One of my favourite sized trucks was an 87 Dakota 4x4 8 ft box; my first car was a 52 Plymouth 2 door hardtop. My second was a 61 Valiant, 3 on the floor slant 6. I have also owned Fords, 4 of them, 3 had 3 pedals. 4 Toyotas, the 84 Camry was the worst car Ive ever owned. Ive owned 5 GM daily drivers, 5 GM old cars. My 63 Parisienne is my favourite, nice enough but not so nice I dont want to leave it parked at Canadian Tire.
63 Parisienne sport coupe (The Big GTO), black, maroon interior, 409 4 speed; former owner of a 59 El Camino, 63 Corvette SWC, 62 Chev Bel Air SC. 1963- Pontiac top selling car in Canada
Mahone Bay, NS Still not old enough to need an automatic
With all due respect to those who have owned this car, it never was my favourite of Hillar's. It was stupidly ordered originally and Armstrong steering and manual drum brakes were just idiocy on this this huge boat. It was really three cars in one after that big sideswipe accident and you could see the white quarter panel and gold doors and fenders from the other donor cars pretty easily. Ya its a big block 454 but not a performance car by any stretch. Hillar struggled with overheating constantly but he was so cheap he squeaked, Clint sorted that out. Bottom line is if I wanted that car it never would have left Ontario after Hilar died. I made a very reasonable offer for Hillar's collection and his sister turned it down, very odd folks and impossible to deal with.
The 400 2+2 Clint sold Hillar was a much better car and after it was touched by JB Racing here in East York it was a beast and blast to drive.
You bring up a good point, Ray. The guys I used to hang out with that were into drag racing would convert their cars to manual steering to reduce the horsepower penalty and extra weight from running a power steering pump, which I could understand to a point if they only ran their cars on the track (which most did).
Otherwise manual steering was just a bear to drive, and not only in parking lots (though that was a good workout if you wanted to improve your upper body strength). The gearing required to bring manual steering into the usable range for most people meant a lot of extra turns on the steering wheel to bring it lock to lock, which also slowed down your ability to maneuver. IIRC, my '72 Nova with manual steering had something like 7 or 8 turns lock-to-lock - it was fine for most driving but it really slowed you down if you had to make a quick turn. I used to joke that my '60 Bel Air with manual everything and three on the tree was fun to drive just around the city, because it kept you so busy with all those steering wheel turns while shifting the column shifter (with worn out bushings that would sometimes jam if you didn't move the shifter just right). It would have been a pain as an every day car, though.
Even if the reason was the cost difference, the day to day payoff of power steering would never be enough to make me order manual steering on a big boat with a big block. The only downside would be that power steering back then didn't offer much road feel (though I found the Mopars of similar era to be a little better than the GMs I had... sorry DonSSDD), and I do recall people saying they preferred manual steering because of its better road feel.
The manual drum brakes could be a bit of a pain if you didn't keep them adjusted up (if the auto-adjusters didn't work well, which I never really found that they did, even when cleaned up and lubed), but IMHO were adequate for most braking as long as you didn't heat them up too much with a couple of hard stops without adequate cooling time in between. They could be not-so-good in heavy rain when water got inside the drums, as there would be a small delay between hitting the pedal and actual braking action.
I always preferred manual brakes with front disks as the power brakes of the day seemed to be too sensitive and soft, but that's probably just a preference thing. My '73 Lemans and '76 Nova were equipped as such, and the braking felt just right to me.
-- Edited by MC on Saturday 25th of February 2023 10:44:10 AM
I guess because I grew up on the farm and none of our vehicles had power steering I never really think much about it being an issue. I enjoy driving my 66 with manual steering, it's all a part of the fun. I constantly get the "are you going to put power steering on?" comment and my reply is always the same, "why would I?"...........
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
That makes sense, Carl. It's all what you're used to, and if you look at the times and what preceded those years, manual everything would have been the norm, with 'power stuff' being looked at as luxury items. Back then, most people wouldn't have batted an eye at manual steering, but today, I'm not sure if anything comes without some sort of power assist anymore.
Heck, nowadays people would think you're crazy for not having air conditioning in your car, whereas back then we looked at anything with A/C as being super cushy luxury!
I enjoy telling my mom's story. She was widowed in 1968 at 48, I was 11. She had never driven in the city. She'd never driven a vehicle with a V8, an automatic, power steering, power brakes or air conditioning. Everything had been 3 on the tree, no power options, we never even had radios in our vehicles.
When dad died, our vehicle was a 66 Malibu 230/3 on the tree wagon. In 1970 she and my aunt did a trip from Manitoba all through California and up the west coast in that wagon, including her driving the 3 on the tree in Los Angeles. She knew how to unlock the shifter when that nasty 3 on the tree linkage locked up as they sometimes did.
In 1972 she bought a new 307 powerglide Malibu sedan. She had to learn to drive an automatic. Years later, late 70's likely, my brother and I added power steering to it at least. Then in 1985 she bought a 2 year old Parisienne with PS, PB AND air too! Still no cruise but at least she had the other comforts.
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
Whatever the 454 Laurentian's shortcomings may have been, it was an interesting car and certainly looked a lot better when Clint had it than it does now, IMO. But the owner can and should have it any way he wants it.
These are all good points made about the car, and about the object behind standard steering & brakes.
The 454 Laurentian in question was an LS4 with a mild cam, 10.25:1 compression, large diameter SINGLE exhaust system with resonator & standard 2.56:1 rear axle ratio. It was ordered as a long-legged highway cruiser. As equipped it would be capable of spectacular 1-wheel burnouts.
Back then there was a little distrust in the relatively new disk brakes, and it was based on the 4-piston early (67-68) fixed caliper brakes. Road salt was another consideration in favour of drums. Starting in '69 they simplified the disk brakes and the cost came down, using a single piston & a floating caliper that could tolerate a little run-out. They were equally as effective as the 4-piston design. From that point on they were a good bet.
The full-size Pontiacs used 11" cast iron drums and were considered fine in their day. Nearly all the '69 Big Pontiacs I remember had 14" wheels (therefore drums). In '70 they used 15" wheels on all, with disk brakes standard on the 2+2 & Safari Estate only. Drums were still standard on the rest, regardless of engine choice & other options. Same with the '70 Big Chevies, with disk brakes standard on Caprice, Kingswood Estate and Impala Custom Coupe only.
I remember seeing a '66 Plymouth Satellite coupe with a 426 Street Hemi, manual steering & brakes. It was a driver of sorts, as in occasional driver. It would have been a handful, especially if you nailed it & got out of shape.
Back in the day it was not unusual to see a manual everything Strato Chief or Biscayne. Many fathers drove them, and so did mothers, There wasn't a problem unless you were in a BIG hurry. Low-speed parking was a workout, especially after driving with power steering. When I worked at the movers during the summers all the tractor-trailers were manual steering. Louisvilles with Super Duty 477s, Fleetstar A's with 450 gas straight sixes, all with 2-speed axle splitters & air brakes & 40' van trailers. Fun stuff lining one up into a driveway on a residential street. But hey, we were men.
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67 Chevelle Malibu Sport Coupe, Oshawa-built 250 PG never disturbed.
In garage, 296 cid inline six & TH350...
Cam, Toronto.
I don't judge a man by how far he's fallen, but by how far back he bounces - Patton
I bought my first Kubota tractor with power steering and auto tranny, I will never go back to Manual My 66 Impala 427 has manual steering and brakes Last year I got stuck in the falls traffic and she started to heat up. I had to do a 56
point turn to get out of there
-- Edited by 65 SD L79 on Saturday 25th of February 2023 03:37:30 PM
I bought my first Kubota tractor with power steering and auto tranny, I will never go back to Manual My 66 Impala 427 has manual steering and brakes Last year I got stuck in the falls traffic and she started to heat up. I had to do a 56
point turn to get out of there
Oh, you old guys......
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
I bought my first Kubota tractor with power steering and auto tranny, I will never go back to Manual My 66 Impala 427 has manual steering and brakes Last year I got stuck in the falls traffic and she started to heat up. I had to do a 56
point turn to get out of there
Oh, you old guys......
I wanted to light up the tires and get someone to push the rear end around but no one would help those are the old people
Todd, that black Royal is a beauty, I like the stock looking stuff and 1959 had a lot of attractive chromed out choices.
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63 Parisienne sport coupe (The Big GTO), black, maroon interior, 409 4 speed; former owner of a 59 El Camino, 63 Corvette SWC, 62 Chev Bel Air SC. 1963- Pontiac top selling car in Canada
Mahone Bay, NS Still not old enough to need an automatic
It was quite a car. Completely numbers matching down to the carb. I found the build sheet for it to prove it was a real D-500. The D-500 consisted of the 325hp 383, HD torqueflite, larger torsion bars, dual exhaust etc. It was the only Royal we knew of with the D-500 option. Most were either the lower Coronet or the higher trimmed Custom Royal. These photos were from a dealership in St.Louis. That's the last I heard of it. The fellow who bought it from me was a collector in Austria. He shipped the car to a fellow in BC who specialized in restoring these cars. When I spoke to the restorer he said the buyer had a number of cars waiting for him to restore (and he really wanted to start his retirement lol).
Not long after he finished the restoration he sold it because he found a 59 Custom Royal D-500 convertible (which is what he really wanted in the first place. He had actually talked to the restorer about the possibility of converting the Royal to a convertible!)
Good one!
Apparently the floors are shot
those are the old people
