Which Cars Did Pontiac Make In 1954 & What Size Engines Did They Have Under The Hood?

The 1950s were a peak period for U.S. carmakers. Chrysler showed the world its first production HEMI engine in 1951, and Chevy introduced the Corvette in 1953. The Pontiac division of GM later made history with the legendary 1964 GTO, a model that helped clear the road for a wave of muscle cars. Pontiac produced about 288,000 cars in 1954, and that model year's lineup included two production nameplates and three prototype models. Dealership lots were packed with Chieftains and Star Chiefs, while behind the scenes, company engineers worked on a space-age sports racer that was the most expensive model ever sold (the one-off Bonneville Special), along with the Strato Streak and Parisienne.

The two production models were issued in nine variants for 1954: a Deluxe and Custom Catalina version of the Star Chief, plus seven different Chieftain submodels. The Chieftain was also available in Deluxe and Custom Catalina form, as well as in a base model, Catalina, Deluxe Catalina, Special, and Custom. If you're confused by the repeated and intertwined uses of "Deluxe," "Custom," and "Catalina," don't worry — we are too. For further bafflement, the Chieftain Special came in four body styles: two-and four-door sedans, and six- and eight-passenger station wagons. The Custom Catalina version of both cars was a two-door hardtop, and the Star Chief was also available as a four-door sedan (Custom or Deluxe) and Deluxe two-door convertible. All Star Chief models had a 124-inch wheelbase, versus 122 inches for the Chieftains.

Pontiac didn't introduce its new overhead-valve V8 until the 1955 model year, so the 1954 models all got versions of the older inline six- and eight-cylinder flathead engines. These motors had been in use since the 1930s, and the six- and eight-cylinder 1954 versions displaced 239.2 cubic inches and 268.4 cubic inches, respectively. Each engine came with two available compression ratios that produced slightly different outputs. The six-cylinder with a 7.0:1 ratio put out 115 horsepower, and the same engine with a 7.7:1 compression ratio generated 118 horses. The eight-cylinder with a 6.8:1 ratio made 122 horsepower, and the 7.7:1 version produced five more.

Pontiac was supposedly ready to begin using the new overhead valve V8 engine in 1953, but rumor has it that the division's chief engineer, George Delaney, wanted more time to continue developing the new motor. The first OHV Pontiac V8, a 287-inch beast that put out as much as 180 horsepower, went into production in 1955. 

[Featured image by Bill Wrigley via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC-BY 3.0]

Pontiac models from 1954 are relatively affordable on the secondhand market, although they're becoming somewhat hard to find. At the time of this writing, Classic.com only had two 1954 Star Chief listings and one sale in the past five years. The completed sale was in 2021 for a yellow Custom four-door sedan that went for $13,750. One of the current listings is a 1954 Star Chief convertible in Platinum Graphite silver available in Charlotte, North Carolina for $22,995. The other, listed in April 2024, is a Coral Red two-door sedan in Poland, Ohio that appears to have gone unsold.

Chieftains from 1954 are just as rare these days. We could only find two active listings for these models: a two-door hardtop in Mayfair Blue for sale via Classic Cars for $16,495 and a four-door sedan in San Marino Blue for $18,995 at Cars For Sale. Classic.com lists just four completed 1954 Chieftain sales in the last five years, and those cars went for anywhere between $6,000 and $58,000.

[Featured image by Greg Gjerdingen via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC-BY 2.0]