In 1962, Pontiac pulled off the seemingly impossible: GM’s youth and performance brand took over the number three spot in U.S. sales, trailing only Ford and Chevrolet.
Through the late ’50s and early ’60s, the Pontiac division of General Motors was doing everything right, thanks to the leadership of Semon “Bunkie” Knudsen and his talented proteges, Pete Estes and John DeLorean. The reward for their solid work was a rapid march up through the sales charts, and in 1962, Pontiac took the number three spot, knocking Plymouth from its traditional perch among the Big Three.
Knudsen was rewarded for his efforts in late 1961 with a promotion to general manager of Chevrolet, GM’s kingpin division, followed by Estes in 1965 and DeLorean in 1969. The Motor City has built millions upon millions of cars over the past 120 years, and it’s said that every once in a while, they manage to find the sweet spot. The Pontiac line for 1962 is one example.
Of the more than 520,000 units sold by Pontiac in the ’62 model year, more than 200,000 were Catalinas. While the Catalina was the base model in the full-size lineup, it was nicely turned out with deluxe appointments and a respectable amount of exterior chrome, which no doubt contributed to the strong sales. Shown above are the Vista, Pontiac’s term for a four-door pillarless hardtop, and the convertible-look two-door Sport Coupe.
Pontiac marketing materials in those days are remembered for their beautiful paintings by Art Fitzpatrick and Van Kauffman, also above. The product illustrations by Fitz and Van, as they were known, managed to be both idealized and highly realistic at the same time. Along with the Catalina, the ’62 full-size lineup included the mid-priced Star Chief, the premium Bonneville, and a brand-new entry that year in the personal luxury category, the Grand Prix (lead photo).
The key to the Knudsen strategy at Pontiac was in refocusing the GM division, previously a grandma’s car, as the automaker’s youth and performance brand. It was Knudsen who famously said, “You can sell a young man’s car to an old man, but you can’t sell an old man’s car to a young man.” To burnish the division’s performance image, Knudsen backed his racing buddies Mickey Thompson, Smokey Yunick, and others in multiple motorsports venues, funneling the parts and money out GM’s back door since the carmaker was officially out of racing. Among the notable performances in ’62 was the dominating Daytona 500 victory by Fireball Roberts in a Yunick-built Catalina (watch Fireball crush the field here).
Pontiac’s production models were strong performers in their own right. Showroom shoppers had their pick of multiple 389 CID V8s with two-barrel, four-barrel, and Tri-Power induction setups, and there was also a 421 CID Super Duty V8 with dual four-barrels and 405 hp. And while the big Wide Track Pontiac chassis was no sports car by any means, it was a decent handler for its time with respectable highway manners.
The Tempest, Pontiac’s entry in the burgeoning Detroit compact category, accounted for nearly 142,000 sales in ’62. While based on GM’s corporate Y-body senior compact platform, the Tempest boasted a number of novel technical features, including a half-a-V8 slant four powerplant up front, a modified Corvair transaxle out back, and a bent-in-place driveshaft in between. The Tempest badge would be transferred to a more conventional product on an intermediate-size platform in ’64.
Another key ingredient in the Pontiac recipe: distinctive interiors, which often looked like they belonged in much more expensive cars. Cabins were offered in two-tone and even three-tone combinations in a coated vinyl fabric called Morrokide, which proved to be both handsome and incredibly durable (below). Pontiac would continue to hold down third place in the U.S sales charts for another seven years, finally yielding the spot back to Plymouth in 1970.
I enjoyed this well documented story of the way Pontiac came into play aimed at the more youthful market and away from the reputation it carried as more a the luxury car driven by our dads, a step above the Chevrolet and bumping Plymouths out of the big three sales leaders coming out of Detroit. It was the perfect storm of the times with automobiles stepping up to the growing popularity of the racing world and nailed it so well as you have stated.I recall first hand how those times were living and working in the Detroit and Pontiac area and driving a 59 Pontiac Catalina convertible powered by a 348 Tri-Power engine.Driving those wide track cars on the expressways was like being in a rocket ship.The advertising for” Red Holman Pontiac”home of the red hot chief’s” was so cool! Along came the Grand Prix model and put it right over the top. The Grand Prix was one of my dad’s real car moments when he bought a new one when he was 75 years old.
The 1959 Pontiac didn’t have a 348HP Tri-Power engine in 1959. The top engine was a 345HP engine that came with a # 886 hydraulic cam, however in the trunk came a Isky E-2 cam with solid lifters ( unlike Chevrolet, Pontiac would not sell a car with a solid lifter cam with a warranty) . It was the E-2 that gave the engine 345HP.
90+ % of the Tri-Powered cars Pontiac sold in 1959 were the 315HP engine with the #472 hydraulic cam.
Okay,thanks, I’m very surprised at what your saying here. It’s been a long time ago by now since having that car and somehow thought it was the 348 cu. in..I was half right saying it was a TRI- POWER.
Bill,
The engine in 1959 was increased from the 58 models 370 cu.in to the famous 389 cu.in. This engine would be in production from 1959-1966. The year the HP would change to 348 would be 1960, but most people who ordered Tri-Power in 1960 ordered the 318Hp engine. In 1960 there would also be a over the counter Super Duty 389 tri-Power for NHRA that was rated at 363HP. In 1961 the SD 389 would have a 368HP rating, but was overshadowed by the midyear offering of the famous 421 cu.in engine.
FYI, Pontiac never had a 348 cu.in. engine. In the early years it was 287cu.in for 1955, 316.6 cu in. in 1956, 347 cu.in. in 1957, 370cu.in. in 1958, and 389cu.in. from 1959-1966. And 421cu. in. is the fall of 1961-1966.
Confession… I was a young kid who was just starting out and only thinking it was the 348 cu.in. then, bought the car off a used car lot,Thinking back many years later it was an exciting time and I wasn’t looking at any specs back then. I’d Traded a new 62 Volvo PV544 in on this Pontiac after we had our first child and it proved too small by then,Thus, the big Pontiac adventure began. Shortly after buying this car I found all the engine and transmission mounts were broken causing a geometric lock of the accelerator linkage from the torque. It slapped the accelerator right to the floor and I had to turn the ignition off to avoid an accident. No hesitation getting it taken care off.
Bill
The part about the broken motor mounts on the 59 Pontiac resonated with me. One Sunday afternoon, I took my Mom’s 59 Bonneville out for a cruise, picking up some buddies along the way. We stopped at a traffic light – one of the guys said “Jack it up!” I did not know what he meant. He said “Put your left foot on the brake hard while you push the gas pedal with your right foot. It’ll smoke the tires!”
Needless to say, that heavy 59 Bonneville did not smoke the tire. What did happen was that at the next take-off from a dead stop was the same thing that happened to you – the gas pedal went to the floor and stayed there until the transmission shifted out of low. Apparently, I had broken one or both motor mounts. Lucky I didn’t have anyone in front of me. I didn’t even have enough sense to turn off the ignition.
To make it worse, I decided not to mention this to my mother, who drove the car to work the next day. The same thing happened to her from a traffic light stop. I do not recall the details of how she got the car fixed by the end of the workday, but she did. I was questioned pretty sternly about what I did to the car that Sunday afternoon. I finally admitted to trying to get the car to burn rubber.
Thanks, I had both a 62 Grand Prix and the 68 GTO. Had a lot of fun with both. Both factory 4 speeds.
In the mid 1960s, one of the customers on my newspaper route was an especially attractive blonde woman in her early-mid 1930s. She drove a black ’62 GP, and when she was in the car, the combination was a dynamite package. Every Friday, I would knock on the doors of my customers to collect the fee for the paper. A time or two, she came to the door with a towel wrapped around her from the waist down, wearing a bikini top. Obviously, she had been sunbathing. I know that my eyes had to pop, and I remember seeing a slight grin on her face.
About three years after I quit carrying the newspaper, I started hanging out at a local poolroom on a 4-lane highway. One afternoon, a car crashed into a telephone pole outside the poolroom, making a sickening thud sound. It was the same ’62 GP, with the same woman behind the wheel. Everyone in the poolroom ran outside. The front end of the Pontiac had made a “V” around the pole. Glass and various parts were everywhere. She was conscious, but very dazed and bloody. She did survive and lived another 40 or so years.
I’ll never forget her or that Pontiac.
I had a 63 Catalina, came of the assembly line with 389ci tri-power with 4sp trans. on the floor, also had factory gauges in the dash just above the radio and a chrome Pontiac tach mounted on the dash just to the left of the steering wheel, still have the invoice buying the car, many good memories with that car.
I have a 63 Catalina ( also a 62 Catalina) 4 range Hydra-Matic and I’m still making the memories to this day!