Pontiac Bonneville Special: 50s Concept Years Ahead of Its Time (16 Photos)
It was the 1950s and American car companies were busy transitioning from outdated post-war design to styles inspired by a new universal obsession - the "space age". 
In the 50s, General Motors held an annual Motorama exhibition. The company showed new models and design direction. In 1954 Almost two million people visited Motorama, and among those represented car was a Pontiac Bonneville Special. 
The concept was created under the guidance of the legendary Harley Earl, the largest American designer of the first half of the 20th century (he started to work for General Motors in 1927), father of the Chevrolet Corvette. Pontiac, like all models from Motorama in 1954, received a body from fiberglass and plexiglass windows. The car was different its appearance and interior. 
The impeccable style of a thoroughbred coupe with the ambition to become jet aircraft was transferred to the cabin in the form of a number of chrome-plated instruments, large three-spoke steering wheel and rear mirror type installed on the dashboard. Inside are two bucket seats, and in fact it was the first car of this type, on the nose which sported a Pontiac badge. The maximum speed on the speedometer 120 mph - 193 km/h. No tachometer or radio, but Elgin watch and two-point seat belts. 
The car got its name from the dry salt lake, where to this day day, all attempts are made to break speed records in all possible categories. Harley Earl visited the Bonneville salt flats during time of one of the annual competitions and, being under great Impressed by what he saw, he decided to dedicate the concept to this place. 
The model was equipped with a 4.4-liter 8-cylinder in-line engine and 234 hp (and according to some reports even 300) painted in Orange color. This engine has found its place only in this concept. He went into the series after numerous modifications and with reduced power. The unit is connected to the automatic transmission gears with four gears. The ignition key is located on the center tunnel. 
Pontiac Bonneville Special was made in two copies, in mainly to show it off as much as possible US cities. One is orange, the other is emerald green. Majority concepts created for the Motorama show were eventually destroyed. To Fortunately, both Pontiac cars got around this fate and in 2006 one of of them (completely restored, green) was put up for auction. A lucky buyer bought it for $2.8 million. Orange the copy is in the hands of collector Joe Bortz, who claims that the car is completely original. 
Many stylistic elements of the car later found their way into production cars of General Motors, and the name Bonneville lasted as many as 9 generations. 
