Name that car...

[A Horse With No Name]

What Pontiac Model was named in honor of the guy who set several records racing/testing Pontiacs?

Please name the Driver and the Car. Hint- was one of the longest running Pontiac name plates.

Chris

[Sixty8panther]

You must be referring to the "happy village" Bonneville.

[gm4life]

Yeah its Bonneville...

[balthazar]

The driver was Ab Jenkins (same guy who's signature appeared on the dash plaques of all supercharged '35-36 Auburn 851/852s denoting that each car had been tested @ at 100.8 MPH before shipment) and he drove the snot out of a '56 Pontiac Chieftan 2-dr sedan with the Strato-Streak V-8- with the 285HP dual-quad option. Averaged 118 MPH for 24 hrs and went as fast as 126. Also completed a run of 2841 miles... all at Bonneville.

A '56 Pontiac also won it's class in the highly-regulated MobilGas economy run, averaging 21.1 MPG.

BTW- the Chieftan nameplate did not last very long relative to numerous other Pontiacs; Chieftan: '49-58 inclusive. A variant on the name -Star Chief- went thru '66.

Edited February 23, 2008 by balthazar

[A Horse With No Name]

AB Jenkins was indeed the driver.

Chris

[NeonLX]

Wasn't there one year in the Pontiac lineup where you could get a "Star Chief Executive" model? Seems like it was circa 1965 or '66. By '67, I think it had become just the "Executive" (long wheelbase model like the Bonneville, but with trim more like the Catalina/Ventura, right?).

[balthazar]

Right-O, NLX; the Star Chief became the Star Chief Executive in '66, and the plain ol' Executive for '67-70.

[Sixty8panther]

21.1 average...

in a carburated, V8, BOF, all steel, large car with a drag co.ef. comparable to a Peterbilt.

[Hudson]

You mean it wasn't Hank G6? Or Pedro Aztek? Or Joe Montana...wait, he didn't race cars.