At risk of beating the 1965 Pontiac Superior stretch limo to death (this being our third post), but Tom just sent me a link to one currently being auctioned on ebay. And seeing that CC is now so identified with that subject after the CC the other day, I feel obliged to point it out to you lovers of the Superior Embassy. Especially so since this one has a three-on-the-tree. The owner’s description in ebay speak (or more like craigslist speak):
1965 runs drives frame is clean 389 eng 3 on the tree trans car needs to be painted started to restore it needs to be sanded down and painted body only has small amount of rust on rear wheel wells as far as i can tell int is all stock and all working the car was appraised for just over 10,000 $ (please note im not looking for even close to that) the way it sits it is rare the trunk pan has a few holes pass front floor is a little soft car has lots of new parts that have not been put in because of winter i would love to keep this car but some things have came up and need the money grate project for father son or car collector any one that wants to buy the car i would like for them to please come look at it 1st if you have any ? please feel free to email me at dan8841@gmail.com also i took the car on a drive a few weeks back ago it was about 93 miles each way had no problems with it
Only some ten of these are known to exist, so here’s your chance to enter a very exclusive club. But hurry, only 48 hours left! Current bid is $2500.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/rare-1965-pontiac-bonneville-runs-and-drives-3-tree-389-/261135996662?pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item3ccceb16f6#v4-41
Three on the tree? Who in their cotton picking mind puts a three on the tree in a limo? Four on the floor would be unusual but a three on the tree transmission (in a limo) just indicates you were dropped on your head as a baby or something.
I believe from reading the other posts on these cars where that they were used by funeral homes..so the lowest cost transmission sort of makes sense..but I’m still not sure the reasoning was thought thru too well for these cars in the first place….if cost was a factor for the funeral home to get a “base model” Pontiac limo rather than a Caddy then why not just get a used older Caddy limo? But still very very very unique for today!
There often wouldn’t have been the option of a used funeral-car limo – undertakers generally keep vehicles a very long time. So in 1965, you’d have wanted an affordable 1960s limo, not an affordable used 1940s limo,,,
Unless this one got built for export, where manual transmissions were, and still for the most part are, favored.
love the manual window cranks. lol beautiful car…would be an interesting car but a bit “funereal” for most with that roof line?
You gotta have smooth manual transmission skills in order to keep the mourners from jerking back and forth, though of course, the 389 does have plenty of umph for a tire roasting launch out the graveyard gates.
Indeed. That’s what’s so strange about a 3-on-the-tree limo. Imagine lurching about/frying the clutch/smoking the tires in a funeral parade.
OTOH, if the departed was a gearhead, it might be appropriate (unless, of course, they met their demise behind the wheel).
Though it does make the 421 Tri-Power swap I have planned for this thing that much more interesting….
Actually, this car might be worth it as a parts car for someone wanting to convert something worth much more $$$ into a stick, like a 2+2 convertible with a 421.
In the late 60s my dad actually owned a 49 Cadillac hearse for a short time.
Believe it was Miller bodied ,and it too had a three speed manual transmission behind the 331? V-8
Possible occupants of the two jump seats in back aside, I don’t imagine anyone else riding in the hearse would have been bothered by a bit of jerking between gears….
Yeah, Cadilacs didn’t get a standard Hydramatic until 1954 I believe, I’ve seen a few manual Cadillac hearses.
Cadillac kept the manual available specifically for its commercial chassis. It’s not all that bizarre: a good driver could make it feel as smooth as an automatic, especially with all that heft. Ten years or so earlier, that would have been par for the course. The funeral business is a conservative one, one might naturally assume.
I once had a 1951 Caddy commercial car brochure; it listed the three-speed manual transmission as available. I remember hearing that this was the last year that was the case.
Of course back in those days it was rare that anyone couldn’t drive a car with a manual transmission. We used to razz my mother about it – she didn’t drive until Pop got the Packard with the Ultramatic transmission in 1950. But once she’d been driving for ten years or so it was no great trick to teach her to drive the new VW in 1961.
The 2 Cadillacs that raced at LeMans that year had manual transmissions.
So, we’ve covered thirty percent of a given car’s production run. That even surpasses our 1968 Imperial Crown convertible coverage (3 out of 474)!
+1
Three on the tree, huh? This car was probably built for a very conservative, old-fashioned customer who didn’t care for those new-fangled automatic transmissions. Pretty sad, since the TH400 was available that year, but “conservative” and “old-fashioned” would probably apply to most undertakers.
Shafer, Minnesota. Easy town to remember…
Every time I see a ’65 Pontiac I can smell that new car smell when my Dad rolled up in our new ’65 in aquamarine. Luv it! (and we had a ’67 with 3 on the tree too!)
The lack of punctuation kept me from reading past the second line.
Stephen Walton,
Maybe it’s time to address the ADD then.
The more Ebayese or C-Listese there is in an Ad the more likely it is that the vehicle is not close to being as described.
Ebayese
“Trunk pan has a few holes”
Translation
Screen Doors have more metal.
To the seller’s credit he asks that you view it first.
I know that car intimately. It belonged to me up until a few months ago.
Responded to an ad on craigslist this past spring for a cheap running 454, and ended up buying the Bonne – in the dark, with just a few quick glances to go on. Went back with the trailer the next day and discovered how odd it was. Googled it, found Vince Welling’s site, and just about fell off my chair when I realized how few were made – and how fortunate I was to have just yanked it out of some guy’s backyard.
It sat in my backlot for a few months, until we decided on a whim to get it going and drive it down to the Car Craft Summer Nationals (about 60 miles from where I live, and about a mile from a relative’s house) in hopes of finding it a good home. My old man and I pulled a 24-hour marathon wrenching session, and got it purring and presentable. My only regret was being unable to assemble a full set of 5-on-5 Rallye IIs in time… ended up just repainting the steelies that came on it and applying beauty rings, which was how it remained. Turned a LOT of heads the two nights we cruised it, as one would expect 🙂
http://www.kanabec.net/~kthelen/p/limo.jpg
Having found no takers over the weekend, I threw it on eBay – twice – both times failing to break a grand. (Probably because I had many more, and more detailed, pictures. Worst spot? Lay down underneath and you’ll see the ~4sqft of tin I added to the driver’s floorpan to make it driveable… ‘soft floor’ indeed!) After that it was back to craigslist, where it eventually found its way to the guy in Shafer for all of $1400. He promised to give it a good home, but apparently his situation changed. Round and round it goes…
If anyone has any curiosities about the car, I’d be glad to answer to the best of my recollection.