Revisiting the 1960 Pontiac Laurentian: All-Canadian, Ey?
By: Daniel Rufiange
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Revisiting the 1960 Pontiac Laurentian: All-Canadian, Ey?
1960 Pontiac Laurentian | Photo: D.Rufiange (All photos are by D.Rufiange)
Auto123’s intrepid journalist Daniel Rufiange revisits the 1960 Pontiac Laurentian and reminisces about his very first vintage car
In 1960, a wind of change was blowing across America. In the United States, voters brought to power a certain John F. Kennedy, a president who would make history in more than one sense of the term.
The automotive industry, without realizing it, was about to experience a decade that would deeply redefine it. Already, towards the end of the 1950s, new models were appearing with more-modern styling. Newer cars were also characterized by wider tracks, a lower seat height, better road handling, etc. In short, vehicles were moving to another level.
I wasn't yet part of this world in 1960 - I would appear a few years later. Probably that’s why the decade of the 1960s holds a little bit of a special place inside me. When I was a child, models from that decade were still very common on the road. Maybe I was imprinted with them; in any case, I've always been interested in cars from that vintage.
Now we leap forward in time, to 1999. Now in my late thirties, I had a steady job, and I finally had a few bucks in the bank. Then one day I saw a 1960 Pontiac with a for-sale sign on it on the side of the road. To make a short story even shorter, a few days later, it was on its way to my house. I was $2,500 poorer for it.
And so my very first classic car to call my own was a 1960 Pontiac. This kind of car is like a first love; you don't forget it. I'll come back to that a little later, but first, a bit of history about the model.
A Canadian, ey
In 1960, the Pontiac name was used on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border, but in fact except for their appearance the cars were not the same. The Pontiac brand had a completely different image in the United States. There, the banner represented luxury, but more importantly, power. Here, it was characterized by affordability and peace of mind. Canadian Pontiacs were usually sold with little equipment to keep them attractively priced. Power steering, for example, was available only as an option.
The names of the models, too, were different. This Pontiac you see here didn’t carry the same nameplate as in the land of Uncle Sam, where it was known as the Catalina. Here, it was named Laurentian in reference to the Laurentian Plateau.
Under the hood, the mechanics were also different. American motorists were entitled to much more powerful engines. For example, the V8 powering U.S.-market 1960 Pontiacs was 389 cubic inches (cc), while here, the strongest Pontiacs were powered by the 348-cc V8 of the Chevrolet Impala. There were more V6 powerplants available to Canadian consumers, who generally were more receptive to smaller-displacement engines.
Canadian Pontiacs were in reality Chevrolets that received Pontiac bodywork. Our Laurentian is a case in point. It’s built on a Chevrolet base, which wasn’t as wide as that of U.S. Pontiacs at the time. In fact, look at the space between the fender openings and the wheels; the latter are much further back from the body.
The typical Pontiac chassis on which the American Catalina is based was wider. This approach was known as Wide Track at the time. On the Catalina, the tires rest five inches further out than on the Laurentian, its Canadian version.
My Parisienne
The specific Pontiac model I bought way back when was named the Parisienne; south of the border it was the Bonneville. It was identical to the one you see here, except that it was dressed in a somewhat faded blue colour.
On the inside, blue was the dominant colour as well. And, like the car shown here, mine was also equipped with an in-line 6-cylinder and a Power Glide automatic transmission.
On the road, my Pontiac Parisienne offered good ride comfort, but its qualities, when compared to what's available today, stopped there. The front seat wasn't the most comfortable, and for at least a year, I searched in vain for seatbelts every time I climbed aboard. It was from a different era...
Then, once in motion, I had to deal with steering that had not yet been introduced to the concept of precision. As a result, road grip and handling were rather random, not to mention the fact that on the highway, the wind never had much trouble making the car dance around on the road.
What about the brakes? Drum brakes on all four wheels. This was the first repair I made to the car after it was purchased. Frighteningly, from the master cylinder there was only one conduit for the brake fluid; failure of that pipe would mean disaster.
Nevertheless, every excuse was good to get behind the wheel of this car. It provided little-to-no comfort, and the metal dashboard, which held a tube radio, appeared menacingly ready to smash your skull at the first opportunity. Its menace was matched by that of the steering wheel, which awaited the chance to take your teeth out. And yet...
I can't say that I regretted later selling this car, as I did on occasion with others. However, because it was my first one, I have an attachment to this model, which we no longer see on our roads.
In fact, you have to visit antique car shows to see it. And as one does with a first love, I'm always kind of on the lookout for it.
Conclusion
For you, what was your first vehicle or vintage car?
Today we are in the midst of another historic period in the automotive domain, what with the transition to new forms of motorization and energy gathering momentum. What will gasoline-powered cars be like in 10, 20 or 50 years? Will there even be any? Your guesses are as good as ours.
Model: Pontiac Laurentian
Production: 11,976 units of this particular model in Canada
Price (new, in 1960): $3,060
Transportation and preparation: $40
Engine: 261-cc Strato Six inline-6 engine (the largest 6-cylinder engine in North America at the time)
Date of production: April 28, 1960
Transmission: 2-speed automatic Power Glide
Power: 150 hp
Similar models: Chevrolet Impala, Buick LeSabre, Oldsmobile 88, Plymouth Belvedere, Dodge Dart, Ford Galaxie, Ford Fairlane.
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It should be pretty obvious why this article caught my eye. Actually there are two reasons, not just because of the word "Canadian" in the title, but also because it's about a Canadian model of a Pontiac car just one year newer than the one I owned. The author says that the car he had was not a Laurentian model as shown in this article, which was the equivalent of an American Catalina model, but a Parisienne model which was the top of the line, equivalent to the American Pontiac Bonneville, and mine was a 1959 model Pontiac Parisienne convertible.
The author has pissed me off, because what he did in the article was "put down" the 1960 Pontiac Parisienne that he had. Sure, a car that's three quarters of a century old is not going to have the electronics and bells and whistles and luxury bucket seats and touch screens and GPS that the new cars have but back then they were damn good cars and I loved mine, which was a black 1959 Pontiac Parisienne convertible that my father gifted to me as a university graduation present. This is exactly what my car looked like:
The only complaint I had about the car was the the plastic rear window got scratched up so one day when I backed up when the sun was shining on the window I couldn't see through it and I backed into a telephone pole and gave myself a whiplash injury. And I couldn't sue myself. The author put down the seats as not being comfortable enough for him. Well, the advantage of the bench seat over the newer bucket front seats was that my girl friend could cuddle right up beside me when we were driving. I guess he didn't have a girl friend - maybe that's why he didn't like his car very much. LOL.
I really don't care if almost everybody on this site doesn't give a shit about articles I post that are about something other than American politics. Without a little variety of content I doubt that we will ever get new members, unless they are like some on this site, i.e. monomaniacs.
Consider monomaniac: someone with "an inordinate or obsessive zeal for or interest in a single thing, idea, subject, or the like"
How about American politics? Lots of monomania around here.
I've been an early adapter of the Internet-- long before many current users ever logged on. How early?
Well when I first logged onto the net is was via Prodigy (they and AOl were the ways most non-techies logged on). I was on a PC-- but I was using DOS-- not Windows!
I finally logged onto the 'Net and was excited to see i had email!. But after a while I discovered a problem-- in those days no one I knew had Internet access-- so I had no aquaintances-- friends, co-workers, or relatives-- who had an email address!
And now you have internet friends.
Too many!
I have met many people online who I used to communicate with often. But I
I've had to cut back on communicating with them-- too many people!
I finally logged onto the 'Net and was excited to see i had email!. But after a while I discovered a problem-- in those days no one I knew had Internet access-- so I had no aquaintances-- friends, co-workers, or relatives-- who had an email address!
The reason I've mentioned this was to explain I've been hangin' around the 'Net for a long time-- and it was different then.In those days many of the users were pretty intelligent-- and many had interests other than politics. There were interesting people-- and some really intelligent users in some fascinating discussions!
Now-a-days most of the intelligent people I know spend little , if any time on social media. And when they do, its usually discussing an interesting topic-- not futilly spending hours pushing the candidacies or the views of some political hack!
LOL. Welcome to the NewsTalkers.
This state of affairs is no laughing matter, LOL!
My first car was a 1953 Chevy Bel Air convertible purchased for $400 in 1963. It was just like the one shown in picture below. When I graduated HS in 1965 I bought a 64 Pontiac Grand Prix for $2500 with a 389 engine, 4 on the floor, two four barrel carburetors,, it would eat up GTO's in a drag race
This Grand Prix looks like the one I had
Wish I could open those pictures. You must have copied and pasted them directly from a site I can't open, such as Google. Can you copy and pasted them to your picture library, and then paste them here directly from your picture library?
Let me know if you can see these two pics.
nope
nor that one.
I can't use duckduckgo or startpage, they don't open for me. Are you unable to do what I suggested?
Maybe someone else can copy them and post them, if that can make a difference.
I tried. Do a search on a 1953 Chevy Bel Aire convertible and 1964 Pontiac Grand Prix, both of my cars were red, the Grand Prix was more of a Maroon my Bel Aire had a spotlight on the drivers side
Without a spotlight.
and the red Chev Bel Aire convertible
I traded my 1959 Pontiac Parisienne convertible for a silver/grey 1964 Pontiac Parisienne (compare to a Bonneville) convertible like this one (no silver/grey ones on Microsoft Bing images):
When I was a kid my father bought a 1953 Oldsmobile 88. Some of the design looked a lot like that 1953 Chevy Bel Aire, which shouldn't be surprising since they were both General Motors cars and also the same year.
One of the features they advertised was that it had the "hydromatic" transmission (automatic). Here are some pictures . (The one we had was two tone blue. No white wall tires though.
The main thing I remember about it was that there was a lot of room in the front as well as back seats-- and they were nicely padded.
Perfect. The 53 Bel Aire you showed looks identical to the one I had, and the Grand Prix is the same color as mine was. My Bel Aire had a spotlight, my Grand Prix didn't have one
Thanks for posting these pics
The 53 Bel Aire and Olds 88 looked very much alike.
Google has been blocked here for about 15 years so I can't open your link.
The first time my mom saw my Grand Prix she said "That's a nice Grand Prick" My dad and I busted out laughing telling her it was pronounced Grand PREE. Mom turned red as a beet, was laughing, and said " I was wondering why Pontiac would name a car a Grand Prick."