[Alvin]

Originally Posted by Greg Reid

Thanks for the link Alvin.

Welcome, glad to assist. One of my fave show cars since I was a kid.

[70Steve]

Cool old truck!

[70Steve]

Old Dealer on Hume Highway Sydney Australia.

[70Steve]

How cool is this!?

[70Steve]

1940's Mountford Parking Garage Bourke Street Melbourne.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by MikeNoun

Keith, that is SO cool!

I was wondering if there was enough Pontiakers out there that have done what you've done, recreate a vintage promo photo?

Think it's worth starting a new thread?

I know I've seen a few pics over the years on this site and others where someone recreated an original ad or promo pic with their car. In fact, I seem to recall someone did a u-turn on Woodward in a 68 GTO to recreate the famous ad, but the signs and trees were different now. Still very cool though!

Thank you; that one was spontaneous (prompted by her sister, I think). I'm sure Dr Eric Schiffer has recreated the Woodward ad, probably both with his GTO and with the Blackbird.

I have done a couple "then/now" photos and have quite a few more that I could still do -


This is my oldest son - back in October of 1987.



Same kid, same truck, 26 years later:



Me, with Dad's '63 Super Duty Catalina:



Me, with my '63 Grand Prix, winter of 2010:



I guess it's pretty obvious now why I like those aluminum wheels so much!

K

[buds56]

July 1981

65 lemans built from junkyard and scrounged parts
It had a clean body by western Pa standards
68 Gp 400, Saginaw 4 sp, 3.31 12 bolt, 66 Gto seats
probably had about $500 in it
drove it all summer and sold it for$1200 in the fall

[pontiac1981]

Originally Posted by Drag Star Le Mans

First pic of custom van has Pontiac bits? I think the stage coach thing was at the Seattle Auto Rama years ago? It is Pontiac powered!

1970 Cat or Bonne front bumper on the van.

[brucee70]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Thank you; that one was spontaneous (prompted by her sister, I think). I'm sure Dr Eric Schiffer has recreated the Woodward ad, probably both with his GTO and with the Blackbird.

I have done a couple "then/now" photos and have quite a few more that I could still do -


This is my oldest son - back in October of 1987.



Same kid, same truck, 26 years later:



Me, with Dad's '63 Super Duty Catalina:



Me, with my '63 Grand Prix, winter of 2010:



I guess it's pretty obvious now why I like those aluminum wheels so much!

K

Nice pics!

[brucee70]

My 63 Bonne SW was purchased from Peter Epsteen in Skokie, IL in May 1963. Found this online when trying to find some info about the Dealership.

[John V.]

Sigler's Automotive Center stands at that Skokie address today. I can't tell if the building remains, it was either extensively remodeled and expanded or completely replaced.

[robertf]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Thank you; that one was spontaneous (prompted by her sister, I think). I'm sure Dr Eric Schiffer has recreated the Woodward ad, probably both with his GTO and with the Blackbird.

I have done a couple "then/now" photos and have quite a few more that I could still do -


This is my oldest son - back in October of 1987.



Same kid, same truck, 26 years later:



Me, with Dad's '63 Super Duty Catalina:



Me, with my '63 Grand Prix, winter of 2010:



I guess it's pretty obvious now why I like those aluminum wheels so much!

K

Great pics!!

I especially like the one from 63 with the car up on wood blocks and dad working underneath. Saw that around my house many a time back in the old days...

[Keith Seymore]

Saw this on a Chevy truck board. The black '63 Grand Prix in the middle caught my eye first, then I noticed at least three other Pontiacs...



Posting this one just because it cracked me up:

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Saw this on a Chevy truck board. The black '63 Grand Prix in the middle caught my eye first, then I noticed at least three other Pontiacs...

I see that this is in Missouri somewhere.

I-55, US-61 and Mo 34 all come together in Cape Girardeau. That area is where my family is originally from before migrating north in the 1950s for work in the great automotive factories in Michigan.

K

[pontiac1981]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Saw this on a Chevy truck board. The black '63 Grand Prix in the middle caught my eye first, then I noticed at least three other Pontiacs...



Posting this one just because it cracked me up:

I see 4 Pontiacs in there.

[brucee70]

Originally Posted by John V.

Sigler's Automotive Center stands at that Skokie address today. I can't tell if the building remains, it was either extensively remodeled and expanded or completely replaced.

I need to go visit that corner in Skokie one day. Would like to see it and squint my eyes to see back a few years ...:-)

[Alvin]

Can't recall if this Pontiac NASA tow vehicle has been posted here previously.
NASA/Dryden Flight Research Center (NASA-DFRC)M2-F1 in hangar with Pontiac tow vehicle (1/2/1967)

The M2-F1 Lifting Body is seen here in a hangar with its hotrod Pontiac convertible tow vehicle at the Flight Research Center (later the Dryden Flight Research Center), Edwards, California. The car was a 1963 Pontiac Catalina convertible, fitted with a 421-cubic-inch tripower engine like those being run at the Daytona 500 auto race. The vehicle also had a four-speed transmission and a heavy-duty suspension and cooling system. A roll bar was also added and the passenger seat turned around so an observer could watch the M2-F1 while it was being towed. The rear seat was removed and a second, side-facing seat installed. The lifting-body team used the Pontiac for all the ground-tow flights over the next three years. The wingless, lifting body aircraft design was initially conceived as a means of landing an aircraft horizontally after atmospheric reentry. The absence of wings would make the extreme heat of re-entry less damaging to the vehicle. In 1962, Dryden management approved a program to build a lightweight, unpowered lifting body as a prototype to flight test the wingless concept. It would look like a "flying bathtub," and was designated the M2-F1, the "M" referring to "manned" and "F" referring to "flight" version. It featured a plywood shell placed over a tubular steel frame crafted at Dryden. Construction was completed in 1963. The first flight tests of the M2-F1 were over Rogers Dry Lake at the end of a tow rope attached to a hopped-up Pontiac convertible driven at speeds up to about 120 mph. This vehicle needed to be able to tow the M2-F1 on the Rogers Dry Lakebed adjacent to NASA's Flight Research Center (FRC) at a minimum speed of 100 miles per hour. To do that, it had to handle the 400-pound pull of the M2-F1. Walter "Whitey" Whiteside, who was a retired Air Force maintenance officer working in the FRC's Flight Operations Division, was a dirt-bike rider and hot-rodder. Together with Boyden "Bud" Bearce in the Procurement and Supply Branch of the FRC, Whitey acquired a Pontiac Catalina convertible with the largest engine available. He took the car to Bill Straup's renowned hot-rod shop near Long Beach for modification. With a special gearbox and racing slicks, the Pontiac could tow the 1,000-pound M2-F1 110 miles per hour in 30 seconds. It proved adequate for the roughly 400 car tows that got the M2-F1 airborne to prove it could fly safely and to train pilots before they were towed behind a C-47 aircraft and released. These initial car-tow tests produced enough flight data about the M2-F1 to proceed with flights behind the C-47 tow plane at greater altitudes. The C-47 took the craft to an altitude of 12,000 where free flights back to Rogers Dry Lake began. Pilot for the first series of flights of the M2-F1 was NASA research pilot Milt Thompson. Typical glide flights with the M2-F1 lasted about two minutes and reached speeds of 110 to l20 mph. A small solid landing rocket, referred to as the "instant L/D rocket," was installed in the rear base of the M2-F1. This rocket, which could be ignited by the pilot, provided about 250 pounds of thrust for about 10 seconds. The rocket could be used to extend the flight time near landing if needed. More than 400 ground tows and 77 aircraft tow flights were carried out with the M2-F1. The success of Dryden's M2-F1 program led to NASA's development and construction of two heavyweight lifting bodies based on studies at NASA's Ames and Langley research centers--the M2-F2 and the HL-10, both built by the Northrop Corporation, and the U.S. Air Force's X-24 program, with an X-24A and -B built by Martin. The Lifting Body program also heavily influenced the Space Shuttle program. The M2-F1 program demonstrated the feasibility of the lifting body concept for horizontal landings of atmospheric entry vehicles. It also demonstrated a procurement and management concept for prototype flight test vehicles that produced rapid results at very low cost (approximately $50,000, excluding salaries of government employees assigned to the project).

[Old Blue 66]

Originally Posted by brucee70

I need to go visit that corner in Skokie one day. Would like to see it and squint my eyes to see back a few years ...:-)

I've been by that area and don't remember seeing a building that looks remotely like that. I'll bet it's been torn down and rebuilt. I could be wrong though.

[John V.]

Paul, looking at the Google Street View, I just can't tell, the Sigler buildings look like they might be remodeled from the Epsteen buildings seen in the postcard. I'm also guessing the highway out front may have been widened, encroaching on the property.

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.0168...1Z646pDS1A!2e0

[Alvin]

'59 Pontiac Wagon