Pontiac Dream Car recreation goes to auction

[balthazar]

Internally known as XP-200.

Nice work! I do find it only minorly wonky that she sports '59 instruments & pedals, but I understand the limitation of recreating something (custom & complex) from nothing.

http://www.motobullet.com/news.php?id=10448

Edited November 8, 2010 by balthazar

[ocnblu]

I cannot imagine the number of hours of work, fabricating this dream car. A labor of love, it must have been.

[Camino LS6]

Sooooo different from other "dream cars" of the era.

[balthazar]

^ It really is! Like it's from another manufacturer... or planet.

[Camino LS6]

or time.

[A Horse With No Name]

I love it!

[hyperv6]

This was sold before a couple years ago. After all the work I was shocked the guy let it go. He may have had to because of the money involved.

One of the Pontiac Magazines did a story on this car. It was interesting and amazing how they did some of the things on the car.

To this day no one can say 100% where the original cars is. Some claim it was crushed in 1958 while other say it was hidden away as many other Motorama cars were. There has been great hope it may show up someday. Odds are it was quietly scrapped and not well documented like the 6th Grandsport Vette that was burned.

I saw the small 3/8 go cart of this car that Harley Earl had made for his grandson If I recall. Imagine havine a well detailed Go cart of a Motorama car built by GM as a kid!

It will be interesting to see how much it goes for this time. At BJ the car went for $110,000. I suspect it cost more to build than that to build. The 3/8 car sold in 09 for $82,500.

Edited November 8, 2010 by hyperv6

[balthazar]

Yes- $100K plus fees. Interesting that the 3/8th car sold so close to the full-size one, but the 3/8th was an original 1956 GM piece, and at that time the F/S one wasn't done... AND the F/S one isn't the real thing.

I had read that Martino always intended to sell it, so not sure that cost involved was an unintended motivator.

GM's archives WRT the concept cars and the documentation they were scrapped has been documented to be unreliable. Too many that are 'officially destroyed' have survived, including multiple copies of concepts that 'officially' didn't exist. For many others, there is NO documentation as to what happened. Some have been documented to exist years & years after their service use was over, and they too slipped thru the cracks since.

This repeatedly lends hope to those who dream of finding one (like me). The '54 Cutlass & '56 Golden Rocket have been rumored to be in Jersey, too.

[hyperv6]

Yes- $100K plus fees. Interesting that the 3/8th car sold so close to the full-size one, but the 3/8th was an original 1956 GM piece, and at that time the F/S one wasn't done... AND the F/S one isn't the real thing.

I had read that Martino always intended to sell it, so not sure that cost involved was an unintended motivator.

GM's archives WRT the concept cars and the documentation they were scrapped has been documented to be unreliable. Too many that are 'officially destroyed' have survived, including multiple copies of concepts that 'officially' didn't exist. For many others, there is NO documentation as to what happened. Some have been documented to exist years & years after their service use was over, and they too slipped thru the cracks since.

This repeatedly lends hope to those who dream of finding one (like me). The '54 Cutlass & '56 Golden Rocket have been rumored to be in Jersey, too.

Jimmy Hoff is said to be in Jersey too.

The many stories of the GM show cars are very interesting. How they made it out and where they ended up are of great interest.

The price on the 3/8's car was no suprise to me but the low price on the clone car shocked me. I just think he took a loss if he intended to sell it. While Show car fans like us know this car few people have ever heard of it. He would have done better to build a Penske Grandsport Roadster Vette. I have someone I know that did one and more than doubled their money. They sold it for more than this car sold for. To build this car it had to be done for the love nothing more.

I think the BJ Scottsdale auction was a poor choice for this car. I think it would have done better at Pebble Beach.

I also have been waiting to see if the Nomad Vette shows up. It is said to still be around.

I figure Bortz will find these cars if they are still around. He is now done with the Biscayne and needs a new project.

In time I bet we will see some more cars come out. You just never know what may come up as some of these owners get older and pass away.

[balthazar]

Bortz is already on to the LaSalle II siblings (see thread in Cadillac forum). I'm so used to seeing pics of him from the '90s- he's looking quite a bit older now.

B-J is a great choice- look at what the F-88 & the Bonneville Special did there !

Price is suprisingly low on the CdM, even with the economy. I have no idea of his investment into it... but I still think the main reason it was so relatively low is that this wasn't the original.

Nomad vette has been seen in Warhoops at one point ('70s)... pretty sure I read the hardtop Motorama Corvette has been recovered recently. I saw pics on the net of it upside down in a storage warehouse.

I for one would be FAR more interested in the Corvette Corvair than the Corvette Nomad- which has been re-created more than once at this point.

[Robert Hall]

I wonder what they started with for building this car..maybe it on a mid '50s Pontiac chassis?

[balthazar]

While possible; this car is tiny- would be FAR quicker/easier to start from scratch on the frame.