The day after Thanksgiving generally signals the beginning of the Christmas season. And for many parts of the country Black Friday also marks the end of the hobbyist driving season. After all, who wants to subject their prized possession(s) to the slush and salt that can damage the body metal and/or exterior finish? Hopefully for those in northern climates the past several months of warm weather has been enjoyable for you. It seems that winter is upon many, and for others, it’ll make it appearance in the coming days to weeks.
In an attempt at preserving their Pontiac’s condition, most hobbyists place their vintage vehicle into long-term storage for the winter season. This Pontiac press photo of a 1970 T-37 in the slushy snow of a ski lodge parking lot reminds us that our beloved brand was designed to be driven in all types of weather conditions.
The hibernation checklist to ready your Pontiac for extended slumber likely includes a thorough cleaning inside and out, a cursory check of oil and coolant levels, topping off the fuel tank and adding a suitable fuel stabilizer (particularly if ethanol-blended fuel is all that’s available to you), adjusting tire pressures, hooking a trickle charger to the battery, and installing a quality car cover. The holding pattern now begins until winter releases its frigid grip and signs of spring appear.
Other hobbyists less concerned with the elements prefer to enjoy driving their vintage Pontiacs as often as possible no matter what time of year. I doubt you’ll find many Super Duty Firebirds or HO-powered GTOs regularly cruising the streets in areas where snow flies this time of year, but for those with typical Pontiacs, or even rarer examples awaiting restoration, there’s generally no harm venturing out on nice days so long as the streets are free of slush, heavy sand, and/or wet salt. But how about when temperatures are bitterly cold? Do you happen to know how your Pontiac runs and drives in such weather?
A few years back we had a Nebraska winter that was unusually dry and the streets had very little sand and salt on them. I had to move my ’76 Trans Am unexpectedly one morning and although it was sunny, the temperature hovered around 0 degrees F. Its 467-ci is equipped with a Rochester Quadrajet and functional choke. I started the engine and backed it out of the garage and let it warm up in the driveway for several minutes at high idle. The video above was taken that very day. Once on the road, the carburetor was noticeably lean in the cool, dense air, but the car still drove remarkably well and the heater kept me quite warm. The rather short jaunt to the storage garage took me back to the early ‘90s when the car was much more stock and I drove it daily.
A decade has passed since the last new Pontiacs were purchased as daily drivers. And it was decades before that when the last carbureted Pontiacs (albeit powered by Chevrolet V8s) were produced. Because we’re so conditioned to the ease-of-cold-startup with modern fuel injection and its ability to provide excellent drivability almost immediately, we tend to forget the nuances associated with carbureted cars in extreme cold, but we can’t forget that Pontiac’s engineers strove hard to achieve suitable operational characteristics of its V8s in all types of conditions.
This vintage photo of a worker in the All-Weather Lab at the Carter Carburetor plant provides insight on the level of testing that went into ensuring that carbureted engines operated suitably in the extreme cold.
I recently found a photo in my collection that reminded me of this. Dated June 19, 1957, it depicts a person in the All-Weather Lab at the Carter Carburetor plant in St. Louis, Missouri. During the heat of the Midwest summer, Carter employee Joe Maxson is subjecting the Carter fuel system that Pontiac selected for its four-barrel V8 applications to a deep-freeze test to ensure suitable operation in the absolute harshest condition.
Although many of us prefer to not drive our carbureted Pontiacs during the winter months for obvious (and quite justifiable!) reasons, refraining from doing so simply for fear of the ambient conditions shouldn’t be a concern. This photo is proof positive that they were engineered to do exactly that!