1926 Pontiac Hill Climber - The Original High Performance Pontiac?

Behind the Wheel
So, Arnold...what's it like to drive? "Well...it's pretty uncomfortable, actually...this car is built for someone 5'6 or shorter, and I'm over 5'8, so your knees are up in your mouth if you're too tall. When you're driving around a road course, like Summit Point, you're real busy. The engine and trans are bolted directly to the steel frame-there are no engine or transmission mounts-so it's a rough ride. There are no synchros in the transmission, and I don't get to drive it often enough, so I'm constantly refining my double-clutching technique-and there's a big step between second and third gears. The springs are pretty stiff-they don't do much springing, and with 600 pounds less on the car, they're stiffer still. Make sure your insurance covers dialysis treatment-that thin strip of leather on the seat doesn't do much to cushion you.

"The drivers back then were a lot braver than I am. There's something approaching religious faith you discover when you enter a turn. With the wooden wheels, I try not to load it laterally at all...I try to apex the turn nicely to minimize lateral loads. I may throw it into the turns once I have the wires and 21s on it, but with the wooden wheels it wanders a lot at 50-55 mph. It goes a lot faster than I should be driving it. There's no windshield, so you get that wind-in-the-face experience, plus the hot air that blows up through the floorboards.

"Safety wasn't even a concept back then. The bellcranks for the throttle linkage are bolted to the passenger's floor; whenever I take a passenger for a ride; I make him push hard on the floorboards, and the engine revs. So then we have a chat about who controls the gas since it's instinct for people to plant themselves on the floor with their feet... The brakes have never failed, but then I've never tested them hard enough to see where fade occurs. Your best hope, in case something goes wrong, is that you'd be thrown clear of the car. Everything spanning the framerails is wood-if you stayed in the car, chances are you'd be run through by splinters!"

Sounds like Landvoigt isn't all that fond of his Pontiac. Not so. "I love driving it-it's great fun on hill climbs. Running the drag strip at Norwalk (at the Ames Performance Pontiac Nationals this past August, where we caught up with the Landvoigts and Hill Climber) was terrific, though those wood wheels didn't give me a lot of confidence. It's sitting in a parade for three hours behind a troop of young girls doing Irish step dancing in the rain and stopping every 50 feet that isn't fun." Aaah, the joys of running a purpose-built machine. Not an everyday beast by any means, but one that does what it's supposed to do very well.

Who among us can say how this particular vehicle contributed, in its own way, to the success of the Division that now has a monthly 76-page magazine named after it? We cannot. We do know, however, that it was there at the beginning. It is, until someone can prove otherwise, the very first high-performance Pontiac. And for this, we are indebted to it.

Note: Arnold Landvoigt is actively seeking any additional information on this car, or on the Upstate New York hill climbing events held between the World Wars. Knowledgeable parties can contact info@hillclimber.com, or check out www.hillclimber.com.