Pretty Good Name for an Automobile Celebrating 30 years of production Pontiacs named for the place that put speed on the map, here is the story of the 1957-1987 Pontiac Bonneville, from a flashy 1950s flyer to the latest in 1980s excitement. It's called Bonneville. And ever since Sir Malcolm Campbell's "Bluebird" land speed record car hotfooted across it to crack the 300-mile-an-hour barrier, that name has been synonymous with speed. Pretty good name for an automobile, especially if you're an automaker striving to establish a performance image. That was exactly the problem facing Pontiac in 1954, when it first latched onto the Bonneville tag. Pontiac was sixth in industry sales at the time, far behind sister General Motors divisions Buick and Oldsmobile as well as the "low-price three." Though solid value for the money, the cars with the Indian head mascot had fallen behind the times. For example, Pontiac was still saddled with a side-valve straight eight in 1954, a dubious honor shared only with Packard that year. Worse, the make had become associated with the Social Security set at a time when younger buyers -- the GIs of World War II -- were starting to be a major market influence. That realization had evidently dawned on division management even before Knudsen arrived, because a series of youthful Motorama specials appeared under the Pontiac banner beginning in 1953. First came the Parisienne, a cut-down 1953 Chieftain Catalina hardtop with landau-style half-roof and fashionable wrapped windshield. The following year brought the jet-like Strato-Streak, a pillarless hardtop sedan with center-opening doors in the image of certain Lancia models.