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Acadian (automobile)
Encyclopedia
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
produced by General Motors
General Motors
General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...
of Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
from 1962 to 1971. The Acadian was introduced so that Canadian Pontiac
Pontiac
Pontiac was an automobile brand that was established in 1926 as a companion make for General Motors' Oakland. Quickly overtaking its parent in popularity, it supplanted the Oakland brand entirely by 1933 and, for most of its life, became a companion make for Chevrolet. Pontiac was sold in the...
-Buick
Buick
Buick is a premium brand of General Motors . Buick models are sold in the United States, Canada, Mexico, China, Taiwan, and Israel, with China being its largest market. Buick holds the distinction as the oldest active American make...
dealers would have a compact model
Compact car
A compact car , or small family car , is a classification of cars which are larger than a supermini but smaller than or equal to a mid-size car...
to sell, since the Pontiac Tempest
Pontiac Tempest
The Pontiac Tempest was an entry-level compact produced by the Pontiac Motor Division of General Motors, introduced in September 1960 for the 1961 model year....
was unavailable in Canada. Plans originally called for the Acadian to be based on the Chevrolet Corvair
Chevrolet Corvair
-First generation :The 1960 Corvair 500 and 700 series four-door sedans were conceived as economy cars offering few amenities in order to keep the price competitive, with the 500 selling for under $2,000...
, which was produced at GM's Oshawa
Oshawa
Oshawa is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the Lake Ontario shoreline. It lies in Southern Ontario approximately 60 kilometres east of downtown Toronto. It is commonly viewed as the eastern anchor of both the Greater Toronto Area and the Golden Horseshoe. It is now commonly referred to as the most...
plant; however, the concept was moved to the Chevy II platform to be introduced for 1962. The brand was also offered in Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
, with models built in Arica
Arica
Arica is a city in northern Chile. "Arica" may also refer to:Places* Arica and Parinacota Region, Chile* Arica Airport , Chile* Arica, Amazonas, town in Colombia* Rio Aricá-açu, tributary of the Cuiabá River south of Cuiabá, BrazilOther...
.
Initially, Acadians were retrimmed Chevy II
Chevrolet Nova
The Chevrolet Chevy II/Nova is a compact automobile manufactured by the Chevrolet division of General Motors produced in four generations for the 1962 through 1979 model years. Nova was the top model in the Chevy II lineup through 1968. The Chevy II nameplate was dropped, Nova becoming the...
s, offered as a base model, mid-priced Invader and top-line Beaumont. The car used Pontiac styling cues such as a split grille but was marketed as a separate make, never as a Pontiac.
As with the concurrent Chevy II, Acadians were offered with 4-cylinder, 6-cylinder and V8 engines. There was a choice of transmission, depending upon the model and engine installed, 3 and 4 speed manual gearboxes or the 2-speed Powerglide automatic.
For 1964 and 1965, the Beaumont name was moved to a retrimmed version of the intermediate Chevrolet Chevelle
Chevrolet Chevelle
The Chevrolet Chevelle is a mid-sized automobile produced by the Chevrolet division of General Motors in three generations for the 1964 through 1977 model years. Part of the GM A-Body platform, the Chevelle was one of Chevrolet's most successful nameplates. Body styles include coupes, sedans,...
, at which time the name Canso was applied to the top-line compact model, equivalent of the Nova
Chevrolet Nova
The Chevrolet Chevy II/Nova is a compact automobile manufactured by the Chevrolet division of General Motors produced in four generations for the 1962 through 1979 model years. Nova was the top model in the Chevy II lineup through 1968. The Chevy II nameplate was dropped, Nova becoming the...
.
Data for the 1966 Acadian were: engines available were six-cylinder (194 cid, 8.5 compression ratio, 120 bhp rated) or V8 (283 cid, 9.25 or 11.0 compression ratios available, 195 bhp or 220 bhp respectively); overall length of 15.250 feet (4.648 m); overall width of 5.942 ft (1.811 m); height of 4.483 ft (1.367 m); turning circle of 38.40 ft (11.70 m); front track of 4.733 ft (1.443 ft) and rear track of 4.692 ft (1.430 m). Its fuel tank held 13.5 imperial gallons.
Pontiac LeMans
The Pontiac LeMans was a model name applied to compact and intermediate-sized automobiles offered by the Pontiac division of General Motors from 1962 to 1981. The LeMans was replaced by the downsized Pontiac Bonneville for the 1982 model year...
.
Sport Deluxe
During the muscle car craze in the late 1960s, Chevelle offered the Super Sport and SS396 models that offered high performance, bucket seats, and sport stripes. In Canada, Beaumont offered an equivalent model, the Sport Deluxe, or SD. For 1966, the Sport Deluxe was combined with the Chevrolet 396 cubic-inch Mark IV big-block V8, along with the same bucket seats/console package as the Chevelle SS396, along with unique sport stripes, trim, and SD396 emblems. Many collectors consider the Beaumont SD396 even more desirable than the Chevelle SS396, since it is far more rare. Many Acadians and Beaumonts succumbed to rough Canadian winters, suffering from rust and mechanical wear and tear, leaving very few original specimens left, in addition to the fact that production was much lower than equivalent Chevy models.An equivalent Acadian, the Canso Sport Deluxe, offered as similar package equivalent to the Chevy II Super Sport, which included the same Strato-bucket seats, console, floor shift, along with unique SD trim and emblems. Top performance option for the Canso SD was Chevrolet's 350-bhp 327 cubic-inch L79 small-block V8, along with a four-speed manual, or Powerglide automatic transmission.
During the late 1960s, the Beaumont was also available in Puerto Rico. There was actually a Beaumont Cafeteria that was co-located with the local Beaumont dealer in San Juan.
The Acadian continued using the Chevy II/Nova body through mid-1971, after which it was replaced by the Pontiac Ventura
Pontiac Ventura
The Pontiac Ventura was an automobile produced by the Pontiac Motor Division of General Motors. The word "ventura" is a derivitave of the word "bonaventure" which is Italian for "good fortune". It also shares its name with the locations of Ventura, California and Ventura, Iowa...
II.
From 1976 to 1987, the Pontiac Acadian was a version of the Chevrolet Chevette
Chevrolet Chevette
The Chevrolet Chevette was introduced in September, 1975 and manufactured for model years 1976-1987 based on GM's worldwide T platform and superseding the Vega as Chevrolet's entry-level subcompact...
sold by Canadian Pontiac-Buick dealers, initially identical to the Chevette except for badging but picking up the distinctly "Pontiac" design cues of the U.S. market Pontiac T1000 after that model's 1981 introduction.