[Centurion]

I turned five years old during late August, 1958. My parents were driving the third, consecutive Pontiac which they had purchased new -- a '56 Chieftain 2-door Catalina. My interest in all things automotive had already awakened, and my earliest recollection of the new car introductions remains the new '59's from GM and Ford. (Chrysler had a weak dealership presence in my rural Oregon hometown.)


When I got my hands on the brochure for the new Wide Track '59 Pontiacs, I went nuts, and began begging my parents to purchase one of the sensational new models. I even entered the contest from the General Mills cereal boxes, where the grand prize was a '59 Pontiac.


The '59 Pontiac dreams abated. My parents replaced the old Chieftain with a new '61 Buick, sticking with the brand through their final passenger car purchase in 1989.


As the years passed, I continued to love the '59 Pontiacs, although my collector car interests led me elsewhere. In the 1980's and 1990's, I test drove a couple of '59 Pontiacs, but they were never the right cars at the right time.


But I began to pay much more attention to all the '59 General Motors cars after acquiring my '59 Buick Electra in 1998. It would be that same year that I first saw a Canyon Copper / Cameo Ivory '59 Star Chief Vista, and I immediately admired the beautiful car. I saw it once again at a Pontiac / Buick show in 1999, and a final time in about 2004.


I had obtained the owner's contact information, including him in my e-mails every year for the '59 General Motors "Imagination in Motion" driving tours I've organized here in the Puget Sound area of Washington state. Year after year, I was disappointed that the beautiful Star Chief was a perennial "no show".


This year, the owner replied to my e-mail, indicating that the Pontiac would be offered for sale. He asked me to pass the word along, but I caught myself, realizing that I was the best candidate to become the Pontiac's next caretaker. My wife was fully onboard with the idea.


When I test drove the car last Sunday and saw it for the first time in about nine years, we realized that the water pump is leaking. One of the local Buick Club members loaded the car onto his trailer for me last night, so you'll see Rick in some of the photos working on securing the car to the trailer for the 35-mile transport to my home.


The car is a 67,000-mile original, built in the Kansas City (Fairfax) Buick-Olds-Pontiac assembly plant, where my '59 Buick was also born. Like my Buick, this one was sold new in Oregon and the original Oregon plates come with the car. The interior is nearly perfect, and the engine compartment is completely correct and presentable. I had no opportunity last night to shoot any interior photos, but will do so this weekend. The only authenticity issue is the coved panel between the taillamps, painted Cameo Ivory to match the roof. The seller indicated that he had fully investigated this, and is convinced that the car was painted in this manner from the factory. (Neither the seller nor I have seen another '59 Pontiac finished with the contrasting color rear panel.) The local '59 Pontiac expert in the Pontiac Club indicates that some cars were, in fact, delivered this way, although he has no documentation to support this idea.


Can't wait to park it in my garage alongside the '59 Buick.
















And, here it is in the garage with the Buick!