The Pontiac 347 V8 was introduced for the 1957 model year and did quite a bit to change the future for the muscle car era. The 347 was simply a bored out version of the Pontiac 316 V8 with a longer stroke. Most notably is that the 347 had the honor of being the first engine from Pontiac to use the famous tri-power carburetor setup which consisted of 3 two barrel carburetors. The idea behind tri-power was that the middle of the three carburetors would feed the engine at cruising speeds and at idle but when more power was needed the other two carbs would open up and supply the engine with a greater amount of fuel. This idea became very popular with Pontiac and would be used up until the mid 1960s on the famous Pontiac 389.

The 347 was available in a large number of options that produced a large variety of horsepower ratings. One of the rarest 347 models every produced was a fuel injected version that was used in the Pontiac Bonneville and produced 315 horsepower. There were only 630 of these fuel injected Bonnevilles ever produced and they were all convertibles. There was also a special 347 NASCAR model built that included the tri power option as well and put out a respectable 317 horsepower. For the 1958 model year the 347 would be replaced by the Pontiac 370 V8.