Weirdest Pontiac I ever have seen......

High Gear Guy · Veteran Member

Weirdest Pontiac I ever have seen......

High Gear Guy · Veteran Member

Thought maybe I should make an offer to the owner ! Might make an easy conversion into a Hearst. Maybe I could start a new business here in Ontario anyway. Just saying...Jim.

long stroke · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Jim, thanks for posting this 1963 Pontiac ambulance and yes we all at C.P. love pictures, especially Pontiac's. Please post as many photos as you can. Thanks and cheers.

Leo2+2 · Guru

The disctinctive front end is a 63.

bigdreams · Poncho Master!

like the Kennedy Ambulance

https://money.cnn.com/2011/01/23/autos/jfk_ambulance_sale/index.htm

73SC · A Poncho Legend!

High Gear Guy wrote:
Thought maybe I should make an offer to the owner ! Might make an easy conversion into a Hearst. Maybe I could start a new business here in Ontario anyway. Just saying...Jim.

That car is actually a Superior Combination Hearse /Ambulance, same as Kennedy car. This in contrast to the Superior Fleetwwod Ambulance I have posted earlier this week on another thread.

High Gear Guy · Veteran Member

Wow ! You Poncho Folk's sure know your stuff !

I guess it is going to be harder than I thought to stump you Guys here...

High Gear Guy

Pontiacanada · A Poncho Legend!

High Gear Guy wrote:
Thought maybe I should make an offer to the owner ! Might make an easy conversion into a Hearst. Maybe I could start a new business here in Ontario anyway. Just saying...Jim.

My neighbour owns a '70s Caddy Hearse. His Wife won't ride in it unless he takes the coffin out of the back first (for real).

Same colour and similar to this:

High Gear Guy · Veteran Member

That is so funny, but a very cool car though !

I told my Wife that if I bought the ambulance, that she could drive it back to Ontario for me, and the dead mannequin's in the back had to stay in place for the entire trip. Going through Customs might be a bit of challenge I explained to her.

I won't tell you what she said, but it would make a Longshoreman down at the docks blush I am afraid.

My deceased Father always said that he wanted his "last ride on Earth", to be in the back of a black Cadillac Hearst, as he could never afford one in life. I got the last laugh on that, as he was cremated. Ha !

I actually put an offer in on a 1962 Black Caddy Hearst one time. Thought it might look way cool with some big boot tires on the back, jacked way up and maybe a few Skull & Cross bones on the glass, flame paint job on the hood perhaps, but my girlfriend at that time said she would never ride in it, as she thought it would be just too creepy ! I needed the cool girlfriend more than the classic Caddy at that time, so the deal for me got scuttled pretty quickly. Little did I know at the time that the Caddy would go away in one directio

High Gear Guy

CdnGMfan · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

A guy in my neighborhood owns two hearses, a '60 and a '70 Cadillac. He's a rock musician so he uses it for instruments and a bit of a mystique.

-- Edited by CdnGMfan on Tuesday 24th of March 2020 11:25:30 AM

DonSSDD · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Saw a cool hearse on line, a 59 Chevy right hand drive built in Ireland if I remember correctly. Someone had bought it, lowered it, added chrome wheels, and a big blower sticking out of the hood.

High Gear Guy · Veteran Member

Cool post DonSSDD !

I would just love to see your Pontiac some time. My Wife and I were at Mahone Bay last year doing the Oak Island thing, but I was not on the Canadian Poncho site as a member then. Sorry !

When I was a kid Don, about 1000 years ago it seems, I had a favourite comic book that I eventually wore out by reading it. The Bad Guy in the story used to drive a hot get away car, and it had the words "Phantom 409" on the front fenders. Years later I heard some musician singing a song and the words "Phantom 409" were in the lyrics somewhere, not sure what the tune was called now or who sang it.

Is your GTO engine the "Phantom 409" Don ? If so, do you know how the "Phantom 409" moniker got started ? There must be a great story there somewhere that I would enjoy hearing anyway.

In Grade 6, my teacher made us all stand up at the front of the class and tell everyone what you wanted to be when you "grew up". I heard about all the kids who were going to be Doctors, Astronomers, Astronauts. Police, etc. etc. When my turn came to get up in front of the class, the teacher asked what I really wanted to do in the future, and my answer was really just 4 words, "Rob lots of Banks". The teacher immediately moved my desk to the front of the row so she could give me "the extra help that I needed". Ha ! All my school Chums told me afterwards that it was the coolest career answer that day anyway !

Hope that you can reply sometime convenient DonSSDD.

High Gear Guy

-- Edited by High Gear Guy on Tuesday 24th of March 2020 06:06:34 PM

DonSSDD · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Phantom 309? Several artists, but this is One.

m.youtube.com/watch

I remember hearing this before.

Then there is this one, Beach Boys 409!

m.youtube.com/watch

seventy2plus2 · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Maybe the 1963 Bonneville ambulance pictured above is the one that carried John F. Kennedy's coffin once Air Force One landed. The Bonny was thought to have been crushed.

73SC · A Poncho Legend!

On June 26, 1986, the hearse was crushed in a Boston junkyard, under witness from the John F. Kennedy Library.

long stroke · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

73SC wrote:

On June 26, 1986, the hearse was crushed in a Boston junkyard, under witness from the John F. Kennedy Library.

Ray, why do you suppose they crushed this vehicle. Especially considering it is so long after his death. confuse

High Gear Guy · Veteran Member

This may have been at the Kennedy Families' request perhaps. There are lots of very creepy in this World who collect freaky stuff like that.

I bought nine rifles from an estate one time, only because I really wanted just three classic Winchesters. There had been a suicide, and the police put 10 guns in their lock-up. When I went to pick up the nine that I had bought, the police Guy in charge of the lock-up said that there is a little known law here in Canada that any firearm or weapon used in a suicide can never be resold, and it has to be crushed under witness. I saw a red tag on the firearm in question and it read, "Mandatory Destruction Under Witness". Maybe the U.S. has similar rules, it would not surprise me. Not exactly the same situation with the Bonny, but it might shed some light on why it got crushed perhaps.

High Gear Guy

-- Edited by High Gear Guy on Wednesday 25th of March 2020 06:32:33 AM

Pontiacanada · A Poncho Legend!

High Gear Guy wrote:
there is a little known law here in Canada that any firearm or weapon used in a suicide can never be resold, and it has to be crushed under witness. I saw a red tag on the firearm in question and it read, "Mandatory Destruction Under Witness".

Never knew this.

Prefectca · Poncho Master!

long stroke wrote:
73SC wrote:

On June 26, 1986, the hearse was crushed in a Boston junkyard, under witness from the John F. Kennedy Library.
Ray, why do you suppose they crushed this vehicle. Especially considering it is so long after his death.

I also find it unusual that the ambulance was destroyed when the car Kennedy was shot in is preserved in a museum. I think the ambulance should also have been preserved in a museum.

Paul

High Gear Guy · Veteran Member

I read a lot about the J.F.K. conspiracy theories and stuff, and everyone claimed that there were actually 2 Bonny Navy ambulances used, one was just a decoy vehicle. Probably just FBI or CIA protocol for a decoy ambulance.

One obviously got crushed, as they did not have Photoshop back in the day.

Anybody have any information on where the mysterious second Pontiac Bonny ambulance may have ended up ? Maybe it was really the one that found it's final fate in the car crusher......who knows for sure, right ?

Don't want to start any new conspiracy theories or discussions on the Poncho site, but it appears we all have a bit of spare time now. I think it may have been mentioned in a book by Stephen Hunter, who is the author of the amazing Bob Lee Swagger, (my Hero), series of books. The book is called The Third Bullet, and it makes you really scratch your head after reading it. I think that the Bonny may have been mentioned in that book, just can't remember now for sure. You can likely read it for free on the Net somewhere if you look hard enough. Here is a quick link to a short author interview if anyone is interested. Just might help fill some time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgoXsNoaBn0 This may not be a live link, so you may have to do a "cut & paste" into your browser.

I know that the above is not really Poncho related, more just some banter about the Bonny Ambulance thread here. Hope this stuff is allowed here.

High Gear Guy

bigdreams · Poncho Master!

Prefectca wrote:
long stroke wrote:
73SC wrote:

On June 26, 1986, the hearse was crushed in a Boston junkyard, under witness from the John F. Kennedy Library.
Ray, why do you suppose they crushed this vehicle. Especially considering it is so long after his death.
I also find it unusual that the ambulance was destroyed when the car Kennedy was shot in is preserved in a museum. I think the ambulance should also have been preserved in a museum.

Paul

I find it strange that the limo was preserved also - I believe it is in the Henry Ford Museum - I seemed to recall hearing that Ford actually owned the car and leased it to the US government for a nominal amount like a dollar

- perhaps that is the key to its survival

Prefectca · Poncho Master!

Now this is interesting,

www.barrett-jackson.com/Events/Event/Details/1963-PONTIAC-BONNEVILLE-JFK-AMBULANCE-202029

Paul

bigdreams · Poncho Master!

Just going off on a tangent on the subject of notorious car being crushed

This topic takes me back to two very visible cars from the 1970 Quebec crisis

Those cars were the 1968 Chev biscayne in the trunk of which Pierre Laporte' s body was found.

Then there was also the 1962 Chrysler in which the FLQ members rode to the airport to leave the country after releasing Jame Cross ( one of my uncles had a black newport 4 door of the same year)- think they were flown to Algeria

i can't find a shot of the 62 Chrysler -

I would have been turning 12 that fall - for me that story was a vivid memory

Anyway fast forward about 20 years - i was watching the CBC 10.:00 evening news ( Knowlton Nash probably was the news anchor).

Anyway there was one tail end story right at the end of the broadcast - it was about these two cars - I quess the government has kept them somewhere as evidence - the story ended with film footage of the two cars being crushed