Welcome to the San Diego chapter of POCI.

A bit of Pontiac history.  Althought the first Pontiac car didn't debut until 1926, the division's history actually dates back to 1893!  Edward M. Murphy established the Pontiac Buggy Company in Pontiac, Michigan, where the company produced horse-drawn carriages.  As it became clear that motor cars sales were going to eclipse carriages,  Murphy wisely started the Oakland Motor Car Company in 1907, an offshoot of the buggy company.  Two years later, General Motors acquired half of Oakland in an exchange of stock.  GM founder William Durant, a friend of Murphy's, was actually more interested in his talent and expertise than his Oakland cars,  but Murphy died unexpectedly the following summer.  A few months later, GM purchased control of Oakland amid rumors that Durant paid for part of the company from his personal earnings to help Murphy's family.  Oakland was very successful through the year 1920.  Then, a minor economic depression combined with inefficient production and Durant's drive for acquisition weakened Oakland and GM.

By 1920, General Motors was in disarray.  In just 12 years, Durant had founded the company, lost control in 1910, regained it in 1916 and lost it again in 1920.  The corporation's seven divisions were fighting for the same customers, and none were priced to compete with Ford's $500 Model T.  At the time, GM's prices ranged from $795 for the low-end Chevrolet to $5690 for the highest-priced Cadillac.  Since GM wasn't in the position  to rival the Model T, a committee of company executives, under the leadership of new GM president Alfred Sloan, decided to create a car to fill the long-standing price gap between Chevrolet and Oldsmobile.  In addition, the new vehicle would serve as a platform to share vehicle components in an effort to improve manufacturing volume efficiency. 

So, they created Pontiac, a new car line under the auspices of Oakland,  and the legend began!

Stay tuned for more Pontiac history next month, and thanks to welovepontiacs.com. for the info

Kudos to Dave and Cindy for winning at the Deer Park show, and thanks to Serge and Teresa De Silva and John and Barb Pluth for participating.  Let's keep 'em on the road where they belong!  Super Duty and High Output!

Our goal is to have FUN while driving our Pontiacs.

The long awaited arrival of Bill's 1974 GTO was celebrated at the 2011 Pontiacs in Paradise where Bill brought out a very rare version of Pontiacs "Lil GTO".

!974 saw many changes to our beloved Muscle Car hobby and Pontiac felt the pinch as much as any other GM division. As a direct result of the 1974 GTO's lack luster sales, this Pontiac has proven to be one of the more rare versions of the old Goat.Read More

Les Chase is one of the SDPOCI's founding members and has continued to bring Pontiac excellence to our chapter.

For those of you new to the club you may not know that Les has had quite a few Pontiacs in his stable including a rare "Right Hand Drive" version of the 1967 GTO.

Seen here in his most recent restoration is Les's 1966 Pontiac GTO Convertible. No detail has been over looked in this restoration! Look for a complete feature in the June War Whoop!