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A white 1963 Pontiac Bonneville convertible, black top folded, sits inside a showroom floor with its Bonneville script catching the light. The same year Pontiac walked away from factory racing, buyers could still order this car with a tri-power 389 making well over 300 horsepower. Read on to see how a brand backing off performance marketing kept building some of its most potent engines anyway.
This 1967 Pontiac Bonneville isn’t just another full-size cruiser – it’s running Pontiac’s brand-new-for-’67 400 cubic-inch V8, good for up to 333 horsepower depending on trim. Loaded with burl dash trim, a TH400 automatic, and the kind of standard luxury touches that made the Bonneville Pontiac’s flagship, it represents an era of full-size performance that gets overlooked next to the GTO and Firebird. A survivor this clean and complete is a rare find today.
The 1959 Pontiac Bonneville convertible landed in the middle of a total reinvention: new bodies, twin fins, the first split grille, and a track widened five inches that gave the division its Wide Track identity for the next decade. Only 11,426 convertibles were built that year, and this one carries matching numbers along with nearly every power option Pontiac offered. Read on for why the wheels moved outward and what made 1959 Pontiac’s most important model year.
Ron Rufo wasn’t shopping for a car when he pulled into a Tinley Park show and happened to park beside a white 1959 Pontiac Bonneville convertible. It won Best of Show that afternoon, he struck up a friendship with the owner, and in 2001 the car became his. It’s also the model year Pontiac widened its track five inches and built an entire brand identity around it. Read on to find out what Wide-Track really changed.
This 1960 Pontiac Bonneville pairs a loaded, comfort-focused interior with a 389 Tri-Power V8 whose engineering roots trace back to Pontiac’s NASCAR program that same year. Three two-barrel carburetors delivered 425 lb-ft of torque through a 4-speed Hydra-Matic, a setup that stayed in Pontiac’s lineup through 1962. Here is how a family cruiser ended up with a genuinely competition-bred engine under its hood.