Heading East, Again

This is a good time to relay the LeMans' first two cross-country trips. She was built in 1965 at General Motors' Fremont, California assembly plant. Coincidentally, this facility (now popping out Teslas) is located less than five miles from the house I grew up in. A few times during my formative years, I was fortunate enough to take tours there and watch them put cars together. I don't remember if any of these visits occurred when I was only four years old (doubtful), but it's fun to think I could've unknowingly watched my car being built two decades before I took ownership. I digress. Once she LeMans rolled off the line, she was loaded onto a train for her first trip to the east. After arriving in Richmond, VA, she was transported to the downtown dealer and sold to her original owner, William Hayes. A few years later, William and his wife drove the car back to Fremont moving into a house just a block away from where I was forming a deep attraction to all things automotive. How did I come to learn this story? I sent the car's VIN and a twenty dollar check to Pontiac Historical Services and they replied with a large envelope filled with wonderful information including the build date and location and the dealer name and address.

Now, skip ahead twenty years. It was mid ’86 and the lovely Loriann and I were expecting our first child. We were living in a rented two-bedroom rowhouse in Silicon Valley with dreams of a home of our own. Thirty years ago, housing prices there were as they are now – astronomical. To help us realize our dream, my father-in-law, Don, mailed me (as in US Postal Service, envelope, stamp) a newspaper clipping from the Jobs section of his local Albany, NY newspaper. The Mechanical Technology Division of my current employer, Westinghouse, was looking for a mechanical engineer. The location? Pittsburgh, PA. I’m not sure how I did it pre-internet, but, somehow, I was able to determine that there was affordable housing there. A phone call with the hiring manager was followed by a flight to PIT, a face-to-face, and, a few days later, a job offer that included a raise and a generous moving allowance – one that included moving both our old cars (the LeMans and a ’62 Corvair).

A month or so later, it was moving day, and the Allied Van Lines trailer was parked outside the carport of our home. Since both cars ran, the plan was to drive the two of them into the trailer, anchor them in place, and then build a platform above them to hold the contents of our townhouse. The LeMans was the first to go in, so I started up the car and got it idling nicely before turning it over to the packer who was to drive it up the rather steep ramps. His first attempt was a fail since the tips of the tailpipes touched the ground. After placing some pieces of 2X12s at the lower end of each ramp, the second attempt went cleanly. Due to the extreme incline, the packer had to really give her the gas to get to the top of the ramps. Sadly, by the time the car was nestled in the front of the trailer, there was a nasty smell coming from the transmission.

A week later, the LeMans was ensconced in its new home in a 2-car garage. It’s sad that I never had time to utilize that nice workspace, but that’s another story. The quality of the photograph below doesn't allow viewing the LeMans, but it was there, hidden behind the closed door.