Before the Chevrolet Camaro came about, General Motors was stuck in the boardroom thinking up ways to contest the massively successful Ford Mustang. At one point Pontiac’s Advanced Engineering wing was tasked with dreaming up the car which was to dethrone the Blue Oval’s pony car, and the result was the rather handsome XP-833 Banshee concept.
The Banshee came to fruition after then-Pontiac boss John Delorean allowed his team to build a two-seater sports car. Using design influence taken from the Corvair Monza GT concept, the Pontiac Advanced Engineering wing put together the sleek Banshee concept, and would soon build four more for the auto show circuit each with their own unique styling and upgrade parts.
Pontiac Banshee number one was saved from the wrecker after its auto show tour and will soon go under the gavel at Dragone’s upcoming 2015 Greenwhich Car Event Weekend Auction in Connecticut. The model is finished in silver and has an immaculate red interior with bucket seats and an aircraft-inspired dash. Power comes from Pontiac’s single overhead cam inline-six engine, which sets the car apart from the only other surviving example, a white V8-powered convertible.
The Banshee never reached production seeing as the Corvette already had the two-seat sportscar niche covered, and the Camaro had already set to work on getting up the Mustang’s nose, but looking at the photos of Banshee No. 1 makes us wish it had. Check out the listing for the car here before it’s sold at Dragone Greenwhich later this month.
Comments
More photos, please!
Well John built these defying GM back in 63 and they only did two like this the V8 as mentioned and this OHC6.
The cars are built on a chopped A body frame and are drivable but not really what you would car production durable or ready.
This car as was the other were hidden as they were told to be destroyed. They were smuggled out of GM years later and sold as scrap to the designer and on other GM employee. They are unrestored.
These cars were the starting point for the 68 Corvette as some of the design was cribbed from these cars. These are the only two non Corvette models ever to be invited to the Bloomington Gold Corvette Event.
This one has been offered for sale several times and only sold once for a little over $100K at Barrett Jackson. It was a steal there but the price has gone up and it has remained unsold. I always assumed a big collector would grab it but so far it has been a no sale at several auctions.
The other two Banshees were later models done on Firebirds and were only show cars and were not two seat cars.
John when stopped here tried to do a Firebird with no back seat but also was stopped by GM. This is why the Firebird in the first couple years looks so much like a Camaro as they did not get much input in the car due to starting so late. They dropped the ride height and put Herb Adams on it to make it out handle the Camaro. Also they added an additional traction bar to make the car hook up better with the Pontiac Torque.
Anyways this car was a big point of contention for GM and Pontiac and was a signal of where Delorean was wanting to go and where GM stopped him. They also stopped 4 wheel disc brakes on the GTO, Composite headlamps, OHC and DOHC V8 engines, Fuel Injection, Electronic Ignition, radial tires and more. Keep in mind this was all in 1965-1969.
You want to talk about the damaged GM culture it was alive and well in the 60’s as they killed off many projects of Delorean that would have not only put GM up but Pontiac a decade ahead of the rest of the automakers.
So Dragone like Barrett Jackson will be selling a stolen vehicle.
Not stolen they car was sold legally to the Bill Collins engineer who did most of the work and another employee.
If it were not for them hiding these cars we would not have them today. They were sold around the time GM considered scrapping the X job and Y models too.
It was common back then for people to hide cars that GM was wanting to scrap as they saw what happened to many of the Motorama cars over the years.
Contrary to what many think automakers can not keep every show car they make as they just do not have the space and the money to do it. It cost a lot of money to protect a lot of cars that do not make money. We are lucky as of recently they have consented to sell some show cars that normally would have been scrapped for legal liability reasons.
The truth is GM knew when these were sold what they were and did not care as they were to have been scrapped anyways. It was more ales dumpster diving.
Thanks Scott.