Pontiacs of Central California

09/09/2026

It is 2026 and there is still no federal bumper standard for a pickup truck. There never has been one.

Meanwhile the car parked next to it spent the 1970s getting redesigned around exactly that rule.

Here is the rule everybody blames and almost nobody has read. It was FMVSS 215. It took effect September 1, 1972, and for the 1973 model year it required a passenger car to take a 5 mph hit in front and 2.5 in back.

It never said no damage.

Go read it. Through 1978 the only things that had to survive were the safety pieces. Lights still working and still aimable. Hood, trunk and doors still opening. Fuel, cooling and exhaust not leaking. The bumper itself was allowed to be destroyed. A no damage requirement on the bumper face did not arrive until the 1979 models.

So the battering ram was a choice. The rule specified a performance, not a shape, and Chevrolet proved it twice in the same model year. The 1973 Corvette met it behind a body color urethane nose. So did the 1973 Chevelle Laguna. Both passed. Neither looks like a bumper car.

And 1973 was front only at five. The rear only had to handle 2.5, which chrome could already do. That is why the 1973 Corvette is the only Corvette ever built with a urethane nose and a chrome tail. One year, one car, the entire regulation readable on a single body.

1974 is the year you can actually see. The rear went to 5 as well, and a height zone got added that forced the bumper to sit between 16 and 20 inches off the ground. That height rule did more damage to proportions than the speed ever did. The Camaro gained about seven inches.

Want a number that is not an opinion? NHTSA's own evaluation tracked the Nova's rear bumper system at 31 pounds in 1972, 47 in 1973, and 81 in 1974. It nearly tripled in three model years.

Now the trucks.

They were not left out by an oversight or a loophole. Congress wrote it into the statute. Federal law defines a passenger motor vehicle and then excludes, in its own words, a truck not designed primarily to carry its operator or passengers. Today's regulation still applies only to passenger vehicles other than multipurpose passenger vehicles. There is no federal bumper requirement for a pickup. Not a weaker one. None.

Worth being straight about one thing. Nobody at Chevrolet ever wrote down that they kept the small bumper because they were exempt. They were never required to change it and they didn't. Those are two different claims and only the second one is documented. And these trucks were not running wild either. The 1973 models were the first full size Chevrolet trucks with a collapsing energy absorbing steering column. They got the safety engineering. They just did not get the bumper.

One last thing, because this one gets said wrong constantly. The bumper rule did not kill the muscle car. It showed up fourth. Compression ratios came down for 1971. Horsepower ratings switched from gross to net for 1972, which made every engine look weaker on paper without a single mechanical change. Bumpers landed in 1973. Catalytic converters in 1975. The bumper is just the only one of the four you can spot from across a parking lot.

09/09/2026

We certainly had a lively POCC Meeting this evening. Nothing like new-blood to get the excitement flowing. It was interesting to hear our long time members explain how we got to today as a club and the points of the new members who are eager to contribute. Our club is growing again and moving into the next 100 years of Pontiac.

09/08/2026

09/08/2026

The Buick 3800 V6 story starts here. Joe Turlay sliced two cylinders off this engine to create the V6 that GM sold to Kaiser-Jeep and then bought back and then built 25 million of. That story has been told on this page. This story is about the V8 itself and the two times GM gave it away and both times created a legend for someone else.

In 1961, GM introduced the 215 cubic inch aluminum V8 across three divisions simultaneously: the Buick Special, the Oldsmobile F-85, and the Pontiac Tempest. All aluminum. Block and heads. At 318 pounds, it was the lightest V8 in American production. Lighter than any iron small block by over a hundred pounds. Hemispherical combustion chambers with overhead valves. Two versions: 155 HP with a two-barrel at 8.8:1 compression and 185 HP with a four-barrel at 10.25:1. The technology was a decade ahead of the American market. The manufacturing cost was a decade ahead of GM's budget.

Aluminum casting in 1961 was expensive and difficult. Porosity in the castings caused oil leaks and coolant seepage that dealers couldn't repair and customers wouldn't tolerate. The scrap rate at the foundry was higher than GM's accountants accepted. Thin-wall cast iron technology was improving rapidly and closing the weight gap at a fraction of the manufacturing cost. By 1963, GM had moved back to iron for its small V8s. The 215 was orphaned. Too expensive to cast. Too light to waste. Too good to forget.

The first giveaway: Joe Turlay cut two cylinders off in 1962 and created the Fireball V6 that vibrated so badly Buick sold the entire V6 program to Kaiser-Jeep in 1967. The 215 V8's DNA went to Jeeps, shook violently for a decade, came back to GM during the oil crisis, got fixed with split crankshaft pins, became the 3800, won Ward's Ten Best Engines of the Twentieth Century, and was built 25 million times. The V6 that Turlay carved from the 215 became more successful than the 215 ever was. First giveaway: became a legend as a V6.

The second giveaway: in 1967, GM sold the 215 V8 manufacturing rights and tooling to the Rover Company in England. Rover needed a compact, lightweight V8 for its sedans and the upcoming Range Rover. The 215 was perfect. Rover expanded it to 3.5 liters, then 3.9, then 4.0, then 4.6 liters across thirty-seven years of continuous production. The Rover V8 powered the Range Rover from 1970 through 2004. The Land Rover Discovery. The Range Rover Classic. The Rover SD1. The TVR Griffith and Chimaera. The Morgan Plus 8. The Triumph TR8. The most British vehicles imaginable, powered by the most American engine GM threw away. The Rover V8's distinctive burble became the soundtrack of British motoring for four decades. A sound that was born in Flint, Michigan, in 1961 and became a cultural icon in Solihull, England, by 1970.

The 215 is the answer to a question this page keeps asking: what happens to a great engine when its manufacturer gives up on it? The Cammer went to drag racing. The Go-Devil went to war. The Corvair went to airplanes. The Buick 215 went to England and became a Range Rover. The engine that GM deemed too expensive for America in 1963 powered the most prestigious British SUV ever built for the next thirty-four years. Rover bought the rights, solved the casting porosity issues with improved foundry techniques, and built hundreds of thousands of engines that GM could have built itself. The lightest V8 in America became the most successful V8 in Britain. The engine GM gave away twice created two legends for other people and zero legends for the company that designed it.

09/08/2026

09/06/2026

Pontiac history- Now it is Sunday and time for eliminations. Jack Chrisman gets pushed down the track to fire up and is shown here turning around prior to staging. He is about to put another chrysler hemi on the trailer in this round! All will fall this weekend to the HEMI Pontiac including the best of the best! It was a great time in Pontiac racing history- 1962. This was to be a few months before the Cuban missle crisis. Serious times, it was the closest the world ever came to nuclear war. I can only imagine how things must have been. https://www.facebook.com/PontiacHeaven/

09/05/2026

The 1984 Pontiac 6000 STE was not fast by muscle car standards. Its carbureted High Output 2.8 liter V6 produced 130 horsepower and 145 pound feet of torque through a three speed automatic. Pontiac earned respect by making the entire car work together instead of chasing one impressive horsepower number.

The STE received quicker steering, specific suspension tuning, a self leveling rear air system, four wheel disc brakes, and 195 series Goodyear Eagle GT tires. These were serious changes when most American family sedans were still tuned to isolate the driver from everything happening beneath the tires.

For 1984 Pontiac added a digital instrument cluster with a bar graph tachometer and a driver information system. The following year brought multiport fuel injection, and Pontiac continued improving the STE with later transmission, braking, and drivetrain developments. It was never a frozen appearance package pretending to be a performance model.

Car and Driver selected the 6000 STE for its Ten Best list in 1983, 1984, and 1985. In 1984 the magazine called it the nicest four door sedan Detroit offered an enthusiast driver. That praise came while the Pontiac was competing for attention with cars such as the Audi 5000, Volkswagen GTI, Porsche 944, and Toyota Celica Supra.

09/05/2026

The 1989 GMC Suburban SLE was built for people who needed a truck that simply worked. Under the hood sat a 454 cubic inch big block V8 with throttle body fuel injection. It had the power to tow heavy loads without relying on the complicated systems found in newer pickups.

Inside, it could still feel like a family cruiser, with velour captain’s chairs and dual air conditioning. Underneath was the tough stuff: a rugged frame, heavy leaf springs, and a simple three-speed automatic.

That combination made these Suburbans famous for durability. They could rack up serious miles and still be repaired with basic tools. Today, a clean 454 Suburban feels like a reminder that sometimes, simpler really was better.

09/05/2026

Heading to Lebanon Valley Dragway tomorrow