Editing Pontiac V8 engine (section)

===Pre-development===
[[Pontiac (automobile)|Pontiac]] began as a [[General Motors Companion Make Program|"companion make"]] to the [[Oakland (automobile)|Oakland]] division of the General Motors line of automobiles in 1926. Pontiac successfully competed against more-expensive [[inline 4|inline four-cylinder]] models with their [[Pontiac straight-6 engine|inline flathead six-cylinder]] engines. After outselling Oakland, Pontiac became the sole survivor of the two by 1932. In addition to the inline 6, Pontiac used the Oakland V8 for one year, 1932, debuting the [[Pontiac straight-8 engine]] in 1933. The two inline engines were used through 1954, when Pontiac unveiled its OHV Strato Streak V8 in 1955. The development of this V8 dates back to 1946, when engineers began considering new engine designs for postwar cars. They came up with a {{Convert|269|cuin|L|1|adj=on}} [[L-head]] design. Pontiac engineers tested their {{cvt|269|cuin|L|1|adj=on}} V8 in 1949 or 1950 against an OHV Oldsmobile Rocket V8 {{cvt|303|cuin|L|1|adj=on}} downsized to {{cvt|270|cuin|L|1|adj=on}}. The results showed Pontiac that an L-head simply couldn't compete with an overhead valve engine.

Despite their work, the division's conservative management saw no immediate need to replace the Pontiac Straight-8 until later in the 1950s. The concept car [[Pontiac Strato-Streak]] was used to introduce the V8 and in later years the engine was installed in Pontiac products.

In 1955, Pontiac engineers had noted the new engine's long development period, and that styling trends’ constraints upon engine size had been a primary consideration: “The new Pontiac engine is the culmination of nine years of design and development work. In 1946, it became evident that future styling requirements, coupled with prospects for improved fuels, necessitated the eventual introduction of a more compact, more rigid engine, and an engineering program was initiated with those goals in mind.”<ref>Leach, C.B. and Windeler, E.L. “New Pontiac V-8 Engine.” SAE Transactions Volume 63, 1955 [Paper delivered to SAE annual meeting in Detroit, 12 January 1955].</ref>