1966 Pontiac Acadian Canso L79 327/350 hp

Hey! It's a Chevrolet Nova! Noo, it's a..."Acadian Canso?" Whaaa...??? In keeping with my tradition for bringing you the rarest, meanest, or just plain coolest cars here in the "A.J.C.O.T.D.", here's another rarity: The 1966 Pontiac Acadian Canso Sport Deluxe L79 327/350 hp. Acadian's were produced by General Motors of Canada from 1962 to 1971. The Acadian was introduced so that Canadian Pontiac/Buick dealers would have a compact model to sell, since the Pontiac Tempest was unavailable in Canada. Plans originally called for the Acadian to be based on Chevrolet's Corvair platform, which was produced at GM's Oshawa plant, but the concept was moved to the Chevy II platform to be introduced for 1962.

Initially, Acadians were exactly as they seemed: retrimmed Chevy II's, offered as a base model, mid-priced Invader and top-line Beaumont. The car used Pontiac styling cues such as a split grille but was marketed as a separate make, but never as a Pontiac.

As with the Chevy II, Acadians were offered with 4-cylinder, 6-cylinder and V8 engines. There was a choice of transmission, depending upon the model and engine installed, 3 and 4-speed manuals or the 2-speed Powerglide automatic.

For 1964 and 1965, the Beaumont name was moved to a retrimmed version of the intermediate model Chevrolet Chevelle, at which time the name Canso was applied to the top-line compact model, equivalent of the Chevrolet Nova.

During the muscle car craze in the late 1960s, an Acadian Canso Sport Deluxe, was offered as similar package equivalent to the Chevy II Super Sport, which included the same Strato-bucket seats, console, floor shift, along with unique SD trim and emblems. Top performance option for the Canso SD was Chevrolet's 350-bhp 327 cubic-inch L79 small-block V8, along with a four-speed manual, or Powerglide automatic transmission.

Today, the 1966 Pontiac Acadian Canso L79 327/350hp Sport Deluxe is one of the rarest muscle cars of all time, with approximately only 4 known left to exist. One such example had just hammered down for a sum of $75 K at the 2013 Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction in Scottsdale, Arizona last Saturday night. Love it!