(first posted 12/17/2014) One doesn’t exactly see ’55 Pontiacs like this often on the freeway, looking like it might well be a regular or daily driver. Stephanie shot it yesterday on I-205, coming home from Portland. Unlike the glamorous coupes and convertibles one might see at a car show, this is how I remember ’55 Pontiacs; it’s just like one some neighbors had back in the day; a solid, plain sedan, minus the hub caps.
Maybe my title doesn’t do the Pontiac justice, as Chevy and Pontiac had been sharing A Bodies for a long time. In fact, the 1932 Pontiac was the very first GM car to share its body and much of its chassis with another brand: Chevrolet. It was a desperate measure taken by GM President Alfred Sloan to save Pontiac in the depths of the Depression. It not only started a long tradition of Pontiacs and Chevys sharing A (and other) Bodies, but also opened the way for the other GM divisions to share bodies too, once Sloan realized the tremendous cost savings. The beginning of GM’s consolidation.
image via cardomain.com
In 1955, Chevrolet and Pontiac got a handsome new body, and although the Pontiac version had some redeeming qualities, it clearly started out as a Chevy body that Pontiac had to make look different. The Chevy was a clean and organic design; the Pontiac’s a bit less so. As per tradition back then, Pontiac added some extra inches on the front, to come up with a 122″ wheelbase for the Chieftain, and 124″ for the Star Chief.
I’m a huge fan of the very clean Pininfarina-esque ’55 Chevy front end. The Pontiac’s looks a bit fussy and contrived, and is based on an earlier Motorama show car. Along with the still-present “Silver Streak” trim on the hood, it’s a rather busy front end for such a clean body. But it has plenty to like, as well as fans.
Pontiac also got to share the Nomad sports wagon body, and here again, it looks a bit busy compared to the Chevy. But I’m sure Harley Earl encouraged that. Needs some more chrome trim!
1955 was a very good year for Pontiac, setting a new sales record (554k units) it wouldn’t again equal or surpass until that golden year, 1963. And like Chevrolet, it had a brand new V8, a 287 CID motor that shared certain design aspects with the Chevy, like the stud-mounter rockers. It was high time to give the ancient flat head straight eight the heavy ho; the last of its kind. Like the Chevy small block, the Pontiac V8 would go on to have a long life, and grow all the way to 455 cubic inches, and then shrink back to 301. There was even a sad 265 inch version built for just two years, undoubtedly the most pathetic Pontiac V8 ever built.
Related reading:
The Almost Forgotten 1980-1981 Pontiac 265 (4.3L) V8: Why Did They Bother?
pretty obscure find. Can’t say I’m personally a huge fan of the 55 design, but it cleaned up nice by 57 (in my eyes), and looks a little classier than the Chevy.
For what its worth, the Pontiac V8 was never a 307, it got down to 326, then there was a low deck block made (and shared parts with the famous Iron Puke 2.5) 301 made.
There were a handful of 303’s made in anticipation of getting the division into Trans Am racing, but from what I’ve read there are only a couple that were made functional.
There was one odd year, 63, when the 326 actually measured 336 in the Lemans/Tempest.
Anyway..cool find Mr. N
Yes; that was a typo; meant to write 301.
The 301 was a unique animal in the history of Pontiac V8’s. Pontiac used a shorter deck height, thin-wall castings and reduced the crankshaft counterweights from 5 to 2. The engine also used had unusual and small siamesed intake ports on the heads and intakes (basically two ports merged into one larger wide port to feed two different valves).. Weight was reduced significantly to 452 lbs vs 579 for a Pontiac 350.
And the stud mounted rockers were actually a Pontiac idea, that Chevrolet used on the small-block Chevy.
It also isn’t the same engine as the earlier Pontiac engines, it is an all Pontiac V8 design, but as far as I know it doesn’t share much of anything with the “big” Pontiac V8’s made through 1978.
The Pontiac 301 is a variation or derivative of the original Pontiac V8. It’s extensive changes limits the parts interchangability with the 1978 and older engines. However, it is inherently the same design.
Why do die-hard Pontiackers always insist there is no such thing as a “small block” or “big block” Pontiac? Especially when Olds and Buick guys acknowledge that the same basic design, in low-deck or high-deck form, qualify for that distinction.
Probably because the engines from 287-455 had the same physical dimensions. The 421-428-455 did have larger main journals, but they weren’t any physically bigger. I think the 301/265 short deck blocks just get ignored by Pontiac enthusiasts even though they could be considered a “small block”.
In comparison the Olds engines clearly had distinct size difference between the short deck engines (330,350) and the tall deck engines (400,425,455). Buick small blocks on the other hand were quite a bit different from there big block cousins in block dimensions. The bore centers were not even shared between these engines, unlike the Olds “small block” and “Big Block”.
“Like the Chevy small block, the Pontiac V8 would go on to have a long life, and grow all the way to 455 cubic inches, and then shrink back to 307”
Wasn’t the 301 a Pontiac motor? 307 was a Chevy and Olds displacement IIRC…
It’s got those “Bonneville” show car influences in the painted grille area with silver streaks. The chrome color breaks were natural looking to the car, and not forced.
The pastor of our church had a seven year old two-tone sedan with woven pvc seat covers. Three of us 12 year old boys were shepherded to pre-baptismal classes in the back of it, and one had recently mastered how to make a tiny box out of a sheet of note pad paper. The rear seat cover was fraying, and we “appropriated” strands of it to make a long string, which we tied to the box, feeding it out so it trailed the car by about 20 feet. You could do stuff like that in the days before seat belts kept you strapped in. As we passed a work crew who had the street opened up, the guy in the hole was startled, to our great glee, by the tiny white object that seemed to bounce by on its own. We also used those boxes to comical effect (for us) by inserting them into the tail pipes of church members’ cars when we were supposed to be inside listening to the sermon. Then we would watch as they started up their cars, and the boxes flew out like the stylized mini-clouds kids used to draw to indicate puffs of smoke.
But I digress…
The ’55s were relatively honest designs all around, before jet pod bumpers got tacked on. Although it covered the center color bar between the split bumpers, the license plate (where required) had a sensible location in the middle of the gape (decades later, Pontiac could not manage this on the Solstice). Star Chief ornamentation looked good with the three four-pointed stars ahead of the sweep spear. Nice and simple and the two toning gave the front clip a kind of sexy nakedness, especially when the lighter color was at that end.
As kids, we used to stuff Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars up the tailpipe of our ’68 LTD Country Squire wagon, standing nearby (barely stifling giggles) when Mom was getting ready to go shopping. Not many of our toys survived those years…
I read the title, looked at the pic and thought I don’t remember the ’55 Chevy front wheel being that far from the windshield. So there was a little more wheelbase in front for the Pontiac, interesting. Usually that would make something look even better but that Chevy was so perfect it didn’t the help in this case.
Kudos to Stephanie for a great shot!
This plain, unadorned 4 door is also the way I recall Pontiacs of this era.
Growing up in the antiseptic “Dick Van Dyke Show” suburbs of New Orleans in the 1960’s and 1970’s, a Pontiac similar to this one was often parked at the curb in front of a new tract house, with the “new” car, often a compact or “sporty” import, parked in the favored driveway spot or under the attached carport.
It was a LONG time before I recognized that a ’55 Bel Air body was hiding below those frumpy Pontiacs at the curb!
Didn’t Ricky and Lucy drive one of these across the country in the “I Love Lucy Show”. Seems like it was missing the windshield, too which I assume had something to do with the filming back in the late 1950s.
Yes, the Ricardos drove a 1955 convertible across the country when they left New York City to visit Los Angeles. If I recall correctly, GM agreed to supply the car and help pay for the filming of the outdoor scenes. In return, the Pontiac was featured during the series, and even mentioned by name when Ricky Ricardo first brought it home.
No windshield!! It reflected the camera when filming. Also check out the
https://www.imcdb.org/v222223.html
When they filmed the Pontiac during the show, the windshield was removed because the wrap around reflected too much to the camera. It was quiet obvious! Check it out here-
https://www.imcdb.org/v222223.html
Thanx for this Paul ;
These were drab cars i guess but good ones .
The wagons were especially nice .
Not quite nice enough to want one…..
I loved my ’54 Pontiac Super Chief Coupe , it has that last year flathead InLiner 8 cylinder and Hydromatic drive , a nice car , flashier (IMO) than the ’55s .
-Nate
Actually, it was watching that “I Love Lucy” espisode that got me to thinking Chevy and Pontiac must be sharing the same basic body. But the 57 Chevy and Pontiac look different enough to make me think the sharing lasted only 2 NOT 3 years. In fact, I always thought the 57 and 58 Pontiac were similar enough for the 58 to be a mild “facelift”.
To get back to the sharing: while the Chevy and Pontiac look similar, you couldn’t give me a 55 or 56 Pontiac wagon….except for the Safari, and even then I’d rather have the Chevy. All other models? It’s a toss-up, though I would be sorely tempted to remove A LOT of the Pontiac’s chrome.
For 1957, Pontiac offered a wagon named the Custom Safari Transcontinental, which was a four-door luxury wagon with all of the trimmings. I wouldn’t mind having one today.
Did the Custom Safari Transcontinental have a stainless steel panel on the lower half of the rear quarter panels…or was the side spear in stainless and the lower quarter in satin silver paint?
That was the year that the Chevrolet Bel Air had a satin metal panel in its rear quarter “spear” where lesser models had paint.
Image from a prior CC. There are also photos of a well-restored one at
http://www.pontiacsafari.com/L1SafariPhotos/1957_Safaris/Transcon_JackWhite/
Interesting question. The Transcontinental is only pictured in one period brochure. It sports what looks like a stainless steel panel covering the lower half of the quarter panel. But every surviving car I’ve seen on the internet has that area painted satin silver.
Perhaps the car originally came with the stainless steel panel, but today that part is not available – either in reproduction form, or as new-old stock – so restorers have used paint instead?
The 57 Pontiac was still based on the Chevy, but with Packard-looking tail lamps.
The 58s of both were facelifts, quite extensive, and on the market for only one MY.
I thought that the 1958 Chevrolet and Pontiac were all-new.
GM was on a three-year cycle for bodies during those years. Buick, Oldsmobile and Cadillac were all-new for 1954, and again for 1957. Chevrolet and Pontiac were all-new for 1955, and again for 1958.
The 58’s got the new X frame chassis, btw.
(Exactly six years later)
No, the 1958 Pontiac was a totally different body, frame, and suspension from the 1957, which was another facelift of the 1955 model. I’m sure that few buyers of 1959 Pontiacs or Chevrolets would have realized that their all-new bodies were on the frames of the very different looking 1958’s.
Somewhere in late 1956 word must have been sent down to the stylists and engineers that the 1958’s of all GM models were a big outdated looking mistake. They then had two big tasks: put as much bright trim on the 1958’s to distract everyone, and come up with completely new bodies for the 1959’s as fast as they could.
I sure do wish there was editing here. I keep imagining that editing was a feature here in the past.
Anyway,
They then had two big tasks: put as much bright trim AS POSSIBLE on the 1958’s to distract everyone….
The ‘now you see it, now you don’t’ edit function IS quite distracting!
I thought the 55 was the best of the tri five years. Pontiac and chevy both. The v8 families started in both those brands was something else. I think the 4.3 that I owned was the last takeoff on the original smallblock for Chevy. 1958 was a mess. The cars, not the engines.
There is a pontiac that color parked a few miles away from where I sit. Don’t remember any trees growing through it yet but it won’t be long. Good find.
Nice cars, though the simple beauty of the Chevy version does make them look a bit overstyled. Some of the details work better than others, and some from certain angles–like the little openings on the fender tops above the headlamps. From some points of view they’re reminiscent of the intakes you might find on a jet (which was probably the intended effect), from others they look like eyebrows and give the car a perpetual “surprised” expression, with the large grille acting as an open mouth.
My father was born on New Year’s Eve 1954. He has always wanted a car from his birth year (or in this case model year). The object of his desire?
1955 Pontiac Star Chief – chrome hood stripes and all.
The driver of that green ’55 sedan knows how to do it. Note the elbow on the windowsill. GM in the ’50s understood elbow-drivers better than any other carmaker. From that position you could give hand signals or flick your cigarette without ever retracting the elbow.
Most other cars had either a narrow sill or an obtrusive weatherstrip. Uncomfortable.
Other than the dip in the rear door (“You MUST use the door designed for the Chevrolet!”), the whole design does hang together well. It’s plainness appeals; most 1955 Pontiacs one sees are flashy upline models, two-toned with the stars on the front fender; some also have a flashy chrome lower quarter.
Another detail on this car that is there, but might slip past in the darkish photo if viewed on a small tablet-type screen, is the somewhat incongruous white letter tires. I noticed when I looked at the photo at full size to admire the car’s honest integrity.
If anything, the owner of this car is serious about it. I have a feeling he knows what he has, and its potential. The proper wheel covers (or dog-dishes) are probably safely stored away where they won’t get stolen or fall off as the car is driven!
1981…I needed some doors for my ’57 Chevy. That’s when I learned Pontiac doors were the same.
For 1957 the changes made to the Pontiac body were enough to make one believe they were different, but in fact the superstructures were the same. Check the rooflines.
On all the GM ’59’s, the roofs, glass and door inner structure were identical, except for maybe the six window Cadillac hardtop sedans. Fisher Body was given a very limited budget for that year’s tooling. It is amazing that the look was so unique for each brand.
Very thoughtful piece Paul, thanks! The start of the “consolidation” of GM.
Regarding 267, during the dark days of 1980-81, GM offered a 267 V8 that was a debored 305 Chevy, AND it offered a 265 V8 that was a debored Pontiac 301.
So you were essentially correct.
And these debored/destroked GM small-blocks were essentially pathetic. They had NO real world MPG advantage over the 305/307/301 (Chev/Olds/Pontiac) V8s of that era, but they were noticeably slower (whereas the 305/307 were marginally slower than the 350s from which they were derived, but DID offer a useful increase of 1-3 mpg). In any case, the Pontiacs seemed less powerful and less reliable than the other two division.
So they were basically underpowered? Not surprising.
It’s a long shot that CC followers don’t know of the Internet Movie Cars Database, but (given comments above), I’ll post this just in case (here’s the URL within that gets you to some ’55 Pontiacs):
http://www.imcdb.org/vehicles.php?make=Pontiac&model=Chieftain&modelMatch=1&modelInclModel=on&page=4
Here’s the “I Love Lucy” car, BTW:
My favourite episode from that set of shows driving to LA from NY was the one where they “lost” their steering wheel in Arizona.
Note that the Pontiac on the set has no windshield.
Great episode but the incident where the Pontiac’s steering wheel is taken into custody by the fleabag motel owner (as insurance against their not paying the bill for the room) takes places outside of Cincinnati, Ohio.
This is an interesting and common car of the era. The vast majority of the cars of this era were used for just the same purpose as today: transportation for a family. For every SS409, there were ten thousand Belairs with 283 and Powerglide. Even in those days, I head comments about how “boring” mainstream cars were.
And things haven’t changed a lot. The Camacord gets heaped with scorn by gearheads, yet sell in vast quantities. Gearheads scream for manuals, then don’t go buy them. Gearheads scream for cars like the Chevrolet SS or Pontiac G8, and then don’t plunk their cash on the hood.
Yeah the SS and G8 should have been Holdens saviour but NO muricans dont like RWD V8 cars unless they drive like barge.
Not really, Bryce. It’s just that for the vast majority of people, there is no need for a 400 hp car with a manual transmission that seats five and costs $50,000, especially with a Chevy brand on it.
Once again, greareheads screamed, GM responded and lost a lot of money on it.
Eh, what could the SS cost to do? Probably less than GM budgets for Cruze tail light changes.
They already make LHD Holdens for export to the middle east, where they are already sold a Chevrolets, Holden already had designed it for US standards, all they had to do was print some US spec Chevrolet owners manuals and come up with some SS emblems for the exterior and ship them over.
The shipping was probably the most expensive part.
Agreed, but there are extra costs such as training, etc.
The point I was making was there really isn’t much of a market for a $50,000 Chevy with 400 hp. Sure, grearheads scream for this exact figure all the time, but the fact remains they either don’t have the money or don’t want to spend it. Most people spending $50k on a new car want brand cachet, are resale value, which are not historically Chevrolet’s mission.
It was a mix n match of existing panels and probably the grille was new the rest was just Holden/HSV but the estimated market never eventuated the cars as Carmine said already retail as Chevies in the middle east and South Africa and England as Vauxhalls it was presumed a 4 door Corvette would sell in the US but no.
I recall reading a few years ago that Chevrolet ranked first among all brands in sales of vehicles over $50,000. That figure included trucks, SUVs and the Corvette.
Dealers have no problem moving Chevrolets priced over $50,000, as long as they are named “Silverado,” “Suburban,” “Tahoe” and “Corvette.”
Are you sure GM lost a lot of money on the SS? Also, it hasn’t been cancelled, that I’m aware of…not sure how sales have been compared to expectations though.
Fun fact about the SS is that you can get it in some pretty wild colors, like bright emerald green, lime green, turquoise, and purple. So all those saying modern cars only come in drab colors should rejoice in those choices…regrettably only a black interior is offered though.
Don’t forget about the Canadian Pontiacs which shared even more with the Chevrolet models, included the wheelbase. I kind of like the Canadian versions better, they were a trimmer and tidier package. Later on they looked a little off in the Wide-track era, but these earlier cars were nice.
I attached a photo of a 1955 Pontiac Laurentian.
I do tend to forget about this generation of Cheviac. Wow; that shorter front really makes a difference; nice. That front end extension on the US Pontiacs is anything but organic.
My uncle was an Airman, so he didn’t have a lot of money in the 1960’s. One of my earliest memories was he and his family pulling up to our house in a 1955 Pontiac. This was around 1968 or so, and such a car was considered ancient at the time.
Isn’t 1955 the year that Pontiac actively started to change its image from a car that librarians, secretaries, spinsters and great aunt Clara bought (a reliable, affordable but outdated and bland car) to something that other folks might be interested in? I think this was the first year of the V8 for Pontiac?
I like the silver stripes down this era Pontiac. While not as cool as the light up Chief Pontiac hood ornament of the 1940’s, it still is a nice look to it.
I don’t know the year, but I have no doubt that Pontiac began transitioning the moment Bunkie Knudson was put in charge of the division, and ‘Wide-Track’ Pontiacs were certainly the name of the game in 1959.
1957 sounds like a better guess, primarily because I once read that one of Knudson’s first acts was to deep-six the metal trim that went down the middle of the Pontiac’s hood, and ’57 looks like the first year for that.
Bunkie Knudsen arrived as Pontiac GM in 1956, and the first effects of that were in 1957. He also hired DeLorean in 1956. That was the beginning of the big turn around.
Of course in this part of the world we got Cheviacs so it was a very thin disguise and just to confuse the issue we got some real US Ponchos too.
We got cheviacs,regular Chevys & Pontiacs and the Acadian!
Although they shared the same basic body; even my single digit self could hear the differences between my Father’s 5 year old six-in-a-row-that-don’t-go/three on the tree ’56 Chevy and the next door neighbor’s V8/HydraMatic ’55 Pontiac. I seem to recall that the interiors/dashboards were vastly different between the two cars.
Yes, the car owning experience could be VERY different between the differen GM makes back in those days. For example, the Buick was the boulevard cruiser, and the Oldsmobile was the traffic-light Grand Prix champ back then. Very different driving dynamics between two cars that had much in common otherwise.
That kind of diferenciation mostly disappeared in, or maybe even before, the early 70s, and we know where the rest of that story went.
While bodies were shared, underneath, they were still different cars underneath, at least until ’65. Not only the engines, but frames, suspension and brakes. So, it was more than a wheelbase stretch that changed driving dynamics.
Black metal as the inner structure is called and glass was shared outer skins differed.
But with completely different dashboards and interior trim, frames, suspensions, usually engines, and often automatic transmissions.
My Uncle Bob had a ’55 Star Chief Custom Catalina Coupe in that beautiful turquoise and cream two-tone. The matching leather interior was truly luxurious. Interesting that the Star Chief convertible was a step down from the Custom Coupe, Sedan and Safari models and had a much plainer interior. I think the modest styling change for ’56 took a very special car and made it seem ordinary. And the redesigned 1956 Hydra Matic wasn’t any good either. In ’55 though, the Star Chief seemed every bit the equal of a Super 88 Oldsmobile.
I always thought the most obvious difference between Chevy and Pontiacs of this era was the kicked up rear fender on the Pontiac…all in all a very nice honest old car that evokes more real memories than the over restored and over accessorized vehicles that you often see at car shows
Pontiac was my least favorite GM car in 55 – it always looked a bit lumpy and I hated the “suspenders” that BK abandoned in 57. The Chevy, Olds (my favorite), and Buick were much better looking cars, IMO. My Dad’s best friend had a fuel-injected 57 Bonneville convertible – now that car got my favorable attention. And in 59 the widetracks with the gorgeous split grille sealed the deal with Pontiac as a style leader right on through the 60’s, with one beauty after another.
I love the wagon.
In view of this entry, you might find this video interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bjp7bBGPHhw&list=PLJpow1Tj7Z5090p_7g0KQdWJSsNtiTPqX&index=22
Dad bought his first new car in ’55, a stripper green Pontiac, similar to the one pictured, but with two doors, so I wouldnt fall out in the days before child safety door latches and seatbelts. As a young engineer, he went for the most horsepower for the buck.
In a shoe box somewhere, there is a black-and-white photo of me as a baby clutching a die-cast (or just slush-cast?) toy Pontiac wagon of this era. Perhaps my first COAL. Maybe a Tootsietoy. Probably taken in 1957 or early ’58.
Perhaps like this one I just found on the Internet.
To some Boomers, 50s/60s Pontiacs were different enough, that some would still swear that they did not share any parts “with those cheap Chevys”.
And, just as the ‘faithful’ outright reject newer 1982+ Pontiacs with ‘Chevy’ motors.
You might want to check your facts and do some Side by Side comparisons. GM’s “Shared Platforms” (Cabins and such) goes back prior to 1955 and included Buick, Chevy, Olds, Pontiac and, Cadillac.
GM, Ford, Chrysler, etc. and. etc. used and still use (pretty much) the same Formula. Now days we just call them “Cookie Cutter Cars”.
I assume you didn’t actually read the text:
Maybe my title doesn’t do the Pontiac justice, as Chevy and Pontiac had been sharing A Bodies for a long time. In fact, the 1932 Pontiac was the very first GM car to share its body and much of its chassis with another brand:
They’ve been doing it since 1932.
For those accustomed to the proportions of the American ’55 Pontiac, the first encounter with the stubby proportions of a ’55 Pontiac Pathfinder is a revelation!
On the front my view goes straight to the thin chrome of the “eyebrows” and the “upper lip”.