1957 Limited Edition "Sport Bonneville" with bucket seats. Anyone ever hard of one or seen one?

They made about 630 1957 Bonnevilles, all fuel injected, bucket seated convertibles that sold for about $5700.00. I saw a few back in the day, a very impressive car. I also know someone who owns 1 today.....Chaz

Chaz, thanks but here's where I have the question. I know about the 630 total production, but I don't believe any of the 630 had bucket seats. I've found out from another source that 2 "Sports Bonneville" prototypes were also made that did have buckets front and rear, but I've never seen one. Are you sure you've seen a '57 with buckets? Now in '58 Pontiac offered them on '58 Bonneville Converts only, not in the hardtop. Anyway, that "Sports" ad kind of threw me. Still trying to get to the bottom of it. Thanks, Dan

Hello Dan, Actually I don't recall if the ones I've seen had buckets . I saw an ad with the double buckets and I just assumed they all had them. Just when you think you knew all about them.........Chaz

Hey Chaz, I really don't know either just going off data I have access to. Thanks for your reply. If you like old cars, try out my crossword puzzles for free. You can work them online at : www.dansextremecarcrosswords.com

January 11, 1957, a limited-edition Custom Bonneville Convertible was released. It was in the Custom Star Chief sub-series.It was released as a one-to-a-dealer basis. It was limited to 630 production examles and two prototypes. The pre-production prototypes had four bucket seats and small trim differences. A fuel-injected V-8 was used in all of them.

I saw an ad as well, but it was very small. Had to get a magnifying glass to identify the buckets. I've talked to a Pontiac guru friend who has seen one. His guru buddy has seen the same one and knows where the other is. As the story goes, they made two prototype cars that were not among the 630 sold in '57, but they survived. Is your ad big enough to red well? If so, would you scan it and email it to me please? It's intersting that in '58 the Bonneville Convert. had a 4 bbl engine standard, yet could have the F.I. or 3 deuces , optional.

A couple years ago I saw a 1957 Bonneville Convertible with bucket seats front and rear and a console running the length of the tranny tunnel being restored in a body shop in Saginaw Michigan. I was told it was a concept car, maybe for the Grand Prix. It was sweet and I have never seen or heard of another. dmc46@att.net

I remember it well, when the Pontiac zone manager called and said they had a special limited edition fuel injection Pontiac Convertible and as a selected dealer we could have one of the 630 manufactured, I put it in service as my personal demonstrator. Why I remember it so well was because on the Rainy night in May 1957 late at night I drove my wife to the hospital for the delivery of our daughter "HEATHER"

hi you have been getting some wrong info in the summer of 1957 pontiac released 621 57 bonnevilles. one for each pontiac dealers in the country. they were all fuel injected convertibles 3 of them had 4 bucket seats. each of the three had things the other didn't. one was white, one was blue, and the third was red. in 1961 i had the white one. the blue one had 4 headlamps, and the red one had wire wheels. at one time i saw an advertisement showing the white one. if the ad. you have is the white one i would really love to have a copy of it. the blue one was in storage from the 60s untill the early 90s when it was sold. the red one was bought buy a cop in detroit in the 60s. he still had it in the late 70s. i saw the red one at a POCI show in the late 70s.

dhodges2000, thanks for the answer. Had not heard that previously. I thought all 621 were white and identical and the "Sport" version was in addition to the 621. Never heard of different colors nor the other items you referenced. I only saw a prototype picture in an ad. I know a person who said he saw a white one in a show. If you want a copy, I'll try to find it. Not certain how to connect. Dandy Dan

Like I said previously, I saw one of these 1957 Bonneville Convertibles with bucket seats front and rear about ten years ago being restored in a local restoration shop. If you want more info email me at DMC46@att.net

A friend of mine owns the Red 57 with wire wheels in Saginaw. It has 4 bucket seats and a full length console. Do you have any info on who these vehicles first went to....must have been GM executives, or used as show cars.

Does anyone know if the blue stripe and interior is more valuable than the red? The only info that I can find on this is that "most cars had the red flashes."

The 58's were available with bucket in the front seat nylon the hardtops and front & rear on the convertibles. All four of the 57 prototypes were different. One book that I have on Pontiac history show the interior of the one with Pat O'Conner in front of it. The interior shot shows the gearshift handle on the column, all the way down and no gear shift indicator which makes me think it was 3 speed manual. The article also hints and a transaxle 4 speed version which nobody so far has seen. It is very possible that they builtvone because Cadillac build a prototype with a transaxle and Pontiac could have used it. There wasn't any other 4 speed manual that would have connected to the Pontiac bell housing without making some major changes to the way the motor mounts were configured. unfortunately there isn't any information in the parts books because Pontiac always make a small catalog for all of their special cars. They do show a different body style for the four prototypes and they do show that at least one manual transmission model was built.

I remember seeing a '57 Bonneville convertible across from a Chevrolet dealer in Columbus, Ohio probably 1960 or , Ohio1961 as I traveled to Columbus to look at two '57 Chevrolet Convertibles that I was interested in at that time. Both of the Chevys turned out to be not available and I then noticed the Pontiac Convertible setting across the street on the North side of East Broad St. and as I reached the Bonneville, I noticed that it had an automatic transmission that I did not want, but it did have front bucket seats. I did not notice if there were also buckets in back. I thought it was strange and other than T-birds or Corvettes prior to 1958 had bucket seats in the U.S.A. I understand that there was one in Cincinnati about that time so it could have been the same car. If I remember right, that car was a l light metallic blue with a silver side rear fender panel. I met Joe Evans a few years ago at the Norwalk Pontiac Nationals and he did confirm that there were at least two Prototype cars and one was in Cincinnati back then. I have always wondered if that is that one that I noticed and some history of the car. Good discussion on this site. Thanks, dt Ohio

Originaly three colors combinations were available. White with Blue stripe, White with Red Stripe, and Black with Chracoal Stripe. Other colors were offered later. There were 630 produced. The majority of them had bench seats. The customs had 4 buckets. No two customs wre alike. The body style for Star Chief was 2867D, Bonnevilles 2867SD and custom Bonneviles were 2867 SDX. Letter H in the vin # ment Hydramatic and S ment standard. All but the customers were Hydramatic and at least one customer was a standard as indication by the serial number id chart in the parts book..At least one custom had 4 headlamps and was driven by Knudsen. Cadillac was experimenting with a trans axle in 1956 so it is possible that the Bonnevile with the S serial number was a trans axle.