1964 Pontiac Banshee prototype in Cars & Parts
Wednesday-June 23, 2010
Another Archetypal Prototype story from Cars & Parts (July 2010)!
I’ve already laid the foundation for the Archetypal Prototype story when I wrote earlier about Bob Stevens’ story on the 1954 Hudson Jet convertible prototype. In the very same issue, Cars & Parts published a variant on the story: the concept car.
Concept cars were often styling exercises created by enthusiastic designers, engineers, or both. Often, when the company is done with them, they’re forgotten, rescued by a heroic employee, used as a daily driver, sold to/restored by an avid collector, and admired/envied forever after.
In this case, writer Jon G. Robinson tells the tale of the 1964 Pontiac Banshee, a concept car with a lot of styling cues that later showed up on the 1967 Pontiac Firebird, the 1968 Corvette, and the 1968 Opal GT.
Along with nice, detailed photography, it really helps when you can talk to the guy who really helped to make the car happen. In this article, the Heroic Employee was Bill Collins. (I’ll say it again: direct quotes from the people who lived the story will always trump whatever historians write later about the subject. Robinson does right when he gets out of the way and lets Collins tell the story.”)
Although it’s not explicitly stated in the article, the Banshee that Robinson writes about is a convertible. There’s another one that’s for sale by Lenny Napoli. Check out the video below (and ignore the slightly scary female narrator).
I’ve already laid the foundation for the Archetypal Prototype story when I wrote earlier about Bob Stevens’ story on the 1954 Hudson Jet convertible prototype. In the very same issue, Cars & Parts published a variant on the story: the concept car.
Concept cars were often styling exercises created by enthusiastic designers, engineers, or both. Often, when the company is done with them, they’re forgotten, rescued by a heroic employee, used as a daily driver, sold to/restored by an avid collector, and admired/envied forever after.
In this case, writer Jon G. Robinson tells the tale of the 1964 Pontiac Banshee, a concept car with a lot of styling cues that later showed up on the 1967 Pontiac Firebird, the 1968 Corvette, and the 1968 Opal GT.
Along with nice, detailed photography, it really helps when you can talk to the guy who really helped to make the car happen. In this article, the Heroic Employee was Bill Collins. (I’ll say it again: direct quotes from the people who lived the story will always trump whatever historians write later about the subject. Robinson does right when he gets out of the way and lets Collins tell the story.”)
Although it’s not explicitly stated in the article, the Banshee that Robinson writes about is a convertible. There’s another one that’s for sale by Lenny Napoli. Check out the video below (and ignore the slightly scary female narrator).