Maybe it is a Sports Car

Courtesy, tocmp.com

I was trolling through the car advertisements over at The Old Car Manual Project and I ran across this gem of an ad from 1962. Pontiac was just introducing the Grand Prix as their personal luxury car with a "sporty" flair. 

The sharp-eyed amongst you have already spotted the car Pontiac chose as the "full-blooded competition sports car" on the right as a Lotus Seven. Obviously it is a competition car as someone has helpfully added a white shoe polish number to the windshield and the steering wheel is on the wrong side. Exotic stuff for sure.

As GM's performance division, Pontiac chose model names that made the prospective buyer think about motorsports and speed. Names such as Bonneville, Grand Prix, Le Mans and later Trans Am, and Can Am brought an air of Walter Mitty racer to the marque. They even lifted the "GTO" moniker from Ferrari for the first of what became known as muscle cars.

But today, the humble Seven is still being produced in England and Pontiac is another orphaned GM division.