The Pontiac Strato-Streak was a show car built by

Pontiac Pontiac most often refers to: * Pontiac (Odawa leader) ( – 1769), Native American war chief *Pontiac (automobile), a former General Motors brand Pontiac may also refer to: Places and jurisdictions Canada * Pontiac, Quebec, a municipality ** Apo ...

for the 1954 General Motors Motorama. Its design was inspired by Pontiac's Catalina and mechanically it was based on the Star Chief's underpinnings, it had a wheelbase and was only high. The Strato-Streak was designed as a

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) is a common type of fibre-reinforced plastic, fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened i ...

4-door

hardtop A hardtop is a rigid form of automobile roof, typically metal, and integral to the vehicle's design, strength, and style. The term typically applies to a pillarless hardtop, a car body style without a B-pillar. The term "pillared hardtop" was ...

, with four

swivel A swivel is a connection that allows the connected object, such as a swivel gun, gun, swivel chair, chair, Caster, swivel caster, or an anchor rode to rotate horizontally or vertically. Swivel designs A common design for a swivel is a cylindr ...

bucket seat A bucket seat is a car seat contoured to hold one person, distinct from a flat bench seat designed to fit multiple people. In its simplest form, it contours somewhat to the human body, but may have a deep seat and exaggerated sides that partially ...

s for easier entry, no center "B" pillar and with the four doors of the sedan opening from the center outwards. As the rear doors opened into the wind, these were fitted with special locks to prevent opening unless the car was stopped and in neutral. The interior was done in beige leather and gold metallic nylon. The controls for safety and convenience accessories were located on the drive shaft tunnel. It was initially finished in metallic green, but was repainted iridescent metallic red and renamed the Strato Streak II. The "Strato-Streak" name was later used on Pontiac's all-new

small block A V8 engine is an eight-cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. Origins The first known V8 was the Antoinette, designed by Léon Levavasseur, and ...

overhead-valve V-8 engines from 1955 to 1957. The concept car was used to introduce the all-new

Pontiac V8 engine The Pontiac V8 engine is a family of overhead valve 90° V8 engines manufactured by the Pontiac (automobile), Pontiac Division of General Motors Corporation between 1955 and 1981. The engines feature a cast-iron block and head and two valves per ...

and introduce a

Space Race The Space Race (, ) was a 20th-century competition between the Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between t ...

inspired marketing approach.

References

Pontiac concept vehicles Cars introduced in 1954 Rear-wheel-drive vehicles {{classicpow-auto-stub