1 week Ago By Alyn Edwards
Article content Dan Wells is an autophile through and through. Twenty years ago, he parlayed his interest in photography and his passion for classic cars into a side gig as a collector car columnist with the Edmonton Journal. “I had been going to car shows and knew some people who were original owners of their cars,” Dan says.
“I thought it would be really interesting to people to learn about cars that had been owned since new for 30 or 40 years. Fifteen out of my first 20 stories were about cars still with their original owners.” That’s what led Dan to Dennis Huculak, who with his wife Sylvia still owned the top-of-the-line Pontiac Grande Parisienne they bought new in 1966.
Dan’s story detailed how the couple drove a hard bargain at Edmonton’s South Park Motors, getting the sticker price of $4,985 down to $3,730 because the models were changing in the fall of 1966. The fancy car was gloss black with a white bucket seat interior and console mounted automatic transmission shifter powered by the base 283 cubic inch engine equipped with a two-barrel carburetor. It was the Huculak’s daily driver for the next 23 years and, having traveled 143,000 miles, it was getting tired and rusty.
Because the couple still liked the car so much, they committed it to a full body off the frame restoration which was completed in 1991. The car was only driven a further 3,000 miles after the restoration. In 2016, as photographer for Don Wheaton GM, Dan featured Dennis Huculak’s Pontiac in a regular Friday social media post of vintage General Motors cars and trucks.
The following year, he invited Dennis to show his car at the Iron Indians Pontiac Club’s annual show at the Don Wheaton dealership. “It was the only show he ever entered his car in,” Dan says. Dan was particularly interested in the one-owner 1966 Pontiac Grande Parisienne because there was car just like this that had impressed him as a teenager.
He was 16 years old and living in St. Albert outside Edmonton. His friend Mark bought a 10- year-old 1966 Pontiac Grande Parisienne powered by the optional 327 cubic inch engine with a four-barrel carburetor.
“We were just teenage kids driving around,” Dan says recalling the dark green Grande Parisienne. The Pontiac Grande Parisienne offered the highest style and trim level of all Pontiacs built between 1966 and 1969 by General Motors of Canada. It was very similar to the American Pontiac Grand Prix models, but it was built on the Chevrolet chassis with a Chevrolet power train.
Dan kept in touch with Dennis and Sylvia Huculak over the years after moving to Vancouver. Last summer, the original owners of the 1966 Pontiac Grande Parisienne decided it was time to sell. For Dan Wells, it was time to buy.
A deal was negotiated and Dennis Huculak surprised Dan by having the car fully serviced with all mechanical issues looked after at his expense. Dan picked the car up in Edmonton, took in the Rock’n August car show in St. Albert, the area’s biggest car show, and was surprised that there was a sister car to the one he had just purchased in the show.
It was also black but had a red interior. Then Dan drove his Grande Parisienne home to Vancouver, meeting with some other classic Canadian Pontiac owners along the way. “I’m so honored that Dennis trusted me to be the second owner of his motoring marvel,” he says.
Now a photographer contributor to magazines including Collectible Automobile, Canadian Hot Rods and Muscle Car Magazine, Dan Wells has a car that takes him back to his teenager years. For sentimental reasons, he has photographed his Pontiac Grande Parisienne in the same driveway in St. Albert where his teenage friend Mark parked his 10-year-old green Pontiac 49 years before.
Alyn Edwards is a classic car enthusiast and a partner in a Vancouver-based public relations company. [email protected] Sign up for our newsletter Blind-Spot Monitor and follow our social channels on Instagram , Facebook and X to stay up to date on the latest automotive news, reviews, car culture, and vehicle shopping advice.
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