‘66 Catalina at work

Discussion in 'The Bench' started by Mark Demko, May 26, 2023.

  1. 12lives

    12lives Control the controllable, let the rest go

    My dad had a 64 GP when I was too young to drive (lucky for him). He would occasionally hit reverse when trying to manually shift to low. Stopped real fast...
    "Roto Hydra-Matic placed Reverse at the far end of the shift pattern, adjacent to Low, and allowed the car to be “rocked” by moving the selector back and forth between Low and Reverse. A reverse blocker (theoretically) prevented the transmission from going into reverse if the car was moving faster than a crawl. However, as with Dual-Path Turbine Drive, there was no longer any provision for push-starting. "
     
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  2. PGSS

    PGSS Gold Level Contributor

    Ok it was the S as 2nd. I remember having the 3 choices.
    Not that the A/C vents were bad looking at all but I just have strong liking for the pods.. So you could get the oil and temp option in them?
     
  3. PGSS

    PGSS Gold Level Contributor

    Pontiac is my 2nd GM love too:D
     
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  4. WQ59B

    WQ59B Well-Known Member

    The pods are awesome, yes. Yes; factory oil/water gauges, but they are rare to find.
    If one were to swap the 3-gauge pod in, and it WASN'T the oil/water gauges, you'd have redundant fuel / ammeter gauges as those are in the speedo on A/C cars (tho it would look cooler)... unless you put aftermarket gauges in there.
     
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  5. Mark Demko

    Mark Demko Well-Known Member

    WOW, interesting stuff!
    They don’t have cool stuff like that anymore, new cars are boring:cool:
     
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  6. mineseats9

    mineseats9 Gold Level Contributor

    Neighbor just got his Poncho out of storage and stopped by for a cold beer.
     

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  7. PGSS

    PGSS Gold Level Contributor

    This thread turned out good!

    Pontiacs sure had some great looking dashes.
    I remember thinking why did the big ones have 2 radios because the way they put the heater controls.
     
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  8. Mark Demko

    Mark Demko Well-Known Member

    Haha me too on the “two radios”
    They had style and creativity back then!
     
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  9. Mark Demko

    Mark Demko Well-Known Member

    I watch the You Tube channel “Rare Classic Cars” he collects and talks about the full size American cars and highlights the design and features of them, I like his content as the full size American car was like the apple pie of America, nearly every family had one, but the midsize muscle cars have all the spot light.
     
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  10. pbr400

    pbr400 68GS400

    39335531-DCE8-4AFC-95C0-869F88455E6C.jpeg You can’t discuss big Pontiacs without mentioning the Fitz and Van artwork in the ads. Some of the best advertising art ever done. They made the cars, even the lower trim sedans, look spectacular, and the background settings really sold an aspirational lifestyle.
    Patrick
     
  11. pbr400

    pbr400 68GS400

    Here’s another:
    upload_2023-5-28_7-55-28.jpeg
    Patrick
     
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  12. PGSS

    PGSS Gold Level Contributor

    They sure sponsored alot of TV shows..
    I Dream Of Genie, Bewitched and My 3 Sons come to mind for now.
     
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  13. Mark Demko

    Mark Demko Well-Known Member

    Those lights above the bumper are cool!
     
  14. Waterboy

    Waterboy Mullet Mafia since 6/20

    Kind of like the Batmobile
     
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  15. John Codman

    John Codman Platinum Level Contributor

    I had a friend who had one of those huge Pontiacs. It had a 2:56 (!) gear. What is astonishing is that a 2:41 was available.
     
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  16. PGSS

    PGSS Gold Level Contributor

    Oh yeah, I knew it reminded me of something..
     
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  17. PGSS

    PGSS Gold Level Contributor

    Thats strange, could you even feel the difference?
     
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  18. Mark Demko

    Mark Demko Well-Known Member

    Yeah not much difference
    Bet even with a 2.41 it could still turn the tires!
     
  19. WQ59B

    WQ59B Well-Known Member

    I had one in my Pontiac fleet : '65 Bonneville 4-dr hardtop - 325 HP 389, TH400, 2.41 rear. It moved fine for the heaviest / worst gear combo.
    My 267 HP 2bbl 389 '64 Cat with 2.67 gears may have been a teeny bit quicker tho (prob 400-500 lbs lighter).
     
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  20. 66electrafied

    66electrafied Just tossing in my nickel's worth

    The Roto-hydramatic was a POS. What killed them was the fact that unless the TV rods were properly adjusted, the 1-2 shift would be "late" (it would hang in 1st for a long, long time, then just slowly drift into second before it started to pull again) and that was usually a good indicator that the downshift was gone too, so the car would stay in 3rd when deaccelerating to a stop, and that would load up the motor and shotgun the bearing train. Olds used the same lousy tranny, as did Cadillac. Buick used their Twin Turbine and escaped this mess, and Chevy used it's own Powerglide. But the Roto-hydramatic was supposed to be a slimmer 3 speed version of the original 4 speed Hydramatic which was a good transmission, but a bit of a slushbox. The Roto-hydramatic (Slim-Jim in modern parlance) ran from 1961 until 1964. A lot of people who still have these cars (at least around here) converted them with a 200R-4 years ago. I don't know too many Olds or Caddies around here that still are saddled with that dog.
    Now, I'm sure I'm going to get a lot of hate mail from those that love these transmissions; - I've had a couple in Oldsmobiles, and they were both dogs. Managed to catch one before the downshift failed in it, and it was pretty smooth, it still had a late 1-2 shift, but it wasn't super annoying. A buddy of mine also had on in a 63 Olds Delta 98; - and he wondered why the fuel economy was dismal. Apparently it wouldn't shift fully into 3rd and it went to passing gear and stayed there. Utter crap.
     
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