[BR57]

Maybe this is not news but from 1955 until 1977 GM Canada installed Chevrolet engines in Canadian built cars. In Canada, Pontiac engines are therefore Chevrolet engines. Now GM called them different names. Small blocks were Astro-Flash, similar name to Chevy Turbo-Fire and big blocks were Astro-Jet, similar name to Chevy Turbo-Jet. Pontiac badged them this way too. Big block cars are by far the rarest but they were produced. There was even a 2bbl 396 called Econ-Jet used in a car very similar to the Chevelle called Beaumont up to 1969 when in 1970 we finally got the GTO.
The blocks were painted Chevy oranage but the badges pulled in the Pontiac blue. I attach an air cleaner photo so you can see plus some Chevy-like Pontiacs. Notice the Pontiac rally wheels on these Beaumonts?

The fact that Canadian Pontiacs came factory equipped with Chevy engines is why Firebirds were allowed to compete in Trans Am racing in 67, 68 and 69Pontiac had no engine to meet the rule of 305 CID or less so Canadain built Firebirds with Chevy Z28 302's were allowed to race. In 1970 the rules allowed Pontiac to destroke a 400 to 303 and this is when most people remember Firebirds competing in Trans Am. So the car named after the racing series had to be Canadain built to race in the early years. That's why so few actaully raced.

348 trip-power, 409 dual quads, 327 High Performance, run of the mill 283, 396, 427, 454 and of course the Chevy 350 all found their way into Canadian Pontiacs.

Car names were Strato Chief, Laurentian, Parisienne, Parisienne Custom Sport, Grande Parisienne, 2+2, Acadian SS, Beaumont SD-396 to name a few.
So when you go to a cruise here in Canada with a Pontiac, one of the first questions you'll get is "Blue Block or Orange Block?" this way you'll know exactly which country the car came from.

My car by the way is an orange block 73 LeMans 350 4bbl built in Oshawa Ontario - Canada.