1980 Pontiac Catalina

The "Catalina" badge at Pontiac started life in the 1950s as the top trim package on their full-size Chieftains and Star Chiefs.

Beginning with the '59 model year it became its own line, the lowest level of the full-size Pontiac hierarchy, beneath the Star Chief and top-line Bonneville. There it remained for the next two decades, in various levels of sportiness. During the Bunkie Knudsen years, the Catalina 2+2 was the flag bearer for full-size Poncho performance, with wild triple carb "Tri-Power" Super Duty mills until GM forbade multiple carburetors in anything that wasn't a 'Vette or a Corvair.

Going into the Malaise Era of the Seventies, the enormous B-body Catalinas got more formal and sedate and finally got their turn in the downsizing barrel for the 1977 model year.

That final generation of the Catalina, available as a coupe, sedan, or wagon, rode on the same 116-inch wheelbase as the Bonneville, Impala, LeSabre, and Olds 88. 

By 1980, this Mariposa Yellow coupe would have come with the LS5 Pontiac 2-barrel 265 cubic inch V-8, rated at 120 SAE net horsepower, as the base motor, tasked to lug 3500 pounds of Pontiac down the boulevard. Optionally, a buyer could pay for the 301 cubic inch Pontiac V-8, which featured a Rochester QuadraJet and 150 ponies.

Neither of those Pontiac V-8s would meet California emissions standards, so buyers in the Golden State could get a 115hp 3.8L Buick V-6 or a 160hp Old Rocket 350.

After the 1981 model year, the Catalina nameplate was no more, and neither were Pontiac's in-house V-8 motors. Future performance Ponchos would have Chevy and Buick mills until the division's demise in thirty years.