A few weeks ago there was an ad linked on here for a 1966 Pontiac Strato Chief that appeared to be in excellent condition. I'm happy to report that it now belongs to our veteran member, Carl Stevenson. The car is indeed in excellent condition and it's reassuring to know that it continues to be in good hands. I wonder if Carl will be able to resist the temptation to install a 427? Carl fills us in on the details of this awesome survivor:

My love affair with 66 full size Pontiacs began in 1975 just after I turned 18. I traded a 65 Acadian Canso SD for a 66 Grande Parisienne, 283, powerglide, triple black, 70,000 miles. I loved that car! Swapped in a 327 TH400 and a 12 bolt shortly after, then a 427 a few years later and drove that car until about 1990 when I just had too many cars. In 1981 I also bought a factory 4 speed 396 twin to that car, which later also got a 427, and also was sold in 1989.  After that I experienced a drought, no 66 Grande Parisiennes until a few years ago, although the desire to own another 66 full size Canadian Pontiac never ever left.

I purchased a 66 GP a few years ago and have been slowly picking away at it but never got far enough on it to drive it. In the past year some of our family's life circumstances have changed and now any major projects are a thing of the past for me. I had sort of entertained the thought that I could still be a part of the hobby if I found a real nice driver that was affordable but never really pursued that option as there was too much else on my plate. The only car I could even consider at this point would be a turn key driver. Then I turned on the computer after being away at our cabin all weekend, opening it up for the season. I'd had plenty of time to think about things, including my involvement in this great hobby. When I looked at the Kijiji ad on Sunday night, May 8th, I really was knocked over by what I saw, a 41,000 mile 66 Strato Chief 2 door sedan and it was for sale in Winnipeg of all places, not far from me.

I made arrangements to go look at is as soon as I could and when I went, took along some cash for a deposit just in case. CP member "Fake68" came along.  You know how these too-good-to-be-true ads always go though, you get there and there's some sort of "story" to go along with the excess baggage the car has. It either turns out rusty, crashed and repaired, butchered, odometer has flipped and is on its second time around, whatever. As much as we looked at this car, we couldn't find any of these issues. Finally I asked if we could go for a ride. I let the seller  drive and it only took about a mile before I knew this car was going to be sold, and it would be mine.

The story of the car, as told to me by the seller was this. It was ordered new by his great uncle who was a mechanic at Mann Motor Products in Prince Albert, Sk.  The great uncle drove the car until 1971 when he developed hip problems.  Because it's "bolt-action", (3-on-the-tree), he was forced to park the car since he couldn't operate the clutch pedal. The car sat in his garage with 36,000 miles on it from 1971 until 2005 when it was purchased by R**** B***** who sold it to me. The car only saw 5000 miles from 2005 until now, and that included a round trip to Prince Albert with it.  I have never seen the car at any shows or cruise nights but the seller stated he had shown it a few times.

The car is a 283 2 barrel, 195 horse with a 3 speed manual column shift. It has a 12 bolt rear with 3.07 gears. The 12 bolt has dual upper control arms so I am quite sure that if I get the GM documents for it, F40 heavy duty suspension will be on the list. Other than that, all I see on the car for options would be a radio and a block heater. When I was looking at the car, I noticed a GM Accessories 4 way flasher unit mounted under the dash. I pulled out the knob and the unit works perfectly. The seller watched me in amazement as I did that and stated that he'd had the car 11 years but had NO idea it was there! It also has a GM Accessories tissue dispenser which to me looks to be the one from US models. I thought all our tissue dispensers had "GM" on them on Canadian models.

I find the colour combination interesting. In the right light, the paint and the interior colour really seem to almost fight each other but I assume it was not special order. I enlisted two paint experts who both confirmed that the paint is entirely original. It has numerous chips and one small ding on the front fender but it would be a crime to paint it!

Plans for the car? One thing for sure, it's getting cleaned up under the hood and that includes installing original spark plug wires! I hesitate to do any painting though, either under the hood or to repair stone chips.  And I dont like the white letter tires, it doesnt say survivor with those on there. Otherwise, drive it sparingly, store it carefully and do my best to preserve what I perceive to be a pretty good "survivor".