1959 Pontiac

John Ashton

 

1959 Pontiac

John’s Car

After we were married sold the 1956 Chevrolet 210 and upgraded to a 1959 Pontiac with power steering and 2 speed automatic transmission. It was a lemon and having started our family the next car was a 1960 Simca. But it had issues and was sold and I bought a 1963 Peugeot 403. This was such a great car that I upgraded to one in very good condition. Unfortunately this was run into by an unlicensed driver. A local church member sold us his Leyland Marina to get us by and then we upgraded to a 1972 Holden HQ Kingswood station wagon. This was also a great car.

But with our family now growing, and my wife needing her own car in 1983, we bought a beautiful 1970 280S Mercedes. This was the last of the light weight, no pollution gear, simple single overhead cam twin barrel Zenith carburettor model Mercedes. They had lots of hidden features such as sodium cooled valves and the use of special light weight alloys. Also the 4 speed auto had a special pump set up that allow the car to be roll started in an emergency.

The car was very fast with a top speed around 120 mph and the engine reputedly one of the best Mercedes ever made for reliability. The Chief Engineer for Mercedes, when he retired, chose to drive the roadster version of the 280SL.

 

John Ashton

April, 2020