My mom had a Buick Estate Wagon when I was a kid. Back then, cars fell in or out of my favor based on styling, so I was oblivious to the fact that Buick was often seen as an upper middle-class brand on par with Chrysler and Mercury. Was Buick staid? I dunno—I’ve often read about postwar Buicks being “banker’s hot rods,” able to impressively chug along the interstate at high speeds that few cars could match.
So why was it that Buick couldn’t hold its own in the muscle car market in the 1960s? Sure, there are stories about Reynolds Buick in West Covina, California, (and others) killing it all over SoCal dragstrips, but Buick Gran Sports cost a little more than popular GTOs, SS 396s, and Fairlane GTs. Glance at period brochures and there’s a big difference between the fun, performance image of Pontiac and the reserved “tuned car” promotion of the Gran Sport series (which included the Skylark, Riviera, and Wildcat Gran Sports in 1966, the only year there were GSs on three platforms).
Additionally, Buick didn’t do much in the way of optional engines, unlike its counterparts at GM: for the early years, there only was a 401/325, with 1966 being the only year of offering the very rare, mid-year “A9” 340-horse 401 with the new Rochester four-barrel and a bigger cam, plus a skunkworks “L76” 401 with 11.0:1 pistons that continues to confound Buick fans today. The latter two were only available with the two-speed automatic, believe it or not.
When Buick introduced the new 400/340 for 1967, there were no optional engines, but the parts counter offered the Stage 1 package for 1968, officially becoming a factory offering the following year.
The planets aligned for 1970 when Buick upped the 400 to 455ci, creating a perfect combination of horsepower, torque, and rpms straight out of the showroom. “Buicks were heavy, loaded with power everything. Fast for the street. That was our goal,” Buick chief engineer Dennis Manner has said. “Buicks were heavy, loaded with power everything. That’s how people bought ’em. Low-end torque was key because that’s how people perceive performance.” As such, Buick’s 455 Stage 1 was designed for easy performance without modifications, with peak torque arriving at a super-low 2800. Compare that with the 3600 rpm for the 1970 Olds W30, or even certain engines like the Boss 429, which was engineered to be modified for maximum performance.
Nineteen seventy was the year Buick went all-out on its “Light Your Fire” ad campaign, admittedly, a little late considering The Doors introduced the song three years before. While Buick didn’t offer a youth-oriented campaign like Dr. Oldsmobile or Dodge’s Scat Pack, at least this sales training video from The Steele Garage channel on YouTube properly frames the GS and GS 455 as “The Sportsman’s Buick.”