El Catilina

The October 2011 issue of my Classic Car Magazine has an interesting feature.
Apparently Pontiac considered fielding a car-pickup much like the Ford Ranchero and the Chevrolet El Camino.
They even developed a prototype, and it still exists.
Enough parts were obtained to fabricate three prototypes, but only one was completed.
It required use of the cab-section of a ’59 El Camino, and a Pontiac stationwagon.
The combination car-pickup was very popular in Australia.

1957 Ford Ranchero.

Ford was first to market a car-pickup in this country, the 1957 Ranchero.
The Ranchero was a complete surprise to The General.

1959 Chevrolet El Camino.

They weren’t able to compete until the 1959 model-year: the Chevrolet El Camino.
In my humble opinion, the ’59 Chevrolet was the ugliest Chevrolet ever marketed.
It looks like it was styled by a committee.
An el-cheapo front-end grafted onto gigantic sweeping gull-wing fins.
Such an arrangement looks utterly ridiculous on a DelRay sedan, Chevrolet’s cheapest offering.

Photo by BobbaLew.

The ugliest Chevrolet ever made.

I remember the ’59 Chevy made me sick; ridiculous styling after the fabulous Tri-Chevys of the middle ‘50s. (’55 was best.)
Making the ’59 Chevrolet into a car-pickup wasn’t an improvement.
The ’59 El Camino didn’t rescue the breed.
Nearly all The General’s offerings in the 1959 model-year were ridiculous. —Only the Buick was successful, although obscene.

1959 Pontiac.

This included Pontiac. The ’59 Pontiac is the ugliest Pontiac ever marketed, almost as bad as the ’59 Chevrolet.
Pontiac’s car-pickup was never scrapped; but never came to fruition.
The car-pickup concept was a niche. Not many were selling. The El Camino outsold the Ranchero, and the Ranchero did quite well when it had the market to itself.
But managers at Pontiac realized they’d never do well carving out a small segment of that niche.
Which was a shame, because Pontiac’s car-pickup looked pretty good.
In fact, it’s an improvement on the regular ’59 Pontiac.
And that was despite a hood that looks like it could land a Navy Corsair fighter-plane, and that gigantic piece of glass that served as a windshield.
The infamous “wrap-around windshield,” with its dog-leg that clobbered knees on entry and exit.
The prototype was not a viable automobile.
It could operate, but was a concept-car.
Parts had to be individually fabricated (especially the tailgate), and the insulation was crumpled paper.
That insulation soaked, promoting rust.
Yet the prototype was never scrapped, and was eventually registered.
It went 125,000 miles, most of it as a utility pickup for a college student.
He drove it quite a bit, including out west.
The car was involved in an accident which required replacing the entire front clip.
And it was found during restoration a frame-member had dislodged.
The car is not original. It rides on a recycled stationwagon chassis.
The car also had a lotta rust-damage.
It’s too bad Pontiac never brought the concept to market.
It actually made the ’59 Pontiac look better.

• “The General” is General Motors.