Update 4/20/2020 – After more than three years since we featured it, this Banshee prototype is still on the market. The dealer has now listed an asking price of $750k here on their site. Thanks go to Rocco B for sharing the tip!
From 12/27/2017 – It’s the holiday season again, and I know we’re all wrestling with the age-old gift-giving dilemma of what to give the gal or guy who has it all. I’ve got you covered! You get her or him something no one else can have: the only Pontiac XP-833 Banshee coupe in existence. This truly lovely little piece of GM history is now available—on craigslist, of all places, as well as Hemmings and other such reputable outlets—from a dealer in Milford, Connecticut (archived ad). Price? Well, if you have to ask….
One of several sports car concepts floated by various GM divisions in the mid-1960s—others included the Corvair Monza GT, the Opel Experimental GT, and the two Corvette Mako Sharks—you can especially see how the Banshee’s rear end styling influenced the 1970 Firebird. In addition to this six-cylinder coupe, there was also a fully-functional V8 roadster built, which also still exists today. Aside from the Opel, which was eventually built on Kadett economy car bones, none of the non-Corvette concepts reached production, largely to protect the Corvette’s standing as king of the GM hill. While then-Pontiac boss John Z. DeLorean referred to the Banshee as a “Mustang fighter,” its lightweight fiberglass construction gave it Corvette-threatening performance.
DeLorean had every intention of putting the Banshee into production, and it shows—although the rearward-hinged canopy roof is pure show car fantasy, this is a remarkably well-finished little coupe. Still, prototype details, like the Cadillac seat belt buckles, remain. When the project was canceled, the Banshees were slated to be destroyed, but luckily both were preserved by, and eventually sold to, Pontiac employees. The coupe remained in the hands of the original owner until 2006, at which point it was sold at Barrett-Jackson for $214,500; as recently as 2015, it was estimated that it would fetch $600-650,000, although it didn’t sell at the high bid of $390,000.
The running condition of the 230-cubic inch Pontiac OHC inline six is not disclosed (it was said to run and drive at the time of the 2015 auction), although it shows just under 1,500 miles on the odometer, so it certainly hasn’t been used hard. Given that this is essentially a priceless car, it’s not as if you’d be driving it to Safeway anyway, but it’s nice to know that, with a production-car engine, any repairs that would be needed under the hood would be easily doable.
What a neat little car this would have been! While it’s a bummer to know that the Banshee was never made available to average schmucks like you and me, it’s nice that at least one lucky person at a time gets to experience what might have been. If you were the one who had it all, what one-of-none dream car would you like to own?
Beautiful car and concept. I’ve read of them but never knew any escaped the crusher. It’s sure to end up in some museum – either public or private.
Here’s hoping it ends up somewhere that people can see and appreciate it.
Not too sure but did firebird sell a banshee model in 1969.Also i Had a single OHC 6 cyl but changing timing belts every50000 miles but only lasted 25000 miles
Looks like a cross between a Vette and a Toyota 2000 GT. Nice looking car, going to be EXPENSIVE. A truly high end “barn find”
Always admired the lines of the banshee and with a weight savings over the Vette the hopped up OHC/6 and four speed combo would make a peppy performer! Didn’t even ponder the price since I would have to live in it! Nice car!
A few years back there was a coupe at the Crawford Museum in Cleveland. I wondered which was first, this car, or the mako shark 2, or the manta ray. I don’t want to give creds for the ’68 Corvette style to DeLorean for some reason .
I saw the car at Crawford also. It was on display with a group of old prototype cars. I was surprised to see so many of these cars in private hands, outside of manufacturers confines. Cool piece of GM history to own. But selling it on Craigslist? Really?
GM executives instructed DeLorean to cease further development in 1964. In a move loaded with irony, a memo to GM’s head of design, Bill Mitchell, dated September 10, 1965, instructed Mitchell to have his staff update the XP-833 exterior clay and interior bucks “reflecting a Chevrolet design for the two-passenger version coupe.” And so it was that the XP-833 project was revised to become the C3 Corvette against which it had been forbidden from competing. The Mako Shark II which became the C3 Corvette was introduced by Bill Mitchell as “his” design in 1965. One year after DeLorean introduced his Banshee concept. Who copied whom? Typical corporate BS. The C3 Corvette began as a Pontiac.
Really, who sells a prototype vehicle on Craigslist? Very strange for a dealer..
Free ad = free exposure…I guess
I’ve bought and sold several cars on CL. What’s your issue with it?
Pretty sure you’ve never sold a prototype on Craigslist though Slick…
I agree Rick – seems very strange to me as well.
Being a Pontiac lover its fantastic. Hard to park with no drivers side mirror though
Park where (?) I’ve never used my driver’s side mirror to park. Passenger side maybe. Didn’t all cars come with rear-facing cameras anyway in the 1960’s?
Why no photos of it as it sits today? Every picture is doctored and not recent, and the YouTube video is a few years old. Wherever did this dealer come up with this car? It’s curious and smells funny to me.
Regardless, like all of us here I desperately want it, but I’d be driving it. Those 1500 miles seem sinfully low to me.
Nice design that has aged well.
This car is so so cool If anybody knows of a tempest 6cyl with a manual trans I am a buyer as long as I can restore it and I would be happy to give a finders fee as long as BF does not mind! HA! HA! 2 Door only Please 801 430 4167 is a good # 8 to 8 MST Please!!
There were actually 3 of these cars built (well 2 1/2). A 3rd body (which I owned back in the 1980s) was constructed but never completed. Have one very poor image of it hanging in my garage. Sold it to a Pontiac engineer who had plans on completing it but I never heard the outcome.
Looks like they didn’t put too much design thought into the handbrake.
what would it be worth with factory pontiac 400?
Let’s find out!
Even though the pictures are old, I have been in that dealership and seen the car in person. Still looks like the pictures. I had a 1970 Firebird and it’s easy to see the resemblance. It’s an interesting place to visit btw.
They had one with 421 and a conv I have work on for Joe bortz.
What does it look like with the top off?
There is no trunk lid and the panel lines suggest that the roof comes off to the rear of the car??? That makes no sense and would look really odd as the styling on the rear of the car would not be smooth.
I’ve looked in a number of places for pictures, and although I can find pics of the interior with the top off I have not found any shots of the car either in profile or from rear 3/4 view that would show what it looks like topless.
The top on this one doesn’t actually come off; instead of a trunklid, the entire roof section is hinged at the rear. I’m not sure what the practical advantage of this is, although I imagine it would make getting into such a low car easier.
That’s a stupid feature! Why attach the roof to the trunk lid??
What a gorgeous convertible that would make!!
thanks nathan. that confirms what i was thinking — it’s not going to look very professional from the rear end with the roof off. still, if it came to the house i would not kick it out of bed for eatin’ crackers.
Better gas mileage on windy days. Going backwards. Clever as a fox, that GM.
Air brakes maybe?
I suspect it’s both rear-hinged and removable, with an alternate decklid panel that goes in its place for topless driving.
Wouldn’t want to see that pop opened at 60 on the interstate!!! Cool concept though!!!
I would have thought George Barris jumped at the opportunity or at least Richard Rawlins. To make a tribute car.
RR for a “tribute” car? Lol
If he can’t ruin it by bagging it and putting stupid wheels on it, it wouldn’t be an Ass Monkey … the guy is a clown
Another narrow minded dweeb I see. I guess you didn’t see the 33 Gas Monkey built this year.
Yeah, a very rich clown with his name and business’ planted all over the ‘ole Interwebbs”, as he calls it. I’m the purist type but I have to admit that Richard and his gang build some beautiful projects out of the junk that he sometimes starts off with. I don’t believe that anybody with half a mind, believes that they actually do build these projects in the time frame that is shown, but hey, it’s a TV show!
I’ve had some dealings Mr. Rawlings and he isn’t really the loud mouth he portrays on the show. He purchased a one owner panel van from my client and did wonders with it, although not necessarily to everyone’s taste. Was fun seeing it. Unfortunately, they didn’t give me the “air time” the producer spoke of when he called to get the back story on the truck. Oh Well, was still fun.
Looks like a cross between a Corvette and an Opel GT with Firebird tail lights!
Pretty much my thoughts when I first saw it (In Hot Rod Magazine IIRC). I think it started with an Opal body and being Delorean did it, I’m sure he could dip into any GM parts bin he wanted to including prototypes.
Think of how much of this design ended up on the Opel
Absolutely super cool….! I have an old MotorTrend
mag from 64/65,somewhere?,that had pictures of concept
vehicles,and I think this was one of them!I thought that
they were in museums,or lost to history!
A lot of future styling cues, for a lot of future GM vehicles,
I personally love the styling,even the rear hinged roof,
but how does one close roof ,once inside?…pull strap?
Also,in a rain storm,would’nt the interior and you get soaked,
while trying to enter/exit vehicle?…..
This is soooo…cool though…!
A lot of corvette going there!
DeLorean made a habit of tweaking his superiors, interesting guy. Pontiac had originally planned to call their Camaro equivalent the “Banshee” until someone pointed out that Banshee means “Bird of Death”.
This car is too important not to be in a museum or at the least a publicly viewable collection.
Nice find.
A gorgeous looking automobile went down the tubes.
I wonder how old the timing belt is?
Did one of these end up in the Warhoops recycling yard outside of Detroit? And I would want to see all of the Quality Control reports on those roof latches before I took that car on the freeway.
toradado/riveria in the back?
vett /opel in the front?
what’s not to like?
Is jellison or 1 of those others still arounf to make a knock off?
I’ll buy 2 or 3…
Killer car. C2 Vette in the front with a hint of C3ness. Firebird in the back. I can see why GM killed the project. The Banshee would have wrecked the Stingray’s dominance in the 2 seater market. DeLorean may have said “Mustang fighter” but I’m sure he was thinking “Stingray crusher.”
I think ya’ll are missing something here. This was a concept car. That means Delorean would have had a lot more latitude in his design options as opposed to his final production models. GM if approving it for production instead of nixing it would probably have said cool design, but your gonna have to do something about that rear hinged roof idea. He then would have eliminated it and let it be more corvette like and solid. He knew how to work GM pretty well most of the time. This time though he didn’t win in so far as getting it into production. I think he just got fed up with them and that is why he produced his own car eventually. You can only have your ideas rejected so many times before you just up and leave. Especially when they are great design ideas. This was really one of his better inspired ideas that should have floated no problem. He used existing parts for 95% of the prototype, just ad a little bit of retooling and they could have been cranking them out and making money. This is actually a huge benefit as opposed to coming up with a total and complete redesign or introducing a brand new model altogether that would have required far more start up costs. It would be interesting to know who the actual people were that said no to the idea so we could tell them if they were still alive that they just blew it that time.
This is not the only gorgeous car stopped dead in its tracks by the Corvette !
As GM brass has said before; GM has only one sports car, the Corvette.
I wrote about this car for Musclecar Enthusiast back in 2006 and spoke at length with the family before and after the sale. I was very surprised at where the bidding stalled, just a bit north of $200K. Even back in 2006, B-J was not the way to sell this car.
Here’s a link to a PDF of the column I wrote.
http://photos.imageevent.com/mmm_mag/richtruesdellpdfs/US%20Musclecar%20Culture%20Musclecar%20Enthusiast%2005-06.pdf
What happened to this car? Well GM brass made sure it became the C3 corvette. To this day the Corvette looks more like the Banshee than the original Corvette design. DeLorean doesn’t get credit for this and so many of his many other influences on the automotive industry because of the problems and controversy with the DMC-12 that tarnished his legacy.
The name “Banshee” was tossed around GM, taken from a WWII fighter plane (as Ford did with Mustang). Typical for a large organization, no one looked up the word in the dictionary which has a constant theme: messenger of death — which would not have played well in sales rooms!
Absolutely beautiful car. What a shame it never saw production.
Fascinating.
Has me wondering why the B-J sale price was so low. Car investors are a funny lot, obviously so influenced by each other as to have a herd mentality. If it had been set up with a V-8, would someone want it more? Since the convertible built has the extra cylinders, is it bigger $?
So Lennie Napoli sits on the Banshee, figuring that someday, someone will pay his price for what is arguably one of the most historic prototype built cars in the lineage of auto-making in the USA.
I can’t say that he is wrong for doing that.
BUT: If he really wants to sell it, there is marketing to be done, and that takes money. Display at Amelia Island, Monterey, and others. And be certain that it could be driven around on the grounds of the shows.
Very cool and way ahead of its time, except for that OHC six, my experience with these wasn’t good, what a dawg. Agreed, the whole thing smells bad being listed on craigslist. Who ever it was that responded that he never had any trouble selling cars on CL was extremely lucky. Its like the wild west, no rules and proceed cautiously, especially if you go to buy something. Just one ol’ grey hairs’ opinion. Stay safe.
Cheers
GPC
Oil Slick- your comments are not in the spirit of barnfinds. I think you need to leave. We have a great group and we don’t need the negativity you spew. I forgot more than you will ever know. I’m done. Go someplace else with YOUR BS.
There is a reason why G.M. didn’t produce more than three.
In a ugly contest between this and the C3 Corvette both would loose.
If it was up to me I would have sent both to the crusher and never produced either one.
A quick follow up to my earlier post.
First, how did an image of my story end up as an image above my text? Intervention on Barn Find’s part? If so, thank you. I don’t see any way to attach photos to a post. What am I missing Jesse?
Second, I was standing with the Killen Family when the car sold and they were as shocked at the hammer price as I was. I thought the car sold for one-fifth my expectations. As I mentioned in my Musclecar enthusiast column, Mopar B-body Hemi clones sold for more that weekend.
I spoke with Lenny Napoli this morning. We talked 14 years ago when he bought the car. At the time, I couldn’t get a magazine interested in a detailed feature on the car. I think this time, I might be more successful.
I am going look through my files to see what other photos I took of the car back in 2006. If there’s interest here, I might post a few.
This is, by any measurement standard, a very significant car on so many levels. I have written about similar one-offs, like the Jaguar Pirana Bertone Coupe which, after a major refurbishment, sold for more than $400K last Summer. In my opinion, this car is worth more. How much? I simply don’t know.
Here’s a link about what I wrote a while back on the Pirana I mentioned above. I think it serves as something of a benchmark for the Banshee, which is a real GM concept from the Golden Age of GM Design.
https://photos.imageevent.com/mmm_mag/richtruesdellpdfs/Motor_Trend_Classic_1967_Jaguar_Bertone_Pirana_Coupe.pdf
In order to post photos here, you have to be a “Supporter” (formerly a Member)
I will give it a go for the family shot. Might be cropped a tad.
I work on convertible one with the 421 4 speed that Joe borzt has .
A never before published photo of the Killen Family at B-J 2006. As everyone is smiling, and it’s daylight, I believe this was taken a few hours before it crossed the block.
I believe I have more photos of the car — the one that illustrated the store was shot someplace else, a hotel perhaps — so it will take time to find them. They are not stored on my online cloud. If I have them, they hopefully are on a backup CD or DVD that I can lay my hands on.
https://app.box.com/s/kw85bz822y82qfjf3bcvbulcx6uznuxt
As well as the Monza, Opel Exp GT & Mako Shark there was the Vauxhall XP-867
http://vauxpedia.net/vauxhall-xp-867-concept
and the GT1/2 concepts
http://vauxpedia.net/vauxhall-gt-concepts-1-2
I read were John Delorean wanted the 421 as a option on this Great car to be – being lighter than the Vette – it would have been a top dog on the Street and Track :)
Well, the conversation here seems to be going on and on. I’ll say that this is an interesting concept car, but really just that. Yes, the design is similar to the C3 corvette, but the lines are not yet as clean. There are elements of Riviera, tail lights from the ’66 GTO, seatbelts from Cadillac and door handles that became common a few years after this car was produced. A design exercise. Beautiful? Um….no not really when compared to, say, an e-type, the orignal C3 concept or even a C2 or C3 Corvette. Worth $750k? To the right person, maybe, but apparently that person has not come forward yet. This car will spend the rest of it’s life in a garage or on a showroom floor or, maybe, a museum…technically, I guess it belongs in the Corvette museum.
A kit car maker should copy, manufacture, and sell it.
Be cool with a 400 – 455 Pontiac Stroker V8 474 ci. 600 hp on pump gas :)
I’m really surprised Jay Leno does not have 1 of the 3.
The windshield pillars are quite thin.
Quite surprising it has 4 wheel manual drum brakes & the wipers are not parked lower/level.
2 master cylinders? Why? Both off the shelf parts?
I would imagine GM would still not allow dynacorn bodies of it to be built.
My guess is it’s got a hydraulic clutch.
In a weird coincidence, the same day that Barns Finds posted this, Hagerty published an article about the convertible prototype: https://www.hagerty.com/media/hagerty-magazine/driving-the-pontiac-prototype-that-inspired-the-stingray/?utm_source=SFMC&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20_April_21_Newsletter_NewDD
Interesting story, and the author got to drive it.
That is a funny coincidence. It’s a different one though…
Yep, I mentioned that it is the convertible prototype.
Apparently, they made 2 drivable prototypes: a coupe and a convertible.
Great to read about both, and glad that the convertible is driven regularly.
The drivers seat doesn’t move. The pedals do. I can see the C-3 Vette in this car. Stick a 326 in it. That would be plenty in such a light bodied vehicle. I love it!