at Ford some 40 years earlier, before he left to work for GM after being fired by the easilt angered Henry. The senior Knudsen had then helped make Chevrolet a Ford-beater by 1927, and had himself managed Pontiac in 1932- 34. Bunkie  the name sprang from the youngster's sharing a bunk with his father on hunting trips) was well-trained. having earned an engineering degree from prestigious MIT. And he'd had plenty of experience, having joined GM as a Pontiac tool engineer in 1939. Fresh from successful managerial stints at GM's Allison and Detroit Diesel divisions, he was, at age 44, the youngest GM division manager in company history by a long way.

One of the first things Bunkie did at Pontiac was to line up a new chief engineer to replace the retiring George Delaney. Elliott M. "Pete" Estes (who would later be GM president) was a natural: his companybackground dated back even farther than Knudsen's. Estes had attended the GM Institute, then earned a graduate degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Cincinnati. Starting at GM in 1940, Estes benefited greatly from the experience of working under the great Charles Kettering of "Kettering Engine" (ohv V-8) fame and with Oldsmobile chief engineer Harold Metre. Together. Knudsen and Estes were the "dynamic duo" that raised the curtain on a generation of high-performance Pontiacs.
Knudsen arrived too late to do much about the 1957 models, but he gave it his best shot. "We had to get away from that 'Indian concept,' " he recalled in 1975. "No reflection on the American Indian, but old Chief Pontiac had been associated in the public mind with a prosaic family-toting sedan from the time Pontiacs were first built ... I couldn't do much about '57 styling. That had long since been locked up. I did manage to get rid of those Silver Streaks on the hood. They looked like a pair of suspenders!" (The rumor that Knudsen personally unbolted the streaks from the production prototype is untrue, but his order to delete them did require a last minute tooling change.) Next, Knudsen turned his attention to performance—and competition—to give Pontiac a needed infusion of youthfulness. Just before he'd come aboard, 73-year-old Ab Jenkins, a still-spry speed merchant of prewar days, had driven a "stock" '56 Chieftain at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, scoring 118.337 mph for 24 hours,126.02 mph for 100 miles, and breaking numerous class records. Then, the Automobile Manufacturers Association instituted its infamous "agreement" in early 1957, by which its members withdrew from factory-backed racing and de-emphasized performance in auto advertising. Knudsen was not deterred. On the side, he set up famed Daytona Beach racing mechanic Smokoy Yunick to "fiddle" with Pontiacs with an eye to possible NASCAR involvement. And lightweight Chieftains running fine-tuned stock and modified mills began showing up at dragstrips for the first time.

One of the first things Bunkie did at Pontiac was to line up a new chief engineer to replace the retiring George Delaney. Elliott M. "Pete" Estes (who would later be GM president) was a natural: his companybackground dated back even farther than Knudsen's. Estes had attended the GM Institute, then earned a graduate degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Cincinnati. Starting at GM in 1940, Estes benefited greatly from the experience of working under the great Charles Kettering of "Kettering Engine" (ohv V-8) fame and with Oldsmobile chief engineer Harold Metre. Together. Knudsen and Estes were the "dynamic duo" that raised the curtain on a generation of high-performance Pontiacs.
Knudsen arrived too late to do much about the 1957 models, but he gave it his best shot. "We had to get away from that 'Indian concept,' " he recalled in 1975. "No reflection on the American Indian, but old Chief Pontiac had been associated in the public mind with a prosaic family-toting sedan from the time Pontiacs were first built ... I couldn't do much about '57 styling. That had long since been locked up. I did manage to get rid of those Silver Streaks on the hood. They looked like a pair of suspenders!" (The rumor that Knudsen personally unbolted the streaks from the production prototype is untrue, but his order to delete them did require a last minute tooling change.) Next, Knudsen turned his attention to performance—and competition—to give Pontiac a needed infusion of youthfulness. Just before he'd come aboard, 73-year-old Ab Jenkins, a still-spry speed merchant of prewar days, had driven a "stock" '56 Chieftain at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, scoring 118.337 mph for 24 hours,126.02 mph for 100 miles, and breaking numerous class records. Then, the Automobile Manufacturers Association instituted its infamous "agreement" in early 1957, by which its members withdrew from factory-backed racing and de-emphasized performance in auto advertising. Knudsen was not deterred. On the side, he set up famed Daytona Beach racing mechanic Smokoy Yunick to "fiddle" with Pontiacs with an eye to possible NASCAR involvement. And lightweight Chieftains running fine-tuned stock and modified mills began showing up at dragstrips for the first time.
 

Cotton Owens drove his '57 Chieftain to win at Daytona.
Meanwhile, Pete Estes was at work back at the factory, raising compression ratios, adding carbs, experimenting with new induction systems. One of his first efforts, introduced at the middle of the 1957 model year, was a set of three two-barrel carbs
mounted on a special manifold. For this setup Pontiac coined a name that would soon be on the lips of every enthusiast: Tri-Power.
The normal Tri-Power engine was rated at 290 bhp, but an optional dealer-installed hydraulic-lifter cam could raise that to 310. Author Jan Norbye claimed these figures were slightly low and actually tested out at 294 and 321 bhp. Dealers could also install an Iskenderian E2 solid-lifter cam. Though it yielded no more horsepower and lacked the smooth low-speed running and economy of the hydraulics, the Isky cam was just the thing for dragstrips and long-haul ovals like Daytona. With such an engine, a Yunick Pontiac sponsored by one Mr. Knudsen set a record 131.747-mph lap at the 1957 Speed Weeks. With all this, paying customers began to notice Pontiac's new image. Magazine road tests reported the hot '57s doing 0-60 mph in the 8.0-second area. Knudsen knew that was good, but also wanted results on the race track. He and a group of Pontiac people went to Daytona for the annual Speed Weeks in February to are how their cars did against the stiffest competition ever. They weren't diasppointed. The fastest our in the flying mile was a Tri-Power Pontiac Chieftain, with an average of over 136 mph. On one run it hit 142 mph. The only problem was that the compression ratio was too high, and the car was disqualified. The win went to a Chrysler 300C at 134.128 mph, though that car was not in the Pontiac's displacement class. Second overall and first in Class his (305-350 cubic inches) was Joe Littlejohn at 131.747 mph. Pontiac took the top three spots in its division. In the standing-start mile, Pontiac took one-two in class and third overall behind a 300C and a specially prepared Mercury. Pontiac also scored its first NASCAR Grand National victory in the 160-mile race on the beach road course. Cotton Owens, driving a Tri-Power-equipped Chieftain two-door, took the lead from the fuel-injected Smokey Yunick Chevy, driven by Paul Goldsmith, with six laps to go.
Sensing the factories might be running with special engines, NASCAR banned everything except a single four-barrel carbs in April of 1957. That obviously put the kabosh on Tri-Power. The final blow was supposed to be the AMA ban on factory participation in racing. However, that helped Pontiac more than anything else—it got rid of the competition.

On the surface, Pontiac did get out of racing. It ended its contract with tuner Ray Nichels, mostly for appearance sake. But Knudsen was just getting started, and no "voluntary agreement" was going to stop him. With factory deals off, teams were available. Smokey Yunick had signed a big-buck deal with Ford just before the AMA edict. This had to be honored in dollars and parts, but not in time. Though he raced Fords independently, he signed with Pontiac to do development work, and eventually to race its cars. Later, Knudsen resumed working with Nichels, and added drag racer Mickey Thompson—all while the others were sleeping.
Pontiac was also doing well in drag racing, though Chevrolets were dominant in most classes. However, John Zink topped Super/Stock competiton at the third annual NHRA nationals at Oklahoma on Labor Day driving a 1957 Pontiac.
In February 1957 Pontiac had launched a brand-new model bearing a perfect name: Bonneville. "The Bonneville was our top of the line," Knudsen recalled. "the car I was counting on to bring the new
Early ad for '57 Bonneville showed dummy  front fender vents left off the final production version.They wanted to send a message to the public.

 And it did. I remember sitting in the grandstand at Daytona with my wife, watching it at its first race. Somebody in the stands shouted, `Look what's happened to Grandma!' " What had happened, quite plainly, was that Grandma had been to Vic Tanny. Predictably, the Bonneville brought throngs of performance-seekers into Pontiac showrooms. Some prospects left in one of the cheaper models, of course, but all were fired up with early cases of Pontiac Fever. Initially announced as a limited-production model "for dealer use only," the '57 Bonnie saw just 630 copies.
The idea behind the Bonneville was to give Pontiac appeal in the car-buff market, and it was all very carefully planned. "Since fuel injection was a fairly new
concept, it wasn't the kind of thing we wanted to produce in volume," says a former highly placed Pontiac source. "With something like this the wise course is 'limited production' to build publicity. Not every exec will admit it, but there's an intrinsic benefit in this approach. The enthusiast is so proud of what he has he'll rarely knock it, even if some bugs develop. And in those days fuel injection had its share of bugs."
Designed by GM Engineering and engineered for production by Zora Arkus-Duntov and Harry Barr, the Bonneville's Rochester fuel injection system was similar to the Ramjet system introduced by Chevrolet that year. In included fuel and air meters plus a special manifold assembly that replaced the carburetor manifold. Fuel was injected directly into each port, the fuel/air mixture being precisely controlled by the metering devices. Though FI didn't provide greater horsepower than conventional induction, it did improve response by completely eliminating throttle lag. With the Bonneville, Pontiac became the only domestic make besides Chevrolet to offer fuel injection on a production model
Though the two injection systems were similar in design, there were some significant detail difference' Pontiac's setup was tidier: its fuel meter was mounted low inside between stamped-steel air pipes under the plenum chamber instead of high and opposite the air meter as in the Chevy installation. Also, Pontiac's manifold heater and air pipes were
unit—steel stampings joined together—while one Chevy's header and pipes were separate and its manifold header was a casting. And the Pontiac's air pipes were longer, close to 12 inches, ostensibly insuring a better ram effect at high rpm. According to division publicity sheets, the fuelie gave "maximum economy and performance in the normal driving range." The system was allegedly intended formaximum low and midrange torque rather than top-end performance.
Retail price for the Bonneville was set at $5782. Offered only as a convertible, the new model could be had only with Strata-Flight Hydra-Matic transmission, power steering, and power brakes, and came with many accessories that were optional on lesser models. Pontiac's top-liner was also set apart by its styling features. The bodyside "spear" that was part of the 1957 restyle was filled in with a chrome-plated bullet, and anodized-aluminum gravel Shields adorned the lower rear fenders. The effect was to make the car appear longer and lower than standard models despite the three-year-old, Chevy-shared body. Tri-sected spinner hubcaps, another '57 option, were standard Bonneville items. Underlining the importance Pontiac management attached to its novel induction system, the Bonneville wore the words "fuel injection" in large letters on its front fenders and deck—but no Pontiac nameplate! From behind, the chromey taillight housings and bumper exhaust ports were unmistakable.

1958 Bonneville body would last only one year.