Buick once more cataloged several fascinating wares for 1940, however some have been in their final season. No-cost bucket seats, non-compulsory vinyl roof, and a 185-bhp V-8 helped promote more than 12,000 in that brief debut season. Golden Anniversary 1953 brought first-time availability of energy steering and a 12-volt electrical system, diamond painting but the spotlight was a fine new overhead-valve V-8 for Tremendous and Roadmaster. And horsepower was higher still: 250 for Special, finger board a fair 300 elsewhere, wooden jigsaw puzzle thanks to a bore/stroke job taking V-eight displacement to 364 cubes.
But thanks to its ‘forty two redesign, Buick resumed civilian production in high quality fettle. All models wore inverted-U grilles with wonderful vertical bars set below oval nacelles cradling headlamps and parking lamps. Mechanically, the bigger eight returned unchanged, but a longer stroke boosted Special’s engine to 248 cid, horsepower to a good 100. Factory figures prompt a ’37 Special might scale 10-60 mph in 19.2 seconds — fantastic performance for the category and solely a second behind the recent Century.
The large information for 1932 was «Silent Second SynchroMesh» transmission, plus more horsepower for all engines. Engines had been the identical four-cylinder fare used by sister Js: Chevy-constructed overhead-valve 2.0-liter (abandoned after ’87) and a Brazilian-built overhead-cam unit. It was, after all, the work of Harley J. Earl, founder and head of GM’s Diamond Painting Art (Get More Information) & Colour Section, the first formal styling division at a significant automaker.
With the primary emphasis on styling, Diamond Art the ’49 Buicks modified little mechanically, though Dynaflow-equipped Supers obtained higher, 6.9:1 compression that improved horsepower to 120. Roadmaster had been equally raised to a hundred and Diamond Painting fifty in 1948, and continued that means with Dynaflow normal. Besides good efficiency and sleek attractiveness, Century was attractively priced: as little as $1035 for the sport coupe and $1135 for the rakish convertible.
The natty Century convertible sport phaeton offered for simply $1713, the sport coupe for $1175. The 50 provided simply four-door sedan and 4-place sport coupe; 40 and Diamond Art 60 listed a full vary of fashions, some quite scarce (solely 836 seven-seat Series 60 limousines, as an example). The tuned automobile.