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This Pontiac Chieftain was a movie star. Owned for many years by the Cartocci agency in Rome, Italy the car was part of the company cinema rental fleet. The car appears in the film “Lucky Luciano” and other productions done at Cinecittà
Purchased from Cartocci in July of 2012, the car was still very usable but tired enough to require moderate restoration. The car was not totally disassembled. It was given a repaint retaining the original Nankeen cream color that was unique to convertibles. The chrome was polished and reinstalled. The interior was completely replaced in Burgundy leather while the engine was rebuilt. -
Company
General Motors
Make
Pontiac
Model
Chieftain Deluxe, 6R, 2567DTX
Body Style
Convertible, 2-door, 5-pass.
Body Manufacture
Fisher Body
Model year
1949
Wheelbase
120 inches
Length
202.5 inches
Engine
inline-6, L-head, 239.2 cid
Horsepower
90 hp @ 3400 rpm
Transmission
3-speed manual, column shift
Original Base Price
$2,183
Brand Production
235,165 model year
This Car Production
40,139 all Chieftain six with manual -
The first all new Pontiacs after the war represented a big departure from the cars they replaced. The cars now had a low stance, front fenders flowed seamlessly into the doors, the hood no longer stood above the fenders and the two appeared to be more harmonious, the two piece windshield appeared to curve subtly, the grille was much lower and wider, overall the cars took a big leap forward in looking more modern. Customers loved the changes.
The major redesign of the 1949 cars carried across the entire General Motors line. Under the guidance of design chief Harley Earl, each GM division had to design their own unique variation of a basic body shell supplied by Fisher that was classified by a letter. For Pontiac the Chieftain was based on the A-body shell while the lower priced Streamliner made use of the B-body shell. Ironically, all Pontiacs in 1949 came on a 120 inch wheelbase so the outside dimensions of the two models were the same.
The Chieftain used a more traditional notchback style while the Streamliner kept the fastback styling that proved so popular the previous few years. The cars were nearly 3 inches narrower and 2 inches shorter than the previous offerings but allowed for more interior space.
Mechanically there were few changes from 1948. The engines remained the same and the Hydramatic automatic transmission, first offered in ‘48, would be even more popular in ‘49.
A 29.5% increase in model year sales proved that car buyers were loving the new designs. Pontiac maintained their fifth position in the industry behind Ford, Chevrolet, Plymouth and Buick in that order.