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Automotive Industry
AUTOS: Pontiac ‘Dream Car’ Reborn
A 'Dream Car' crazy customizer recreates the most famous GM Motorama design mockup of the ‘50s as an actual, drivable automobile.
Bob Golfen  |  Posted January 18, 2009   Scottsdale, Arizona
GM destroyed the styling showpiece in 1958, Martino said, but it was never a real car anyway, just a shell on wheels. (Photo: Barrett-Jackson)
GM destroyed the styling showpiece in 1958, Martino said, but it was never a real car anyway, just a shell on wheels. (Photo: Barrett-Jackson)

Marty Martino calls his hand-built show car “the missing link” of General Motors “Dream Cars” of the 1950s. And it seems to be doing a fine job of sparking memories at the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Event.

“A lot of times, what people are saying is, ‘Wow, I built a model of that when I was a kid,’” Martino said.

In 1956, the Pontiac Club de Mer was a non-running mockup displayed at GM Motoramas to show the direction of automotive styling. Designed by Pontiac’s Paul Gillian working under GM’s acclaimed Harley Earl, such “Futuristic Dream Cars” would entice Motorama spectators with their exciting vision of the future.

“This was really the most distinctive Motorama car,” said Martino, 57. “It’s very iconic.”

Despite the crowd interest and the history, the Club de Mer reached only $100,000 on the auction stage Saturday evening.

GM destroyed the styling showpiece in 1958, Martino said, but it was never a real car anyway, just a shell on wheels. Martino, a car builder, fabricator and customizer from Gum Spring, Va., said he has been working for many years to set things right.

The result, a fully functioning Pontiac Club de Mer that replicates with exact precision the original Motorama Dream Car. Built on the frame and running gear of a 1959 Pontiac Bonneville, with an eye toward period authenticity, Martino created from scratch the wonder of a Dream Car that never really came to fruition.

“The original was not a real car, just a push vehicle,” he said. “They never expected it to be driven. This is a fully operational car that you can actually drive.”

The Club de Mer follows on the heels of several actual Motorama concept cars that have sold at Barrett-Jackson in recent years. A shapely Oldsmobile F-88 sold for more than $3 million in 2006, the setting the stage for renewed interest in such vintage concept cars.

The following year, two Motorama survivors, the Pontiac Bonneville Special show car and one of the amazing Futureliner buses used by GM to transport and display the Motorama shows around the nation, each sold at Barrett-Jackson for similar amounts.

Also in 2007, a go-cart modeled after the Club de Mer sold at the auction.

Martino said he spent many years researching the Club de Mer, studying photos, records and specifications that he would use to bring the concept car to life.

“I spent years and years collecting information, and three intense years building it,” said Martino, whose 40 years experience as an artist, model maker and custom-car builder came into play. “I’m Dream Car crazy.”

Some of the GM designers and engineers, who are attending Barrett-Jackson to help sell the company’s 236 heritage cars, came by to take a look at the Club de Mer and sounded impressed, Martino said.

“The GM people really seemed to like it,” Martino said. “They said I did a good job maintaining the GM quality.”

The body is formed out of fiberglass fitted over a steel frame and chassis, including the ’59 Bonneville’s inner doors, jambs, cowl sections, hinges and latches. When Martino shut one of the doors, it made the solid “chunk” of those Body by Fisher doors that defined GM’s cars of the ‘50s and ‘60s.

Martino even designed and printed an owner’s manual that goes with the car.

“This is certainly the most outrageous thing I’ve ever built,” Martino said. “I’d like to do more cars like this.”
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