GTV6 Cold Starting Puzzle

[John Brase <jbrase@domain.elided>]

I've got a puzzling cold weather starting problem with my '84 GTV6.

Whenever the ambient temp is in the 20's or below and the car has set 
overnight it acts like a dead battery on startup.  The starter engages 
but it will only roll the engine over slowly and usually won't roll 
through a compression stroke.  At that point I can hear some relays 
click presumably from a total loss of power and even the radio will 
loose its memory.  The battery is only a few months old. The other day 
when the temp was in single digits I checked the battery prior to trying 
to start the thing and it showed 12.3 volts across the terminals. 
Certainly seems sufficient.  And, if I hook up the charger for as 
little as four or five minutes it will crank like a banshee and fire 
right up.  Even with 20w50 in the case.  I thought, "OK, I need to wake 
up the electrons before trying to crank it."  So I tried the old trick 
of turning on the lights for 30 seconds or so to get everything 
"flowing."  That didn't help at all.  I have not checked the voltage at 
the starter because I'd probably have to lay in the snow to do it.  And, 
I'm not sure what good that would do anyway.  Suppose, for example, I 
get 12+ volts across the terminals and a lot less at the starter end of 
the cable, what would that tell me?

Anybody got any ideas?  (Other than reminding me that I'm not supposed 
to drive a GTV6 in winter in the first place.)

John
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