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Own the Pontiac Banshee XP-833 concept car

Driveable concept from 1964 was aimed at the Ford Mustang

It's rare for a concept car from one of the Big Three to avoid the crusher -- car companies have long had a practice of destroying concepts and prototypes. That goes for the smallest clay bucks to fully driveable vehicles created for auto shows or for testing. But every once in a while a concept or prototype is able to escape this cruel fate, to be appreciated and prized by car collectors down the road.

The Pontiac Banshee is one such car, and in a couple of weeks buyers from around the country will gather to bid on this rare beast. But what's the story behind this particular concept?

The 1964 Pontiac Banshee XP-833 concept car was one of the concepts created by General Motors to take on the Ford Mustang. Authorized by none other than Pontiac Motor Division head John DeLorean, the Banshee concept envisioned an impossibly sleek two seater. The exterior design took cues from the Corvair Monza GT show car of 1963 and the 1965 Mako Shark II Corvette show car. A scaled-down Corvette, the Banshee melded an aerodynamic design with a rear-set cabin and a truncated tail. The concept also featured a very short wheelbase and a relatively short height. The Corvair Monza parts bin was raided for most of the interior bits -- a common approach for the purposes of concept cars -- while the engine bay received a Pontiac six-cylinder overhead cam engine connected to a four-speed manual transmission.

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The 1964 Pontiac Banshee XP-833 concept car features a six-cylinder engine. Photo by Dragone Auctions

Pontiac's Advanced Engineering department built a number of styling and engineering prototypes for different purposes, with this example created for the show circuit. That means that its powertrain is functional, and that the car was finished to appear as production-ready as possible, down to the license plate niches, seat belts, door locks and an AC system. A total of four running concept cars were built, each featuring slightly different details and styling, with this particular example said to have been the first of the batch.

Ultimately, the Banshee ended up being a dead end for Pontiac -- it would be the Camaro that would take on the Ford Mustang, and the Banshee's styling was deemed to be too close to that of the Corvette. General Motors judged that the Banshee would steal sales from the Corvette itself, and retired the Banshee concepts from the car show circuit. Curiously enough, the basic shape would return with some tweaks to the GM lineup in the form of the Opel GT, which was sold through Buick dealerships in the U.S. and also offered reasonably sporty motoring on a budget.

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The interior of the 1964 Pontiac Banshee XP-833 concept was built to be as production-like as possible. Photo by Dragone Auctions

The auction description is strangely silent about the chain of ownership and other mundane details, as well as the work, if any, that has been done to the car. Concepts, especially ones from fifty years ago, tend to not age well cosmetically or mechanically.

This Banshee concept is estimated to bring between $600,000 and $650,000 on auction day. GM prototypes and styling exercises from this era aren't exactly plentiful, and the Banshee is in the top tier of surviving concepts due to its driveability and interior finish. This concept is also blessed by the fact that this is not an empty shell that was rebuilt to run later on in life -- it was made from the start to be a driveable machine, down to details like a push-button AM stereo in the center stack.

Dragone Auctions is a relatively new outfit; the Connecticut-based Dragone classic car restoration business held its first sale just a couple of years ago, a sale that went remarkably smoothly for an inaugural outing. We wouldn't be surprised to see the Banshee at the Greenwich Concours d'Elegance in just a couple of weeks, since it's just 15 minutes away from the Dragone brothers' shop.

Visit the auction website to view the complete list of lots and details.

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