I love vintage automotive ads and I feature a great many of them for Throwback Thursday, but this week’s old school commercial for the 1969 Pontiac Firebird is very likely one of the strangest new car ads I’ve seen.
Evidently (according to the commercial), the introduction of the redesigned 1969 Firebird caused such a significant backlog that some prospective buyers found themselves unable to get their hands on one. This commercial was seemingly made to announce that the waiting list for the then-new Pontiac pony car had come to an end, but it does so in a very odd way.
After showing a huge group of very depressed looking people sitting with furniture out in a big open field, the announcer explains that these were the tortured souls who were unable to purchase a 1969 Pontiac Firebird. Luckily for these sad people, the Firebird was available when this piece hit the airwaves so they could head off to their Pontiac dealerships to buy their new performance car.
Honestly, this feels like something that you would see leading into an episode of the Twilight Zone, but I imagine that it resonated well with those folks who had been saving their pennies for a 1969 Firebird.
"Before I was old enough to walk, my dad was taking me to various types of racing events, from local drag racing to the Daytona 500," says Patrick Rall, a lifetime automotive expert, diehard Dodge fan, and respected auto journalist for over 10 years. "He owned a repair shop and had a variety of performance cars when I was young, but by the time I was 16, he was ready to build me my first drag car – a 1983 Dodge Mirada that ran low 12s. I spent 10 years traveling around the country, racing with my dad by my side. While we live in different areas of the country, my dad still drag races at 80 years old in the car that he built when I was 16 while I race other vehicles, including my 2017 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and my 1972 Dodge Demon 340.
"Although I went to college for accounting, my time in my dad’s shop growing up allowed me the knowledge to spend time working as a mechanic before getting my accounting degree, at which point I worked in the office of a dealership group. While I was working in the accounting world, I continued racing and taking pictures of cars at the track. Over time, I began showing off those pictures online and that led to my writing.
"Ten years ago, I left the accounting world to become a full-time automotive writer and I am living proof that if you love what you do, you will never “work” a day in your life," adds Rall, who has clocked in time as an auto mechanic, longtime drag racer and now automotive journalist who contributes to nearly a dozen popular auto websites dedicated to fellow enthusiasts.
"I love covering the automotive industry and everything involved with the job. I was fortunate to turn my love of the automotive world into a hobby that led to an exciting career, with my past of working as a mechanic and as an accountant in the automotive world provides me with a unique perspective of the industry.
"My experience drag racing for more than 20 years coupled with a newfound interest in road racing over the past decade allows me to push performance cars to their limit, while my role as a horse stable manager gives me vast experience towing and hauling with all of the newest trucks on the market today.
