1959 Pontiac Catalina

The Pontiac Catalina is a full-size, junior series automobile produced by Pontiac from 1950 to 1981. Initially, the name was a trim line on hardtop body styles, first appearing in the 1950 Chieftain Eight and DeLuxe Eight lines. In 1959, it became a separate model as the “entry-level” full-size Pontiac.

For 1959, Pontiac dropped the name “Chieftain” and “Super Chief” models for its entry level model and renamed it “Catalina”, while demoting the former top-line Star Chief to mid-line status eliminating the two door StarChief Catalina, the only hardtop for the StarChief was the four door hardtop and expanding the Bonneville nameplate to a full flagship series that included sedans, coupes, convertibles and Safari station wagons. In the lower-priced Catalina line, Pontiac division advertising placed higher emphasis on the top trimmed two- and four-door hardtops, convertible and Safari station wagons instead of the pillared two- and four-door sedan variants despite the fact that the four-door sedan was the best seller in this line.

The Catalina also had more to offer than most of its rivals under the hood, where a 389 CI V-8 was the biggest engine in its class, and in the case of this rare convertible, when equipped with the rare optional Tri Power carburetion setup, where 3 Rochester 2 barrel carbs make a class-leading 345 HP. Coupled with the 4-speed Hydra-Matic automatic transmission, this big 2-door convertible remains clean and correct under the hood, and a first class highway cruiser today.

Introduced as a trim level on the Chieftain in 1950, the Pontiac Catalina became a stand-alone model in 1959. Even though it was Pontiac’s lowest-priced full-size model, the Catalina came standard with more amenities than the Chevrolet Biscayne. And while the latter was offered with an inline-six before options, the Catalina used a larger and more-powerful, 389-cubic-inch (6.4-liter) V8 in 1959.