Pontiac Museum in Pontiac, IL
 

Here's some pictures from the Pontiac Museum grand opening last month in Pontiac, IL.

Pontiac IL is a wonderful little Mayberry-type town, very old fashioned, surrounded by farmland. There are huge Route 66 themed murals on many of the brick buildings. The center of the town square reminded me of 1955 Hill Valley from "Back To The Future"! There is also a little Route 66 Museum, as well as a War Museum, with more uniforms on display than I've ever seen. The War Museum has true VFW's on staff to answer your questions.

Anyway, as for the Pontiac Museum, it's small, but packed with fascinating material. For the grand opening, Arnie Beswick was there with his "Tameless Tiger", along with Jim Wangers, and designer Bill Porter, who helped design the 1969 Trans Am, and was instrumental in developing the 2nd Gen Firebird body and Trans Am package.

Tim Dye is the museum curator, and a super nice guy. The memorabilia on display is only about 1/3 of what he has, there just isn't enough room in the museum to display everything.

The museum library area was simply unreal. Factory manuals, huge binders filled with Pontiac bulletins, parts books, sales albums, and the material from the Oakland days up to 2010. Simply the most incredible collection we've ever seen. Like an old fashioned library, you need a ladder to get to the upper shelves! You could easily spend 8 hours there just doing research.

Here's some pics:

Re: Pontiac Museum in Pontiac, IL
 

This is an incredible Pontiac hood ornament collection from the 30's to the 50's. Some very elaborate ornaments.

Re: Pontiac Museum in Pontiac, IL
 

Beswick's Tameless Tigers. That's Arnie in the background, center, wearing the dark sunglasses. Still as gracious as ever, and a great guy to talk to. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/beers.gif[/img]

Re: Pontiac Museum in Pontiac, IL
 

Some memorabilia :

Re: Pontiac Museum in Pontiac, IL
 

Some of the cars inside:

Re: Pontiac Museum in Pontiac, IL
 

Another shot of the 1968 RAII Firebird. Beautiful red on red with redlines. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/beers.gif[/img]

Re: Pontiac Museum in Pontiac, IL
 

The Knafel 1966 GTO &quot;Tin Indian&quot;. This car absolutely dominated C/Stock in 1966, capturing more titles than any other GM manufacturer.

This car is beautiful in person. The gold accents are in gold chrome, matching the Hurst wheels.

Re: Pontiac Museum in Pontiac, IL
 

Some more of the museum memorabilia:

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More cars:

Re: Pontiac Museum in Pontiac, IL
 

Jim Wangers was camped out by the Judge chassis all day. A pleasure to talk to, Jim has never lost his enthusiasm for Pontiacs.