Welcome to Little Car in the Big City, where I highlight fascinating cars I found walking around a town that is known for being bigger than everything else, but where every car is fighting to stand out: New York, New York.
Brooklyn is actually a lot less densely populated than you may think, though it may be hard to believe as it is the most heavily populated borough in all of New York City. Whole swaths of Brooklyn are actually quite suburban, and I found this beautiful 1947 Pontiac just holed up in a resident's driveway, waiting to cruise Ocean Parkway once again.
It may be hard to believe as well that throughout the 1940s, the American automotive industry was basically on hold. The second World War was raging, and to ensure that the entirety of the country was focused on the war effort, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt actually banned the production of civilian automobiles. Thus whatever you were making just before the outbreak of hostilities you were stuck with at the end.
It just so happened, then, that at the end of 1945, when American automakers switched over to building cars after building half-tracks for awhile they were stuck with their 1942 models, which were introduced late in 1941.
That is what gives us this 1947 Pontiac Torpedo, as the new generation of car models wouldn't be introduced until late in the 1940s and into the early 1950s, owing to long development schedules.
Despite what could be considered "outdated" under normal circumstances, the Streamliner is a great harbinger of what was to come in the decade of President Eisenhower. It's hard to convey in these pictures the enormity of the thing, with the hood alone rising up and pushing forward dramatically, with Chief Pontiac atop it. Acres of chrome (although needing polish here) still adorn the front, rear, and sides, and you can especially see it in that enormous grille.
What I really like, though, is that enormous front bench seat. Let's be honest – it's not so much a seat as it is a couch. And for a country that was on the cusp of building the Interstate System, with its long stretches of highway, would you want anything else for your next long cruise?
This Old Pontiac Is Your Wartime Special