PONTIAC GRAND PARISIENNE A TRUE FAMILY CAR
It was nearly a half-century ago that a mistake in supplying the wrong model of car for the north central British Columbia city of Quesnel led the manager of the local Safeway store to buy a very special car.
Byron Carr jumped at the chance to trade his year-old Chevrolet Impala in on the highly optioned 1968 Pontiac Grand Parisienne with the big 396-cubic-inch engine delivering a pounding 325 horsepower.
This was a very fancy two-door hardtop, but the local municipal government had ordered a four-door car to shepherd guests of the city and other dignitaries around town. Alex Fraser, who would later become British Columbia’s highways minister, was the mayor of Quesnel and owned the General Motors dealership in town. Because the Pontiac didn’t have four doors and wasn’t right for the city, a salesman at the dealership called his friend over at the Safeway store.
Byron was thrilled at the opportunity to buy the sporty two-door hardtop loaded with options, including power windows, tilt steering and an eighttrack tape player.
The car followed the Carr family around B.C. as Safeway transferred Byron to Terrace, South Vancouver and finally Richmond, where he retired in 1994.
“Part of what he had to do was pick people up at the airport when we were in Terrace and the car was great for chauffeuring people around,” daughter Deb McIntyre recalls. “Quite often planes couldn’t make it into Terrace and he would have to pick visitors up in Prince Rupert.”
She recalls one of these trips with six people in the car when a bear ran into the side of the big Pontiac. The bear took off and the Pontiac carried on with minor damage.
Eileen Carr became a soccer mom and was popular because the Pontiac could hold up to nine kids with their equipment. The Pontiac did many vacations to the U.S. and travel between Terrace and the couple’s hometown of Trail — a nine-hour trip for the family of five with two Maltese dogs perched on the rear window package tray.
Once retired, Byron Carr decided to restore his cherished car to the condition it was when he first saw it. He built a doublecar garage behind his Richmond home and proceeded to completely disassemble the Canadian-built top-of-the-line Pontiac right down to the bare frame.
That frame had suffered serious rust-out and needed replacing. When the body went for chemical stripping, Byron began the search for a replacement frame. He found one in Penticton from a 1967 Pontiac Laurentian sedan, but problems arose because the transmission mounts were for a two-speed Powerglide automatic transmission and the Grand Parisienne had a three-speed Turboglide transmission.
Byron welded in new transmission mounts and the problem was solved. The restoration was authentic down to the correct verdoro green paint, black vinyl top and correct black brocade seat upholstery. The restoration had taken two years to complete, with Byron doing the bulk of the work himself.
One rare car breeds another and Byron was able to find a mate for his Grand Parisienne in the form of a 1967 Pontiac Parisienne hardtop that had been completely restored by a former owner.
Now, the two rare 1960s Canadian-built Pontiac hardtops are regulars at local Vancouverarea car shows. Byron is no longer able to drive, so daughters Deb and Lisa along with son Don ferry the cars to shows, with their proud mother and father as passengers.
Deb’s son Chris represents the third generation to take an interest in Canadian-built Pontiacs and he also regularly drives the cars. He now has a classic Pontiac of his own under restoration. Work on his 1958 Pontiac Laurentian hardtop is proceeding in the garage his grandfather built to restore the car he bought half a century ago.
The wheel has turned full circle with Byron Carr showing his grandson some of the restoration tricks he learned along with way.