1961 Pontiac Catalina and Super Duty

For 1961 the Catalina was Pontiac's lowest-priced full-size series, sharing a 119-inch wheelbase with the Ventura and Bonneville Safari while Star Chief and Bonneville rode 123 inches; a compiled table puts total Catalina production at 113,354 across seven body styles. Performance ran up through the 389 option ladder, topped by a 425-A Tri-Power rated 348 hp, and late in the season Pontiac released a 421 Super Duty V-8 as a dealer-installed engine, in a single-four-barrel version built for NASCAR's one-carburetor rule and a dual-four-barrel version for other competition; the overview separately mentions a 363 hp version offered to drag racers, a figure that does not match either of the two 421 ratings carried in this file's own engines table. The NHRA's 2025 retrospective reproduces Pontiac's contemporary announcement of the 421 option for qualified drivers and a National Dragster account of the August 6, 1961 Pomona meet, where Hayden Proffitt, driving for Mickey Thompson, won the Super Stock final.^1,2,3

No sourced count of Super Duty or dealer-installed 421 cars was found for 1961. The seven Catalina body styles broke down as 38,638 four-door sedans, 17,589 Vista sedans, 9,846 two-door sport sedans, 14,524 hardtop sport coupes, 12,379 convertibles, 7,783 nine-passenger Safaris, and 12,595 six-passenger Safaris, while a separate transmission breakdown gives 6,337 cars with the manual synchromesh and 107,017 with Hydra-Matic, summing to the same 113,354 total. The four-door sedan count itself carries an open conflict: this compiled table's 38,638 against a rival library's 36,638, with the higher figure leading because it is the one that makes the body rows sum to the 113,354 total both sources otherwise print, making the lower number look like a transcription slip.^1,4

List prices ran $2,702 for the four-door sedan, $2,631 for the two-door sport sedan, $2,766 for the hardtop sport coupe, and $3,078 for the convertible. The 389 ladder ran from a manual-only 215 hp two-barrel and an automatic-only 230 hp two-barrel, both at 8.6:1, through a 267 hp high-compression two-barrel and a 287 hp four-barrel at 10.25:1, up to a 318 hp Tri-Power, a 333 hp 425-A four-barrel, and the range-topping 348 hp 425-A Tri-Power, all three at 10.75:1. The dealer-installed 421 Super Duty made 373 hp at 5,400 rpm and 430 lb-ft at 4,400 rpm with a single four-barrel at 11.0:1, while the dual-four-barrel version, manual-transmission only, made 405 hp at 5,600 rpm at the same torque and compression.^1,2

A three-speed manual was standard, with a four-speed Super Hydra-Matic optional at $231.34 and a floor-shift four-speed manual optional at $306.66. Powertrain options included four-barrel induction at $24, Tri-Power induction ranging $110 to $168 by series, the 425-A four-barrel engine ranging $230 to $293, and the 425-A Tri-Power ranging $338 to $396; further options included a $43 Safe-T-Track differential, $107 aluminum 8-lug hubs and drums, $116 bucket seats, and $430 air conditioning.²

On the shared 119-inch wheelbase, the Catalina measured 210.0 inches long (209.7 for the Safari), 78.2 inches wide, with a 62.5-inch tread front and rear, and the hardtop sport coupe carried a shipping weight of 3,680 lb. Fourteen exterior colors were listed. The Catalina ran as series 23, with hardtop sport coupe body 2337, convertible 2367, and two-door sport sedan 2311; each car's cowl-mounted body plate recorded a build date, style number, body number, trim code, upper and lower paint codes, and factory accessory codes, with assembly plants identified by two-letter codes such as BA for Doraville, Georgia and PO for Pontiac, Michigan itself.^2,1,5