You can see C3 influence in the 1964 Pontiac Banshee concept car.

 

... now my wife wants me to find/make one for her ...

 

The designers at Opel were reading the same playbook.
I'm not sure, but I think this prototype came out around the same time.



Then the GT came out in '68. My Dad worked next to a Buick/Opel dealer then, and to a 10 yr. old kid, that car was beautiful. I remember walking around it in awe.





Then I saw and heard the new 'vette on the other side of town....

 

Hi,
A couple of interesting things to notice….
It looks like the entire roof including the sails lifts off.
Look how close the front of the rear tires are to the back of the seat and the dog leg required to make the door work.
Regards,
Alan

 

it would be cool if someone made replica of this car. the car looks great from the rear.

 

GM killed it because they knew that it would ruin Corvette sales. Lou.

 

The '64 looks awfully like 75 ish and beyond.
Wonder who the guy was and if he had a hand in later C3s...

 

Yeah take the top thingy off , and from that angle it looks awfully a lot like 68-75 convertible .bbery pretty and refined ....I'd buy it.

It does not look like an over weight behemoth like a new sports cars do today. ..to haul the garbage . Very slim and trim ....not a huge nothing computer geek play station car the corvettes have been lately. Fast and ugly .....

It would be very very tiny by today's FAT AZZ American car standards .....it doesn't have ten airbags, ten miles of cable , ten computers , ten cup holders, or room for two Fat American butts ....and they thirteen bags of McDonalds burgers and nuggets to take home to their kids.

So...no it would not work......


Nice looking car.

 

Most likely John Delorean

 

Cool car but looks very Pontiacy to me.

 

Probably quite true. But for 1964 (50 years ago) that was one heck of a beautiful car...and still is. Too bad it never saw production. What engine was in it?

 

Take a glimpse at the 1964 Pontiac Banshee concept and tell us what you see. An Opel GT, perhaps, or a 1968 Corvette? Both would be correct answers, since the Banshee heavily influenced the style of both products.

In fact, the Banshee’s styling is somewhat timeless, and the car looks just as stunning today as it did back in 1964. While the microscopic A-pillars would never survive contemporary roof-strength testing, and the lack of pedestrian-protecting bumpers would also raise a red flag, the overall shape would certainly draw crowds as a modern concept.

Which makes the Banshee’s can’t-find-love story that much stranger. Originally proposed by then-Pontiac-head John DeLorean as a Ford Mustang fighter, the Banshee was built in two prototype versions, both with fiberglass bodies.

A V-8 convertible was deemed to be too close to the Corvette in performance, so the focus shifted to a straight-six engined version, which still packed some 165 horsepower (detuned from 200 hp, according to the New York Times Wheels blog, to further protect the Corvette) into it’s sub-2,300 pound frame. Neither the Banshee Coupe nor the Banshee Convertible could gather enough signatures to see production, and the project was scrapped in 1966.

Both prototypes were supposed to be crushed, but were instead hidden away until they could be safely sold to GM employees close to the Banshee project. The Banshee Coupe seen here stayed with its original owner until 2006, when it was sold to Pontiac collector Len Napoli for the surprisingly low price of $210,600 at a Barrett-Jackson auction.

Since then, Napoli has offered up the car on a few separate occasions. In December 2007, it was listed on eBay for the ambitious price of $1.3 million, but failed to find a buyer. Four months later, it was back on eBay with a “Buy It Now” price of $1.5 million, but again found no takers.

Thinking that a classic car auction would produce the type of buyer needed to appreciate the Banshee’s place in history, Napoli brought the car to the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance in 2010, where RM Auctions brought the bid price up to $325,000 against a pre-auction estimate of $400,000 - $600,000. Disappointed, Napoli opted not to lower the reserve and sell the car.

A Mecum auction during the 2010 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance week, followed by more postings on eBay, also failed to produce a buyer. This time, the car is up for sale on eBay again, with a “Buy It Now” price reduced to $750,000. With just minutes left in the auction, the car had found no takers.

Given the sale prices of other prototypes in recent years, and considering the car’s link to other iconic GM designs (and the tie-in to John DeLorean), you’d think that a buyer could be found at a price agreeable to all. Sadly, that hasn’t been the case.

 

Pontiac Banshee XP-833 Coupe, 1964



The 3rd generation Corvette was already on the drawing boards, and the Banshee borrowed styling cues from that car. A couple of things that distinguished the Banshee from the Corvette was that the Banshee used a solid rear axle (to keep costs down, and make the car more affordable than the Corvette), and a unique clamshell door design. This was John Delorean’s pet project, and he really wanted it in production. Two functional cars were produced (built by an outside coach builder). One was a 6 cylinder engine, the other had a V8. One was a hardtop, the other a roadster. There was even a 4 passenger version that was proposed. But GM wasn’t interested in eroding the Corvette’s market share, and the top dogs nixed the project.




The 1964 XP-883 Pontiac Banshee I Concept was John DeLorean’s pet project and he wanted it in production. Two functional cars were designed by DeLorean’s design team and produced by an outside coachbuilder.

One was a two-passenger fiberglass coupe powered with a straight six-cylinder, overhead cam engine mated to a four-speed automatic transmission. It was painted Metallic Silver with a red interior and weighed approximately 2,200 pounds. The other vehicle was a pearlescent white, two-passenger roadster powered with a 326 C.I.D. V8 engine.

The third generation Corvette was already on the drawing boards at this time, and the Banshee borrowed styling cues from that car. A couple of things that distinguished the Banshee from the Corvette was that the Banshee used a solid rear axle, to keep costs down, and make the car more affordable than the Corvette and an unique clamshell door design.

General Motor’s executives viewed the concepts to be too much of a threat to the Corvette and as a result, instructed DeLorean to cease additional development. Both concepts survive today and are in the hands of private collectors

 

 

Interesting