Antique Buick in Antique Gold

ANTIQUE BUICK IN ANTIQUE GOLD

I had a rare bout of insomnia recently and decided to bike out to Brighton Beach at dawn. On the way back I took 86th Street past the Dyker Beach Golf Course. Look what I found waiting to tee up!

This is a 1969 Buick Electra 225 in Antique Gold Poly. Talk about stage presence! With a wheelbase 1" larger than the behemoths that preceded it the '69 Electra is large and in charge. From the front the lines are straight as an arrow. Rarely do you see a raised middle section of a hood that doesn't open up towards the windshield in a V shape.

The wipers are concealed below the hood adding to the clean look. The split grill is housed within a double loop bumper that pretty much incorporates the entire front of the car.

That swooping accent line going down the side was a Buick hallmark for '69 that can also be seen on the Skylark (the Riviera was the lone holdout). Above the front wheels you can see the now stylized Buick portholes. The portholes were officially named Cruiser-Line Ventiports when they were introduced on 1949 Buick. Back then they were functional in taking heat away from the engine. They became synonymous for Buick and were added in one form or another to most of their cars for decades.

This old girl's resting on semi deflated tires. The paint is faded completely and surface rust is emerging but for the most part this thing looks solid.

That Sweep Spear (as that swooping body line is known) really helps to keep this massive brick dynamic.

I love how unforgiving the rear end of these land yachts are. The '65-'67 taillights spanned the full width of the car and just look incredible. Starting in '68 we see this treatment with the license plate in the middle but the overall look is still substantial.

Of course the trunk is as big as you can imagine. Even a full size spare does nothing to take away from the truly colossal square footage inside this beast.

While you could specify a plain metal roof for your Electra we know this one had vinyl at one time. The chrome line running from the rear quarter window under the back window is the clue. This owner was smart to remove it because anything less than totally dry and pristine means the metal underneath will rot out.

It was a quiet block with nobody around so I didn't want to get right up to the window. Looking at it now I think this thing is unlocked though; watch out people!
The interior can ferry 6 well fed adults in ocean liner comfort. There were no manual transmissions available for this car; that wasn't the point!

Beneath this mighty hood lies the 430 V8 rated at 360 horsepower! Don't worry about the gas mileage. Feel confident in the fact that you can tow a large boat or camper, pull stumps out of the east, or simply lay strips until your tires dissolve. 

I found a commercial for the 1967 Electra that sums up the ride quality so well that I thought I'd include it here even though the year is different. The thought of combining glasses of wine and a car speaks to a simpler, more naive time!

Well at this point the sun was just coming up and I needed to head home for coffee. There seem to be a decent amount of these full size Buick sprinkled about Brooklyn, 2nd only to vintage Cadillacs. Speaking of Cadillac this ride is very similar, sharing the underpinnings with the Coupe DeVille. If you love big American iron and want a classic to use daily I highly recommend an old Buick. 

LeSabre by night

NIGHT MOVES

It's frustrating for me to encounter a sweet ride at night. Sometimes I'll circle back around in the daytime and find the same rig but more often than not the nighttime pics are all I'll get. I have several amazing cars that have never been posted because they're too dark. Somehow the after hours vibe seems to suit this car just fine:

This is a 1963 Buick LeSabre in Regal Black. This car is so well dressed that you ought to be ashamed of yourself.

'63 was the only year for this strange widely spaced headlights configuration. The grill is a cast piece that probably weighs a good amount on its own. Behind that grill lies the a V8 engine in either 300, 364, or 401 cubic inches. I know the 401 Nailhead was good for around 300 horsepower and a mountain of torque. I had a '65 Electra with the 401 and that beast could dance around like a small sports car despite its gargantuan proportions.

This is the sedan version that could also be ordered as a hardtop.
When featuring a car I'll look it up in various places for the odd fact I might not know or even just to confirm a year, etc. Imagine my surprise when this exact car is the example posted in the Wikipedia page for Buick LeSabre!

This full size cruiser was close to the flagship Electra 225. A quick way to identify the difference is that this has 3 portholes on the front fender while the Electra has four. By '63 the famous Buick portholes had become stylized rectangles.

Let's try with the flash.

And let's try without.
As was the norm for full size GM cars in the early '60s the rear looks a lot like the front. That formal roofline is tall enough for the bank manager to keep his hat on while driving.

These tall Gothic taillight housings are great. If the grim reaper drove a car this might be it.

The proportions are pretty good for such an enormous car.

Well that's where I'll leave this black beauty. Having the pleasure of owning that '65 Electra I wholeheartedly vouch for any '60s full size Buick. The build quality was spectacular and they are extremely responsive. Now for no reason other than I wish I had it today here's a beauty shot of my old ride:

The very last gasp of the very large automobile

FREAKIN' YUUUGE

Look at this colossus! Massive, slab sided, and dripping with heavy chrome trim, this small building was parked in Queens recently:

This is a 1979 Lincoln Continental Collector's Series in Midnight Blue. This is the grand finale for supersized Detroit offerings. Being the last year for the truly full-size Lincolns they decided to pull out all the stops and offer a special edition. The Collector's Series was it.
This is a brick. Look at that mammoth tombstone grill. The bumper is more like a highway guardrail.

One of my favorite features of late-'70s Lincolns are these turn signal lights in the leading edge of the mighty fenders. They seem downright architectural as opposed to automotive. If you went to the top of the Empire State Building and saw this light 20 feet tall you wouldn't be surprised. Of course the headlights are protected by their own garage doors.

Let's do the numbers: 19.4 feet long, 6.5 feet wide, and 4,800 lbs. This car is absolutely, unapologetically massive. The 400 V8 was the only engine available in this final year and it was good for a mere 160 horsepower. A respectable 315 lbs of torque meant it could move itself somewhat but high performance it ain't.

The Collector's Series was offered with only White, Midnight Blue, or Silver paint. It's impossible to see here but the wheels have the body color painted in them between the turbine slats. What you can just make out in this pic is that the grill was accented in gold for this edition. Glitzy!

Look at this cliche. The padded landau vinyl half roof is a great touch.

The area behind the rear side windows is where the opera windows would be if this were a Town Car.

The taillights mimicking the front turn signal position add some continuity to this extremely basic design. The rear looks a little boring to me though compared to the majestic front.

Some of the special features of the C.S. were "especially deep 36 ounce carpeting" (their words), an umbrella, garage door opener, a "Quad Sound" 8 track stereo, and a leather wrapped tool bag.

Between the front and rear doors is an electroluminescent carriage light. Whenever the headlights or running lights are on that vertical panel glows with elegance.

Even the roof is oh-so plush! A very rare option was the fixed panoramic glass roof in which the front half of the roof was glass. Occasionally they come up for sale and while intriguing they are very hot on sunny days.

The interior is as mint as the outside of this yacht. These ultra plush seats were standard with the C.S. but you could order leather if you prefer.
I love the band of faux woodgrain on the steering wheel circle itself! Malaise checklist complete.

In 1980 the Continental would be greatly reduced in every category. The other full size stalwarts of the Malaise era had already left the stage at this point. Cadillac offered the Eldorado in gargantuan dimensions through the 1978 model year, as did the rest of the Ford stable; LTD and Mercury Marquis. As a parting gift to red meat eating Americans who preferred a "traditional sized" car this was the only option. I was happy to see one somehow parallel parked in the wild. If you prefer a car with listing ocean liner handling and so much sound deadening that the world seems silent then this is the ride for you!

Winner of the popularity contest

WINNER OF THE POPULARITY CONTEST

I was walking through Bed Stuy on some hot summer day when I found this beast. Call me Ishmael!

This is a 1965 Chevrolet Impala in Ermine White. The Impala sat near the top of the heap in trim level with both the Bel Air and Biscayne below. That being said this is a pretty spartan Impala.

The heavy brow gives this either a distinctive or somewhat seedy look depending on where you're standing. From this angle the car look like it's trying to fake a smile while asking you for something. Still you've got to admire the sheer presence of this brick!

That's a hood you could play ping-pong on. From this angle the front looks determined with its forward rake and full width chrome. Behind that grill lies the base V8 engine; the 283 Turbo Fire. If you really weren't in a hurry you could still order the Turbo Thrift inline 6 cylinder.

Like all of the Chevys from this era it wears its very large proportions well. That Coke bottle bump-up that carries down the rest of the quarter panel helps a great deal. The lines are clean with no side chrome save for the rocker panel molding which is in shadow here. It's amazing the difference in styling ethos from the late '50s through the mid '60s.

Not the best shot of course but this is the proud possession of somebody possibly nearby so I had to attack and retreat immediately. We can see that there is a radio in the dash, bench seats, and an automatic transmission on the column. The round gauge closest to us doesn't seem to have anything in it but I've seen both a tachometer and a clock in that spot depending on the options. One detail I love is the mini crank to roll open the vent windows. How cute is that?

This 4 door post sedan represents the base body style in 1965. In addition there were 2 and 4 door hardtops, a station wagon, a convertible, and the hot rodders choice: the 2 door post coupe.

These taillights are some of my favorite from all of Chevrolet history. If these don't remind you of rocket engines taking off I don't know what will! As it had been since 1960 the Impala boasted triple taillights on each side while the lesser models had only two.

The clean lines and tarantula eyes on the rear are great. If this were the Super Sport the chrome panel under the taillights would be blacked out. In the following year the lineup gained the Caprice. For a time the Caprice was even higher on the ladder than the SS.

The trunk is gargantuan! The advertised capacity is 17.7 feet of space. The turning radius of this yacht is a full 44 feet so don't go expecting to maneuver a slalom course.

It is official that Chevy did everything right with the 1965 Impala as it remains their record year of over 1,000,000 cars sold. Parts are so plentiful that you can build a car with just a frame, cabin shell, and a catalog. If you're yearning for a classic daily driver you could do a lot worse than one of these beasts. Finding one that hasn't been turned into a lowrider is a legit challenge as the Impala lineup has been the darling of that community for decades. Seeing one this clean in Brooklyn was a treat.

By 1985 the Earth had cooled but there were still a few dinaosaurs roaming

BATTLE WAGON WITH MULTIPLE PASSPORTS
I was walking along the borders of gentrification amidst modern glass buildings and old row houses when I stumbled upon this hardy workhorse:

This beast is staring us all down! What we have here is a 1985 Pontiac Parisienne Safari station wagon in White. This is also also a Chevrolet station wagon with a different grill, wheels, and taillights.

The Parisienne was the designation for the top-of-the-line Pontiacs from Canada. Indeed the Parisienne was a version of the Laurentian which, along with the Acadian, produced some vehicles that are both familiar and odd to us in the States. For instance the '60s Acadian from Canada looks just like a Nova but with a different split grill. Only this, the last generation of Parisienne, made it to the States.

This harkens back to a bygone era. The front mounted carbureted V8 engine, rear wheel drive, body on frame technology that makes up this ride shared a dealership floor with more modern front wheel drive, fuel injected, computer controlled modern cars. It seems that American automakers made leaps and bounds in modernization except for one category; the traditional big family wagon.

This is a very big ride. That curved belly hanging under the car between the rear wheel and the back is where the full size spare tire was kept. With the seats folded flat a 4x8 sheet of plywood fits in the back! The fact that someone would need a luggage rack with a car this huge is crazy.

Here we have your classic '80s B.S. faux spoke hubcaps.

Here are the Pontiac-only taillights that separates this model from the Chevy Caprice Classic. To be fair the interior is different between the two brands but not by too much. Tiny shout-out to the body colored insert on the tailgate handle. It's the little things people! Also dig that factory rubber grip on the bumper to keep you steady while you load up the luggage rack with spare gas cans.

The market segment was split between the relatively new minivan and the station wagons. Minivans would win the day but these unapologetically massive wagons were still popular in '85.

To highlight the lack of modernization that went into wagons I'll point out that this body is exactly the same as the 1977 example.

Signs of confusion. This car is from Paris? Canada? Is roaming African somewhere?

The chrome rocker panels. fender trim, and heavy dark window tint are aftermarket customizations. The tint makes sense as you can stash tons of tools or band gear in this thing.

We'll admire the stand-up hood ornament on this period piece before leaving it to roost. After 1986 this full size wagon continued on known simply as Safari before bowing out completely in 1989. For a couple years after the Safari name was added to the much smaller and more modern Pontiac 6000 wagon.
There was to be one last blast for full size V8 rear wheel drive cars from GM between 1991-'96 in the Buick Roadmaster. It was quite the curtain call as the public knew this was it for those traditional dinosaurs and they sold briskly as a result.
Chapeaux à vous safari!