Would anyone in the CP community have any information on this Pontiac dealership in SK ? We just acquired a 70 Oshawa built Judge that sold new from Wheatland Sales December 24 /1969.
1970 was one of two years that GTO's were built in Oshawa, 1973 being the other.
I am curious about the car, does it have a hood tach? It has been said that Oshawa cars were apparently built without the hood tach due to winter weather conditions in Canada, althought you could option it but it was apparently not standard on a Canadian Judge.
I have nothing of value to add, but out of curiosity I checked it out on Google Maps. Sceptre is literally a dot on the map in the middle of wheat fields.
Anyhow, did a quick streetside tour and found a building that looks (to me) like it could have been a small dealership at some time. It's only a guess, but it's at the link below. Curiously, there are a number of old GM pickups in the back lot behind the quanset type building - that could be purely coincidental, though.
neat discussion, and I too had never heard of Sceptre! I used the google maps link flipped to satellite, and zoomed out to figure out where it was!
Based on the number of buildings, it sure looks like there should be more than 94 people there!?!
Up the highways from both Swift Current and Maple Creek!
I know that region well; Before the #1 was twinned there, I had a valve stick on my Firebird just west of Tompkins; I might have been going a bit fast for a sustained period, but it was later revealed that the recently rebuilt engine had the heads done poorly, with too tight of tolerances.
I believe I was nineteen years old, and had both of my younger brothers with me; As I recall the people I dealt with were nice enough, but nothing stand-out; The mechanic in the local shop was honest, and in that situation I couldn't have asked for better; We spent a night in a motel that the mechanic made a call to arrange (iirc) which was more or less not open any more (or at least that was my understanding); Then hitch hiked a ride to Maple Creek (because no one at the station was willing to help out) - we were grateful for the people who let us ride in the back of their truck to Maple Creek; We found out after getting to Maple Creek that it was illegal to hitch hike(!?), and the cops were apparently looking for the hitch hikers who were reported by some truckers; Then just outside of Maple Creek, we were kicked out of the gas station restaurant to await the arrival of the one bus that stopped there each night. I remember not understanding why they wouldn't let us sit inside as it cooled off quite a bit, and it was apparent that there were people in there cleaning... we were well behaved kids.
After getting home, I was back in Tompkins a couple days later with my second cousin to retrieve the Firebird.
Nothing against Tompkins or Maple Creek, but I hope to never have to stop at either location again.
__________________
1970 Formula 400 Carousel Red on black (std) interior "no drivetrain option" car (same base drivetrain as GTO) 1:411 1970 Firebird Formulas originally sold in Canada
Interesting . Gull Lake , which is also middle of nowhere not too far from Sceptre had a dealership that sold 2 1969 Judges one of which was a Ram Air IV. It sold last year at barretj.
Lots of small town Saskatchewan dealerships sold some very cool cars back in the day.Also heard stories of northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba dealerships selling highly optioned muscle cars to guys working in the mining industry who would get out of camp in the late 60s early 70s with a pocket full of cash and ready to roll!
My mom's family is from Prelate, next small village just west of Sceptre. I'm sure my cousins there would have known the original owner of said 70 Judge.
Too bad my cousin who would have been most likely to have known the original owner just passed away.
Sorry for the delay in responding to the post.....this Judge indeed was ordered with a hood tach and gauges/clock. Its Bermuda Blue with Sandalwood guts ....nicely optioned car. Original owners family name was Cota.
Sorry for the delay in responding to the post.....this Judge indeed was ordered with a hood tach and gauges/clock. Its Bermuda Blue with Sandalwood guts ....nicely optioned car. Original owners family name was Cota.
I'll try to give one of my cousins a call to see if he remembers it. He's the younger brother of the one I said would likely have known the original owner.
I spoke with my cousin, he clearly remembers the car. He remembered the stripes, as being Bermuda Blue it likely had some fluorescent pink stripes.
Charles (Chuck) Cota lived in Sceptre and worked at Wheatland Sales. His son David (16 or 17 when the car was new, about the same age as my cousin) would occasionally get to take the car out. We're sure Chuck is long since passed, and my cousin doesn't know where David is.
Regarding the dealership, we only spoke briefly about it, but my cousin said they also sold Massey-Ferguson tractors, etc. Probably very typical for these small towns back in those days.
That's cool! thanks for looking into the history of this Judge ....it now resides in Kirkland QC ....came to QC in around 93 as far as I can figure. Cheers and best Wishes for 2021!
