Pontiac Showed Up For Rollin' On the River

For much of its life span, Pontiac had been a very successful line for General Motors. Starting out in the 1930s as a lower cost "companion" brand for Oakland automobiles, Pontiac soon was outselling its older sibling and eventually caused GM to pull the plug on Oakland all together. In the GM pyramid that was designed to offer a car at every price point, Pontiac was near the bottom, just above Chevrolet and below Buick. For decades Pontiac was seen as a sensible, affordable family car. Then came the 1960s and then head John DeLorean (yes, the same one who would create a self-named sports car) who went against GM's orders and began dropping more powerful engines into mid-sized cars. Witness the birth of the muscle car. While not every Pontiac that you will see at an old car event such as the 33rd Annual Rollin' On the River show is a muscle car, there are plenty that do show up. Here is a 1986 Grand Prix 2+2, a Firebird, a Chiefton, a couple different Trans Am models, a GTO, and a late model Trans Am.