What Made Pontiac's 8-Lug Wheels So Special, And Which Models Had Them?

Picture in your mind a wheel that's attached with 8 lug nuts, and you'll probably see a large wheel mounted on a pickup truck; likely a heavy-duty rig with at least a 3/4 ton capacity. Big engines and big axles make it logical to assume you'd need lots of hardware to bear all that torque — there's even a heavy-duty show truck magazine out there called 8-Lug. But if you say "8-lug wheel" to a vintage Pontiac enthusiast, they'll probably paint an entirely different mental picture.

That's because for a period in the 1960s, Pontiac's full-size cars like the Catalina, Bonneville, and desirable and valuable first generation Grand Prix could be equipped with an innovative and stylish wheel option that used 8 lug nuts and integrated the car's drum brakes with the wheel components. Pontiac 8-lugs are more than just a unique cosmetic option or an interesting piece of automotive trivia; they're a symbol of the engineering autonomy that General Motors' individual brands had during the '60s. Let's take a brief look at the history and engineering behind these wheels.

When Pontiac introduced 8-lug wheels in 1960, most cars had drum brakes on all four wheels. The friction from brake shoes against the inner surface of the drum quickly generates heat, leading to dangerous brake fade. GM engineer Clayton Leach came up with an idea for an integrated wheel/brake system that uses a spindle-mounted and finned aluminum brake drum as its center section, with a 14-inch steel outer rim affixed to the inner hub with eight lug nuts. A center cap and trim ring would be added to complete the stylish package. 

They looked good and performed better under hard driving than their steel-drum four-and five-lug predecessors, but by the mid '60s disc brakes had started to replace drums on many cars. Despite their aesthetic and performance benefits, 8-lug wheels never made it to Pontiac's mid-sized lineup of the 1960s, which included the groundbreaking GTO muscle car. In 1966, Pontiac came close to making 8-lugs available on the GTO, but the plan was axed just before it reached production. 

 The 8-lug, 14-inch wheels were available as an option for about $120 (equivalent to about 10 times that much today) on full-sized Pontiacs through 1968, but the emergence of disc brakes made the design less enticing as the decade wore on. Sharp looks and safer braking has made Pontiac 8-lug wheels from the 1960s an enduring part of the brand's history with plenty of admirers. The format lives on thanks to third-party providers like BOP Engineering, which sells more than a dozen different 8-lug wheels in various colors and sizes.

In the wide-angle view of automotive history, the Pontiac 8-lug wheel design takes us back to an era where GM's different brands did a lot more to distinguish themselves than swap bumpers and nameplates on the same chassis. The Grand Prix and Catalina may have shared elements with certain Chevy and Oldsmobile models, but their engines, styling, and driving character — and in this case the wheels and brakes — were unique to each brand. The strategy of sharing platforms with other GM brands is part of why Pontiac eventually flopped, but you can still get 8-lug wheels on some newer Chevy heavy-duty trucks and vans.