Pontiac Safari

The Pontiac Safari is a line of station wagons that was produced by Pontiac from 1955 to 1989. Initially introduced as the Pontiac counterpart of the two-door Chevrolet Nomad, the division adopted the nameplate across its full-size wagon range in 1957. Through its production, the Safari was positioned between Chevrolet full-size station wagons and below its Buick and Oldsmobile counterparts. During the mid-1960s, the Safari added simulated woodgrain trim to the exterior, becoming a feature associated with the model line.

The name "safari" is derived from the Swahili word safari, which means journey, originally from the Arabic سفر (safar) meaning a journey; the verb for "to travel" in Swahili is kusafiri. As General Motors expanded into the intermediate, compact, and subcompact segments, the Safari nameplate saw a similar usage as the Estate (Buick, Chevrolet) and Cruiser (Oldsmobile) nameplates, denoting the highest-trim station wagon in each model range.

After 1989, Pontiac became the first GM division to discontinue its full-size wagons; along with model overlap between its divisional counterparts, demand for full-size wagons had been overtaken by minivans. For 1990, the Pontiac Trans Sport was introduced as the first Pontiac minivan. After 1991, Pontiac ended its use of the Safari nameplate (and production of station wagons) entirely; the GMC Safari continued through the 2005 model year.

The first-generation Pontiac Safari was developed as a divisional counterpart of the Chevrolet Nomad. The two-door sport wagon began life as a 1954 Motorama concept car derived from the Chevrolet Corvette. To decrease tooling and production costs, the design was shifted to the full-size A-body chassis (from the Corvette) to increase its sales potential; to further decrease overall design costs, the Pontiac Safari was created to share the design across two divisions.

Sharing its 122-inch wheelbase A-body chassis with the Nomad (derived from the Chevrolet Bel Air), the Safari shared its exterior bodywork with the Pontiac Chieftain. Though using the shorter-wheelbase A-body chassis, Pontiac considered the Safari part of the B-body Pontiac Star Chief series, officially designating it as the Star Chief Custom Safari (Series 27).

Introduced on January 31, 1955, the Pontiac Safari served as the flagship Pontiac station wagon; at $2,962 ($35,599 in 2025 dollars ), it also was the most expensive Pontiac model line before optional equipment was added using the GM "A" platform. To distinguish the model from the Nomad, the Safari was fitted with a Pontiac Chieftain front fascia and model-specific rear taillamps, styled by Pontiac stylist Paul Gillan (who received a U.S. patent for the front fascia design).

In contrast with a standard two-door 860 "Colony" station wagon (also derived from the Chieftain), the Safari was styled with coupe-style front doors, forward-raked B-pillars (with windows wrapping around from pillar to pillar); along with extra chrome trim (fitted to the tailgate), the rear seat windows slid open. In line with the Nomad being derived from the top-trim Bel Air, the interior of the Safari was shared with Star Chief sedans.

The Safari was fitted with a 287 cubic-inch V8, producing 180 hp with a 2-barrel carburetor or 200 hp with a 4-barrel carburetor.