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Car Of The Day: November 4, 2010; GreenLight '69 Buick GS 350
Topic Started: Nov 4 2010, 12:57 AM (641 Views)
Swifty
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The Mustang II is a Mustang too!
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Today's car of the day is GreenLight's 1969 Buick GS 350.

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Wikipedia
 
The Buick Gran Sport or GS was a high-performance option package available on a number of Buick models, including the Riviera, Skylark, Century and Wildcat. A special version of one model was given the package's name as its model name.


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For more information and pictures of the real car please visit: Buick GS350

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A great realistic looking casting of what is a rather ungainly looking car. All those polls that name the AMC Pacer as the ugliest car of all time have apparently never laid eyes on one of these. This is one of those cars that looks like it was designed by a committee- in this case, I strongly doubt the person responsible for desigining the sides of the car was on speaking terms with the people responsible for the front and rear fascias. Just to clarify- I'm not knocking the GreenLight casting- they made an awesome replica. I am, however, knocking the real car. Absolutely hideous in my opinion.

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Wikipedia
 
The 1965 Skylark Gran Sport was the intermediate Buick Skylark with the Gran Sport option added. Although a 300 cu in (4,916 cc) V8 was already offered in the Skylark, the Gran Sport had the largest engine permitted by GM - a 400 cu in (6,555 cc) Buick V8. This engine was actually 401 cu in (6,570 cc), but called a "400" by Buick because that was the maximum engine size limit set by General Motors for the intermediate body cars. This engine produced 325 hp (242 kW) and 445 ft·lbf (603 Nm) and was known as the "nailhead" engine. Buick sold more than 15,000 Skylarks with the Gran Sport option that first year, and almost as many the next. It was renamed the GS 400 in 1967, and the Gran Sport became its own model in (about) that same year along with a new "400" engine quite different from the notoriously reliable but growingly obsolete nailhead engine design that was first introduced in 1953. Sales fell somewhat in the face of increasingly higher-performance and more popular muscle cars from other marques when compared to those from the more stodgy and expensive Buick. Buick, however stepped it up a notch when introducing the Stage 1 option in 1969. This limited production (less than 1,500 cars in 1969) version delivered 340 hp (253 kW) and 440 ft·lbf (597 Nm).

The name Gran Sport replaced the GS moniker with the 1973 Gran Sport, and was again revived in the late eighties on the FWD Skylark model with various performance options added.


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Among other variations, GreenLight has also released this car in GS 400 and GS California versions.

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Sak
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Ezekiel 25:17
Designwise, the '68-69 Buick intermediates were a bust, really. The 'Sweepspear' styling- a motif as Buick as the portholes, should never have been applied to it, or anything with less than a 120 inch wheelbase. The styling was cleaned up for 1970, much to its credit.

I think the intermediates of 1968-72 all across the GM line suffered, stylewise, in comparison to the '66-67 generation. They got big, and ungainly, and suffered in handling compared to anything wearing a Johnson outboard.

Of course, it went downhill even further with the '73-77 bunch. The Cutlass 4-doors were as ugly as anything that ever came out of an American design studio.
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juantoo3
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm inclined to agree with you Sak, at least about Buick muscle. It seemed a contradiction in terms...Buick was an upscale luxury marque with models like the Riviera...to have a stable mate that was, excuse the term, common like a muscle car was just so...oxymoronic? Certainly it confused the marque and what it was about, blurring the boundaries.

I love Buicks...some of my favorites are old 30's and 50's Buicks...but they were supposed to be big luxo-barges, that was their niche. Having a Buick badge on raw muscle just isn't right. Now, the Chevy, Olds and Pontiac cousins I do like appearance wise, but I haven't spent any time around them to say. Closest I came was a 68 Pontiac Catalina moredoor with a 400 small block...good solid decent all around transportation...but I didn't try to hotrod it either.

Do gotta add though, in typical GL fashion they did a great job recreating this car...and cannot be held to account for GM's bureaucratic hiccups.
Edited by juantoo3, Nov 4 2010, 06:08 PM.
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Sak
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Ezekiel 25:17
I'm a vintage Buick fan, too. There was a whole lotta class-without a whole lot of useless ostentation. I think they really started losing their way in the late '50s...
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bangerkid45
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Ultimate American Banger Enthusiast!
I have almost every GL variation on this car, it's my fave of their line, as I was telling Swifty about it at my house, he couldent think why I would like such an "ugly" car, yet, to this date, it is one of my favorite GL castings! It's a great looking car in my honest opinion!
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juantoo3
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ooops, wrong button

:duh:
Edited by juantoo3, Nov 4 2010, 06:09 PM.
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craftymore
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Support your local demo derby.

Agree with Jon to some degree, it's a pretty realistic model from GL. Agree with nearly everyone else in saying it's an ugly car. The massive amount of sheet metal above the rear wheels is astounding. Alot of things don't jive on the 1/1. To some degree they changed the body on the '70 salvaging to a small part the Buick name. George does bring up a good point on the '67 intermediate models from GM looking very good. The Chevelle and GS were well proportioned cars with great paint choices available.
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accobra64
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Minivan
At General Motors in 1969; three divisions being Chevrolet, Pontiac, and Oldsmobile got it right.
And the Buick division got it all wrong.
I'm a huge fan of cars of this era.
I have seen models from all four divisions up close and personal on many occasions.
I have never liked the appearance of the Buick and never will.

I might add that Greenlight did a wonderful job on their casting of the Buick.
But remember; "you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear".
I guess that Buick division never got this message or was it a case of too much illicit pharmaceuticals.
Thanks Swifty for doing this feature.
It's always interesting to read the facts pertaining to a particular vehicle.

Cheers. Cobra

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impala765
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Compact
Now that is nice, a friend of mind in Quebec city has the real thing only his is a darker brown with the black roof.
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Sak
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Ezekiel 25:17
It was around this time, also, that GM started cross-pollenating their parts network a lot more than it was in the past. The purpose was to A- save money, and B- make it more difficult for the government to break up General Motors if they ever sought to follow through on the threat. And, so, you had Olds and Pontiac sharing engines, etc.

I thought that it would've been a good idea for Buick to bow out of using the intermediate bodies altogether. It wasn't necessary- and they were going into Olds territory, even if it wasn't hurting Olds at the time. You wouldn't have had styling debacles such as this one.

Greenlight did a great job on this one. I'm glad they rolled the quarter windows down, when it was raised, it posed at an angle a little bit too vertical. Didn't look right.
Edited by Sak, Nov 5 2010, 08:58 AM.
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james_autos
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Minivan
It may be a bit ugly but I'd still like to add one to my collection.
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ivantt
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New casting? Quick! Take it apart!
A lot of interesting and varying comments here. :thumbup:
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juantoo3
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sak
Nov 4 2010, 04:06 PM
I'm a vintage Buick fan, too. There was a whole lotta class-without a whole lot of useless ostentation. I think they really started losing their way in the late '50s...
Had to chortle when I thought of the '58 Buick...that one was nothing but useless ostentation. Whereas the '57 Super two-door Riviera was the epitome of luxury with an attitude. What a difference a model year makes!
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James
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Mr.Bowtie
58 anything was ostentacious!
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Swifty
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The Mustang II is a Mustang too!
juantoo3
Nov 7 2010, 11:47 AM
Sak
Nov 4 2010, 04:06 PM
I'm a vintage Buick fan, too. There was a whole lotta class-without a whole lot of useless ostentation. I think they really started losing their way in the late '50s...
Had to chortle when I thought of the '58 Buick...that one was nothing but useless ostentation. Whereas the '57 Super two-door Riviera was the epitome of luxury with an attitude. What a difference a model year makes!
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'57 Buick Cabarello and this is up for grabs in the board's avatar gallery if anyone's interested. Just click 'Preferences' 'Change Avatar' and finally 'Emoti-Cars' and you'll find it. :thumbup:
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STUTZ
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Diecast junkie
I had the first year Buick Gran Sport (1965). I wish Greenlight made a 1965 Buick Skylark Gran Sport, or a 1965 Oldsmobile 442. The 1965 Buick Skylark Gran Sport couldn't compare with the '65 GTO, '65 Olds 442, or even the '65 Chevelle SS 396 or SS 327/350 HP, but it had decent HP and a lot of torque, and it looked better than the '68 Buick GS IMHO.

The '68 Buick GS was an ugly car compared to a '68 GTO, '68 Olds 442, or the '68 Chevelle SS 396.

Spring 1966 (bought spring 1965).


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Aside from my complains, Greenlight did a nice job on this casting.
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