Filed to: Down On The Street

Venturing yet again to the old-iron-studded byways of Alameda, I've found this '57 Pontiac Star Chief. While obviously a first cousin to the '57 Chevy, the Star Chief had distinctive- if busy- styling and packed a bigger engine than the Chevy, at 347 cubes versus 283. You could even get the 347 with a triple-carb setup that yielded 290 horses...


This one's pretty rough, and those rusty wire wheels probably came from a yard sale in 1974.


But still, it's still driving at age 50 and it doesn't live a gilded-cage life of garages and trailers. And that means something!

In fact, this car may well be driven by its original owner; this is quite common with 50s and 60s cars on this strange David Lynchesque island.


In fact, I'm starting to think GM needs to do a retro'd-out Star Chief modeled after this thing. Look at those curves!


Yes, you can just about taste the optimism in this design. Why, there'd be nuclear-powered Pontiacs on the Moon Base by 1980!


Sadly, the Moon Pontiacs were not to be. But hey, it could be worse- at least Pontiac still exists!


Related:

Pontiac Returning to Rear-Drive Roots? [internal]