As a wee lad in the business, I got to interview an engineer who had his excitement ticket punched all the way through. John Seaton technically worked for Entech, but was assigned to Fiero, and worked with Lotus to develop the (sadly) one year only '88 suspension. After we were through discussing why the new chassis worked so well, we veered off into other topics, one being an early assignment (1958) to develop the Pontiac air suspension.

Engineers being a rather cautious sort did not want to go into full production, they were still working out the nits of a system very new to passenger car, even though it was well proven in truck and bus operation (as was fuel injection, for example.) One Friday late in the summer as the first '58 Pontiacs were rolling down the line, Pete Estes (then Chief Engineer, and by all accounts, the "He-Coon" of the building) wanted to know when they were throwing the switch for air ride. "We're still working some things out, Pete, and...." made Estes see Carnival Red.

"I'm tired of the [expletive] excuses! We are going into production this Friday. Get all your air suspension orders lined up and we are [expletive] building the [expletive ] things or I will be looking for some new [expletive] engineers who can follow the [expletive ] instructions! When I leave this building on Friday, that lot better be full!"

Thus spake Zarathustra.

Engineering pulled every pocket protector in the department to get over to Plant 8 and supervise the installation of the unique parts, at that time still somewhat novel. Lo and behold, Friday's second shift was all air suspension Pontiacs of all types, proudly lined up for leadership to review.

Saturday morning, 7:15 AM the phone rings at Seaton's home. It is Estes. He is in his office, staring out his window at a lot full of new cars resting on their rocker panels. He is enraged. "Get your [expletive] in here, now, and fix those [expletive] cars - call everyone else you need and tell them no one is going home until they are all ready to [expletive] ship."

Seaton arrives to a convention of low riders The team quickly organizes a system to troubleshoot the air ride, which takes nearly two days to sort out for the first car. Then next, the better part of a day. The next a few hours... and so on until they were campaigning a car about every half-hour. All told, they were at the plant for a solid two weeks until they had the whole bit fixed, with family members brining change of clothes, razors, food, etc.

As it turns out the plumbing for the compressed air had a number unions and joints that had to be sealed a certain way and tightened to an exact value. As is custom in Detroit, a few of the assembly stations in Plant #8 were taking that direction with a grain of salt, an issue soon corrected. Eventually, all of the cars did leave the campus and went on to dealers, but it was a very near thing.

The bugaboo of the system was beyond cost and assembly complexity was the metallurgy of the dehydration system. Keeping it drained and dry was a hill too far for the technology of the day, and lackadaisical owner upkeep/maintenance (unlike MD trucks that get their fair share of fussing on a routine basis - they are income generating assets.)

Sadly, fuel injection died on a similar hill - mild corrosion yould begin if there was any water in the system combined with a lack of training for troubleshooting and repair... fascinating but not worth the hassle. IMO, Pontiac would have had the world by the tail, if they could have launched Wide Track with air ride and fuel injection, both of which created a demonstrably better automoblie.