What Pontiac Model was named in honor of the guy who set several records racing/testing Pontiacs?

Please name the Driver and the Car. Hint- was one of the longest running Pontiac name plates.

Chris

You must be referring to the "happy village" Bonneville.

Yeah its Bonneville...

The driver was Ab Jenkins (same guy who's signature appeared on the dash plaques of all supercharged '35-36 Auburn 851/852s denoting that each car had been tested @ at 100.8 MPH before shipment) and he drove the snot out of a '56 Pontiac Chieftan 2-dr sedan with the Strato-Streak V-8- with the 285HP dual-quad option. Averaged 118 MPH for 24 hrs and went as fast as 126. Also completed a run of 2841 miles... all at Bonneville.

A '56 Pontiac also won it's class in the highly-regulated MobilGas economy run, averaging 21.1 MPG.

BTW- the Chieftan nameplate did not last very long relative to numerous other Pontiacs; Chieftan: '49-58 inclusive. A variant on the name -Star Chief- went thru '66.

Edited February 23, 200818 yr by balthazar

AB Jenkins was indeed the driver.

Chris

Wasn't there one year in the Pontiac lineup where you could get a "Star Chief Executive" model? Seems like it was circa 1965 or '66. By '67, I think it had become just the "Executive" (long wheelbase model like the Bonneville, but with trim more like the Catalina/Ventura, right?).

Right-O, NLX; the Star Chief became the Star Chief Executive in '66, and the plain ol' Executive for '67-70.

21.1 average...

in a carburated, V8, BOF, all steel, large car with a drag co.ef. comparable to a Peterbilt.

You mean it wasn't Hank G6? Or Pedro Aztek? Or Joe Montana...wait, he didn't race cars.