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Pontiac is a marque of automobile produced by General Motors and sold in the United States, Canada and Mexico from 1926 to the present. In the GM brand lineup, Pontiac is a mid-level brand featuring a sportier, high-performance driving experience for a reasonable price, and its advertisements appeal to younger customers. Early years 1928 Pontiac The Pontiac brand was introduced by General Motors in 1926 as the 'companion' marque to GM's Oakland Motor Car line. The Pontiac name was first used in 1906 by the Pontiac Spring & Wagon Works and linked to Chief Pontiac who led an unsuccessful uprising against the British shortly after the French and Indian War. The Oakland Motor Company and Pontiac Spring & Wagon Works Company decided to merge together in November 1908 under the name of the Oakland Motor Car Company. The operations of both companies were joined together in Pontiac, Michigan (in Oakland County) to build the Cartercar. Oakland was purchased by General Motors in 1909. The first General Motors Pontiac was conceived as an affordable six cylinder that was intended to compete with more inexpensive four cylinder models. Within months of its introduction, Pontiac outsold Oakland. As Pontiac's sales rose and Oakland's sales began to decline, Pontiac became the only 'companion' marque to survive its 'parent', in 1932. Pontiac began selling cars with straight 6-cylinder engines. In 1933, it moved up to producing the cheapest cars with straight 8-cylinder engines. This was done by using many components from the 6-cylinder Chevrolet, such as the body. In the late 1930s, Pontiac used the so-called 'torpedo' body of the Buick for one of its models just prior to its being used by Chevrolet as well. This body brought some attention to the marque. Middle years For an extended period of time, prewar through the early 1950s, the Pontiac was a quiet and solid car, but not especially powerful. A flathead (side-valve) straight eight offered both the quietest and smoothest possible operation, with an appropriately soft suspension and quiet muffler offering the feeling of luxury without the expense. These combinations proved attractive to the vehicle's target market - a reserved lower middle class that was not especially interested in performance or handling and was seeking good value and a roomy vehicle in a step up from the entry-level Chevrolet. This fit well within parent GM's strategy of passing an increasingly prosperous customer up through the various divisions. Straight 8's are slightly less expensive to produce than the V8's that were growing in popularity, but they were also heavier and longer than a V8. Also, the long crankshaft suffered from excessive flex, which restricted straight 8's to relatively low compression and modest RPM's. In this application the inexpensive (but poorly-breathing) flat-head valves were not a liability. Pontiac was the last of GM's North American marques to switch to the V-8. As was the case with its using straight-8, Pontiac used a cost-cutting feature on its engines. Instead of having its OHV rockers pivoting on bearings machined into them, the rockers were stamped from sheet metal into a cup shape that was fitted over a hemisphere with oil forced at high pressure between the surfaces instead. The division encouraged racers, such as Mickey Thompson's building a speed record car with four such engines, so as to get this novel design better accepted. When Pontiac decided it needed to compete in the performance market, it made the necessary change to a V-8 with overhead valves. Style trademarks and logo Pontiac "Arrow-head" Logo A Native American Headdress was used as a logo until 1956. This was changed to the currently used Native American red arrowhead design after GM realized that Pontiac was suffering from some confusion with other marques. In particular, the 1955 and 1956 Pontiacs had grilles reminiscent of Mercury and fins and taillights reminiscent of Oldsmobiles. Besides the 'Indian head' logo, another identifying feature of Pontiacs were their 'silver streak' - one or more narrow strips of chrome-plated steel which extended from the grille down the center of the hood. Eventually they extended from the rear window to the rear bumper as well, but ultimately along the tops of the fins instead. Although intially a single 'silver streak', this stylistic trademark doubled for a short time to two, representing the cylinder banks. The streaks along with their grille ripples and the fins were all discarded at the same time as the Indian head logo. Engines Main article: Pontiac V8 engine Pontiac's second generation V-8 engines were nearly identical, allowing many parts to interchange from its advent in 1955 to its demise in 1979. Sizes ranged from 265 in³ to 455 in³. This similarity (except the 301 & 265) makes rebuilding these engines particularly easy, as almost any Pontiac engine one can find will contain useful parts. This dimensional similarity between engines of various capacity also made it possible for Pontiac to invent the modern muscle car, by the relatively simple process of placing its second largest engine the 389 cid into its mid-size car, the (Le Mans) creating the Pontiac GTO. The non-traditional Pontiac V8 was the 301 and the smaller displacement 265 in³. Produced from 1977 through 1981, this motor has the distinction of being the last Pontiac V8 produced by PMD. The 301 has a 4 inch bore and 3 inch stroke, identical to the vaunted Chevrolet and Ford 302 engines. Pontiac engines were not available in Canada, however, but were replaced with Chevrolet engines of similar size and power, resulting in such interesting and unusual (at least to American car fans) models as the Beaumont SD-396 with a Chevrolet big-block 396 in³ V8. All Pontiac Motor Division (PMD) engines (pre-1980 unified GM) were designed around a low-RPM/high-torque model, as opposed to the ubiquitous Chevrolet Small-Block engine known for its smaller displacement and high RPM/high power design. PMD engines were unique for their integrated water pump and timing chain cover, and separate valley pan and intake. Carburetors PMD originally used Carter 1-barrel carburetors for many years, but by the time of the second generation V-8 engines had switched mostly to the 2-barrel offerings. These also were the basis for the Tri-Power setups on the engines. The Tri-Power setup included one center carburetor with idle control and two end carburetors that did not contribute until the throttle was opened more than half way. This was accomplished two ways, mechanically for the manual transmission models, and via a vacuum-switch on the automatics. This went through various permutations before being banned by GM. PMD also had a square-bore 4-barrel at the time, but this was rated at a lower power than the Tri-Power. This carburetor was later replaced by the Quadrajet, a spread bore. 'Spread-bore' refers to the difference in sizes between the primaries and secondaries. By the end of the muscle car era, the QuadraJet setup had become the nearly-ubiquitous choice on PMD engines, due to its excellent economy and power characteristics. While QuadraJets have been occasionally derided as being poor performers, with proper understanding and tuning it can compete at most levels with other designs. This design proved good enough to last well into the 1980s with emissions modifications while most others carburetors were dropped for the easier to build fuel injection when economy mattered. Cars during this time period were relatively a good value but often were hoped to be purchased every three to four years. This car model would cost around 2,000 dollars Models Main article: List of Pontiac vehicles Pontiac in popular culture An alternate slang term for the marque among performance enthusiasts is Poncho. Another slang term used in the early stages of brand was "Indian" due to the subject matter of its logo. Ronny and the Daytonas sang about the Pontiac GTO in their 1964 song Little GTO. Gallery Pontiac New Series 6-28 8240 2-Door Sedan 1928 Pontiac New Series 6-28 8230 4-Door Sport Sedan 1928 Pontiac New Series 6-28 8240 2-Door Sedan 1928 Pontiac Big Six Series 6-29 8930 4-Door Landaulette 1929 Pontiac Big Six Series 6-29 8940 2-Door Sedan 1929 Pontiac Big Six Series 6-29 8960 Convertible Coupé 1929 Pontiac Series 603 34318 Convertible Coupé 1934 Pontiac De Luxe Series 26 2611 2-Door Touring Coach 1937 Pontiac De Luxe Series 28 2811 2-Door Touring Sedan 1938 Pontiac Six 4-Door Touring Sedan 1938 Pontiac Six 4-Door Touring Sedan 1938 Pontiac Six 4-Door Touring Sedan 1938 Pontiac Six 2-Door Touring Sedan 1938 Pontiac 2-Door Sedan 1939 Pontiac De Luxe Convertible Coupé 1939 Pontiac Custom Torpedo Eight JC Line Series 2927 Sedan Coupé 1941 Pontiac Torpedo Coupé 1941 Pontiac Station Wagon 1948 Pontiac Star Chief 1954 Pontiac Star Chief 1955 Pontiac Laurentian Convertible 1956 Pontiac Star Chief 1957 Pontiac Star Chief 1957 Pontiac Star Chief 1957 Pontiac 2119 Tempest 1961 See also Category:Pontiac vehicles Pontiac V8 engine Pontiac Straight-8 engine Pontiac Straight-6 engine List of GM engines Chief Pontiac Notes
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56 Makes In Database 2003 Pontiac Grand Am SE Sedan 2003 Pontiac G6 Concept 2003 Pontiac Aztek 2002 Pontiac Sunfire GXP 2002 Pontiac Sunfire American Tuner 2002 Pontiac Solstice Concept 2002 Pontiac Grand Prix GXP 2002 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am Edition 2001 Pontiac Vibe GT 2001 Pontiac Vibe 2001 Pontiac Sunfire HO 2001 Pontiac Sunfire Accessorized 2001 Pontiac Montana 2001 Pontiac Grand Prix 2001 Pontiac Grand Am 2001 Pontiac Firebird 2001 Pontiac Aztek SRV 2000 Pontiac Sunfire 2000 Pontiac Montana 2000 Pontiac Grand Prix 2000 Pontiac Firebird 1989 Pontiac Banshee 1974 Pontiac GTO 1970 Pontiac GTO 1968 Pontiac GTO 1967 Pontiac GTO 1967 Pontiac Firebird 1965 Pontiac GTO 1964 Pontiac GTO 1963 Pontiac Grand Prix 2008 Pontiac G8 GT Show Car 2007 Pontiac Solstice GXP 2007 Pontiac G6 GXP Show Car 2006 Pontiac Torrent 2006 Pontiac Solstice 2006 Pontiac Montana SV6 2006 Pontiac GTO 2006 Pontiac G6 GTP Coupe 2006 Pontiac G6 GTP Convertible 2005 Pontiac Vibe GT 2005 Pontiac Montana SV6 2005 Pontiac Grand Prix 2005 Pontiac Grand Am GT Coupe 2005 Pontiac GTO 2005 Pontiac G6 GT 2004 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP 2004 Pontiac Grand Am GXP 2004 Pontiac GTO 5.7 2004 Pontiac GTO 2004 Pontiac Bonneville GXP 2004 Pontiac Aztek Rally 2003 Pontiac Vibe GT 2003 Pontiac Vibe 2003 Pontiac Sunfire Coupe 2003 Pontiac Montana Thunder 2003 Pontiac Grand Prix |
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