We don’t often feature two American Prime Finds in close succession, but we return to Detroit for this week’s car, big enough to qualify as a land yacht like the Chrysler 300 we featured recently, though some models packed enough performance to be categorised as muscle cars.
The Pontiac name was first put on cars in 1925, when General Motors introduced it as a lower-cost subset to their Oakland range. However, the new brand overtook the old one in popularity very quickly, and replaced it entirely in 1933. In GM’s hierarchy of brands Pontiac sat above Chevrolet but below Oldsmobile, Buick and of course Cadillac. Over the ensuing decades Pontiac became more a lifestyle than a car brand, and twelve years ago GM stopped marketing Pontiac cars altogether.
In between the company made a handful of models that left their mark on motoring history – I’m thinking of the Chieftain, Parisienne, Bonneville, Firebird and of course the legendary GTO, names familiar to pretty much any classic car fan, even one with such limited knowledge of US classics as this writer and there’s usually at least one of them at any reasonably big UK show.
A much less familiar name – to me, anyway – is the Pontiac Catalina; I’ve seen just one, at Brooklands a couple of years ago, although there are more over here than I expected, with the auctioneer stating that there remain 36 Catalina’s on our roads at the last count, a claim verified by howmanyleft.com. However, when you consider that the first car to bear the Catalina name was launched in 1950 and Pontiac continued to produce Catalina’s over the next 41 years, perhaps it’s not such a surprise that a number of them found their way here and that some of those survive.
The name Catalina has a nautical ring to it – indeed, there seem to be numerous yachts with the name, as well as flying boats, and Catalina Island is just 22 miles off the coast of southern California, so the name was clearly designed to evoke a certain relaxed, luxurious and of course sunny lifestyle – it certainly gives off that land yacht vibe.
The name was first used to indicate a trim level on the Pontiac Chieftain in 1950 and the Star Chief in ’54, with the first stand-alone Catalina model being launched in 1959, replacing both the Chieftain and Star Chief. It was a big car, and needed a big engine to move it, namely a 6.4-litre V8, and all subsequent Catalina’s came with hefty V8’s.
The ’59 Catalina featured a split front grille, a styling feature that set it apart from its rivals, and although the 1960 model year reverted to a full width grille, the split grille made a comeback in 1961 and was to be a feature of numerous future Pontiac’s. As usual, there was a bewildering array of optional extras and add-ons available, and also as usual, body styles included 2 and 4-door saloons, a 2-door convertible and an estate.
From the 1959 Pontiac catalogue
Within a couple of years the Catalina was completely restyled, squarer-edged than the original version and slightly smaller. The 6.4-litre V8 was retained, with power outputs starting at 215bhp and finishing at a mighty 363bhp for customers who wanted to take their Catalina drag racing, although the most powerful regular road car made do with 348bhp.
The Catalina was a sales success, coming in third behind the Chevrolet Impala and Ford Galaxie 500 in the best-selling full-sized charts for much of the 1960’s.
1965 saw the next comprehensive re-styling of the Catalina range, and brings us to the period that produced our Prime Find. The car now featured long, flowing lines, a hint of so-called “coke-bottle” in the profile and fastback styling on the 2-door coupé. At just a little under 18 feet long, this generation was bigger, too, and so was the choice of engines – all V8’s, naturally – starting with 6.4-litres and 256bhp, going up to a 6.9-litre lump that pushed out 376bhp. Even this wasn’t the biggest unit to be offered in the Catalina, with a 7.5-litre engine being offered in 1969. Depending which engine was in the car, Catalina’s could hit a maximum speeds between 1250mph to 130mph and reach 60mph in between seven and nine seconds, bordering on muscle car territory. Combine this level of power and performance with a kerb weight of 4000ilbs plus, they were unsurprisingly thirsty, consumption of around 10-12mpg being the norm.
Between 1965 and 1969, this generation of Catalina also received regular facelifts, far too convoluted for me to try to summarise accurately here, so let’s take a closer look at our Prime Find, which is a 1967 four-door saloon, loaded with extras such as aircon, tinted glass, power steering and cruise control among others. It comes up for auction on March 12th with Manor Park Classics in Cheshire, North West England.
From the 1967 Pontiac catalogue
Our car is finished in black, which gives it a somewhat menacing look, and the interior is finished in various shades of red. The auctioneers describe this Catalina as “superb” and it certainly looks to be in very good order. The wide bench seats front and rear will probably allow six adults to be sit comfortably. The front of the car is divided horizontally as well as vertically, with the front bumper running the width of the bottom half between two sets of stacked headlamps – a look shared by several of the company’s cars of the period.
It sits on chromed alloys that have covered what would be a meagre 38,000 miles if the odometer was correct, but as no mention is made of this being verifiable, I would assume 138,000 to be the actual mileage unless proved otherwise. This Catalina was imported into the UK in 2008 and has had just two owners since, though it’s not stated how many it had had prior to landing on our shores.
I really like the long, sleek lines of this Catalina – while it’s far too big for our roads and parking bays, it has undeniable presence, especially in this colour, and with up to 290bhp on tap from it’s big V8, it doubtless rumbles along impressively, and thirstily. While there are three dozen Catalina’s of all generations on UK roads, there are just four ‘67’s, so the successful bidder will belong to a fairly exclusive club, and if the auctioneer’s estimates turn out to be accurate, the membership fee will not be excessive, with a range of just £9,000 to £11,000 indicated.
There is a question mark regarding the accuracy of the lot description – it states that the engine is a 6.2-litre V8, as does the DVLA (which also says it’s a diesel – not good enough for what should be a definitive source) but no engine of that size was ever supplied in the Catalina – it most probably is the 6.4, which, while it is also probably the “cooking” version with “only” 290bhp, is probably more than potent enough for the way this car is likely to be driven on our narrow winding roads. There’s a limited history file including invoices and MOT certificate, and the car is being offered with a current MOT although it doesn’t actually require one.
You can see the full lot entry details here, and as always, should you be interested in making a bid for this big beast of a car, we recommend arranging prior inspection if possible.
With our Saturday instalment of Prime Find of the Week, we’re offering our services to the classic car community, by passing on our favourite classic car for sale from the week that passed. This top-tip might help a first-time-buyer to own his first classic, or it could even be the perfect motivation for a multiple-classic-car-owner to expand his garage with something different. We’ll let us be inspired by anything from a cheap project to a stunning concours exotic, and hope that you will do the same.
Just remember – Any Classic is Better than No Classic! We obviously invite our readers to help prospective buyers with your views and maybe even experiences of any given model we feature. Further to that, if you stumble across a classic which you feel we ought to feature as Prime Find of the Week, then please send us a link to primefindoftheweek@viaretro.co.uk