Euro Poncho has mysterious origins
American history is filled with the stories of Europeans landing in North America among the indigenous “Indians.” Well, here’s a tale of a unique Indian landing in Europe. Tim Dye…
American history is filled with the stories of Europeans landing in North America among the indigenous "Indians." Well, here's a tale of a unique Indian landing in Europe.
Tim Dye of the Pontiac Oakland Automobile Museum in Pontiac, Ill., recently received this mysterious photo of a European 1933 Pontiac . For anyone acquainted with "Chiefs," or even General Motors products of the 1930s, there's something noticeably different about this Pontiac — it wears convertible victoria coachwork often seen in Europe, but rarely fitted on production cars in the United States.
This 1933 Pontiac is certainly a coachbuilt car built for the European market, but what coachbuilder constructed the body? Where was that company based? European coachbuilders that fit their work to mass-produced chassis often fitted similar bodies to many different makes, so how many were built? What other cars used this same (or very similar) victoria body fitted on this Pontiac?
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Angelo Van Bogart is the editor of Old Cars magazine and wrote the column "Hot Wheels Hunting" for Toy Cars & Models magazine for several years. He has authored several books including "Hot Wheels 40 Years," "Hot Wheels Classics: The Redline Era" and "Cadillac: 100 Years of Innovation." His 2023 book "Inside the Duesenberg SSJ" is his latest. He can be reached at avanbogart@aimmedia.com
