Red Hot Indian

This more-door Poncho street rod proves that 'cool' isn't a club that counts your doors

- Dave Smith

Everybody loves Pontiac, their performance image being a mainstay of the muscle car era. However, decades before Burt Reynolds, long before the GTO spawned the 'muscle car' name, even before the 'Wide Track' Ponchos of the late Fifties, Pontiac was a rather dull and uninspiring mid-range name for dull, uninspired buyers. This, rather perversely, makes them prime candidates for street rodding. What could be better than seeing grandma's old jalopy tear-arsing up the asphalt?

While the curvy early-Fifties Chevys have a following all of their own, much like the contemporary shoebox Fords, the Buicks, Oldsmobiles and Pontiacs of the same period seem to be a bit left out, despite sharing much of their architecture with their bow-tie brothers. Sometimes it takes something like this four-door '51 Chieftain Deluxe to make a potential rodder think, “Hmmm, what if...?”

This Old Flame belongs to Robin Stott from Haverford west, one of the last towns before the tarmac ends in south west Wales, and, believe it or not, it's his first American car! “I've been a biker all my life,” says Robin, “but I'm getting on a bit now and the missus, Sheryl, doesn't like riding on the back much anymore. I've had quite a few customs, and before the Pontiac I'd just finished building a Bedford J2 with a roof-chop and a stepside pickup bed.