Buick had been trying to make a name for itself in the big-engine Supercar league since 1965, and even with the end fast approaching, the division’s restyled Century intermediates continued to offer some of the hottest big-block engines you could buy in the early ’70s. Yet, the final Century Gran Sport 455 cars have remained undeservedly obscure and tantalizingly rare, built in tiny numbers in the waning days of the muscle car era. This Medium Blue 1973 example is one of only 365 1973–1977 Colonnade Buicks (and just 92 455 Stage 1 cars) built with the rare 4-speed manual transmission.
Between 1973 and 1977, Buick built 1,305,813 “Colonnade” A-body Century/Regal intermediates. While a few base Century models still had the standard all-synchro 3-speed stick shift through the end of the run in 1977, the 4-speed manual transmission was available only in 1973, offered only on the Gran Sport, and installed on just 365 cars. Of those, just 92 were ordered behind the 270 hp 455 Stage 1 engine. (If you want to get REALLY obscure, a mere nine of those 4-speed Stage 1 cars were Sun Coupes with the optional factory sunroof.)
The Century Gran Sport itself was not too common. Buick built only 6,637 of them in 1973, of which 4,930 had one of the 350-cid V-8s, 979 had the milder 250 hp 455, and 728 had the 270 hp Stage 1 engine. If you were wondering why you hardly ever see any of these cars around, that’s why! Unless you’re a hardcore Buick fan or well-versed in muscle car lore, you might not even know that Buick was still offering a 455 A-body Gran Sport this late.
Such obscurity has seemed to be Buick’s lot in this sphere. It’s not like they hadn’t tried — the earliest 1965 Skylark Gran Sport had come up a bit short, but by 1970, the GS 455 Stage 1 and GSX were genuinely formidable performers. However, for the street racer set and the buff books, the Buick brand still said “Mom’s LeSabre” rather than “NHRA C/Stock.”
In 1972, Motor Trend editor A.B. Shuman, sampling the red 1972 GS Stage 1 seen in the above video — which Shuman knew had recently dominated the NHRA C/Stock Automatic Stock Eliminator category — couldn’t help snorting derisively that it seemed like a “woman’s car.” Motor Trend didn’t bother to include the GS in its “Sayonara Supercar” comparison in the same issue (June 1972).
It’s a testament to Buick’s perseverance that the A9 455 and A1 Stage 1 Gran Sport options were available on the 1973 A-body at all. Combined total production of the 1972 GS 350 and GS 455 had been a meager 8,575 cars, down from 1971’s already discouraging 9,170 total.
For Buick, the more important part of the 1973 Colonnade intermediate line was the new Century Regal, Buick’s answer to the Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. No one would have blamed Buick — or perhaps even noticed — if the Gran Sport name had gone back on the shelf after 1972.
Like a lot of late muscle cars, the Gran Sport package was no longer tried to any specific powertrain, although that had been true of the outgoing version as well. Exterior identification was subdued to the point where you might not notice it unless you were looking for it; Buick hadn’t had a lot of luck with the gaudier GSX package on the previous generation.
In addition to its blackout grille, the basic $173 Gran Sport package included a firmer “special handling suspension,” accent stripes, chrome wheel arch and drip rail moldings, and various badges and decals.
The ubiquitous chrome-plated styled wheels were a separate $92 option, although they were well worth it just for the look.
For $230 more than the basic Gran Sport package ($403 total), you could add the 455-4V engine with dual exhausts. This had 250 hp and 375 lb-ft of torque, 25 hp and 15 lb-ft more than the single-exhaust 455, which you could order on any Century or Regal. The Gran Sport version also included power brakes — front discs were now standard on Buick intermediates, an overdue change, but Buick still charged extra for power assist, which was highly desirable unless you had legs like the Incredible Hulk.
For an extra $133, you could step up to the 455 Stage 1 engine, which had 270 hp and 375 lb-ft of torque, on low-lead regular gasoline. By my count, this made it the fourth most powerful 1973 production engine, just behind the LS4 Turbo-Jet 454 in the Corvette (275 hp), the dual-exhaust 440 offered on the Dodge Charger and Plymouth Satellite (280 hp), and the SD-455 engine offered in the Pontiac Firebird (290 hp). Ordering the Stage 1 engine also got you a Positraction axle, which was optional but otherwise very rare on these cars.
With the Stage 1 engine, the Gran Sport package listed for a total of $536, which was not unreasonable considering what came with it. A 1973 Century two-door Colonnade coupe — Buick still called it a hardtop, but who was kidding whom? — now listed for $3,013.45, raised during the model year to $3,057.45. So, you could order a basic Stage 1 car with a 4-speed or (more likely) Turbo Hydra-Matic, power steering, and an AM radio and still stay on the right side of $4,000. That would have almost qualified as a bargain if not for the brutal hosing your insurance company would administer as soon as you tried to insure it.
The original purchaser of the blue Gran Sport pictured here went for the YOLO approach, ordering what looks like every available non-conflicting option, from air conditioning and a vinyl top (which were both quite common on the Century) to power windows, locks, decklid release, and driver’s seat (which were not very common on A-body Buicks). Neither of the Mecum listing includes a copy of the original invoice, but based on the window stickers of other similarly equipped Stage 1 cars, the heavy load of options suggest an original list price of around $5,700.
If you wanted bucket seats with your Gran Sport, you had to order the $124 Custom trim package, which included your choice of bucket seats or a notchback bench with folding center armrest in “Oxen-grain and Madrid-grain” expanded vinyl. (The bench was far more common than buckets in the rest of the Century/Regal line.) With the buckets, a center console cost you an extra $59.
As I said at the outset, the 4-speed manual transmission was available with the Gran Sport package, but extremely rare. At $190, it was actually $46 cheaper than Turbo Hydra-Matic with the 455 engine, but Buick buyers clearly didn’t find it much more desirable than the standard 3-speed manual, which went into only about 707 Buick A-bodies in 1973. Buick got the message: None of the division’s 1974 models would offer a 4-speed, although a 4-speed stick was offered on the later H-body Skyhawk.
When this car was new, actual road tests were being crowded out of the buff books by rage-bait features complaining about emissions control, safety regulations, and unleaded gasoline, plus tips on how to “supertune” your engine to beat the smog rules. Thus, the only instrumented road test I found of a 1973 Gran Sport Stage 1 was part of a “Flat-Out American Classic” test Motor Trend ran at the Ontario Motor Speedway in April 1973, where the Buick, still described as a “dark horse,” received only a scant few sentences of commentary from editor Jim Brokaw.
The test car was a Gran Sport 455 Stage 1 with Turbo Hydra-Matic, 3.42 axle, and the same GR70-15 radials as the blue Century pictured here. Motor Trend didn’t bother to weigh their car, but its curb weight was probably around 4,150 lb, around 300 lb more than a comparable 1972 model. Nonetheless, the Gran Sport acquitted itself well on the drag strip, matching the 440 Charger’s 0 to 60 time of 7.4 seconds.
The Buick ran the quarter mile in 15.3 seconds, just a tenth of a second behind the Charger and 0.3 seconds behind the SD-455 Trans Am, although the Century’s 90 mph trap speed was significantly slower, and it ran out of breath at 115.97 mph on the long straights. Brokaw noted that the Stage 1 engine “wheezes a bit in the upper reaches” despite strong mid-range power. A 4-speed car with the same tires and gears might have been a little quicker, but probably not by much.
Handling was not so impressive, despite the fat radial tires and the Gran Sport suspension’s front and rear anti-roll bars. “Understeer kept the nose pointed at the wall,” Brokaw grumbled, noting that there was also some carburetor starvation in turns. However, Brokaw reassured the Buick advertising department (this was Motor Trend, after all) that despite the threatening understeer, the Gran Sport “always came around at the correct point,” and the disc/drum brakes held up their end.
If you were expecting it to run with the heaviest hitters of 1970, a 1973 Century Gran Sport Stage 1 was inevitably a letdown, but for 1973, it was still highly competitive. For that matter, its straight-line performance still compared well to a mid-’60s Skylark Gran Sport or base-engine GTO, and it handled and stopped much better.
Except maybe for the fussy frenched marker lights inboard of the headlights, the Century Colonnade coupe was cleanly styled, and while it was now ridiculously heavy for what was supposed to be a midsize car, it was comfortable and luxurious. As long as you didn’t get carried away with the options list, a ’73 Gran Sport 455 Stage 1 wasn’t even that expensive — it was really the insurance companies that came in swinging the steel chair.
However, minuscule Gran Sport sales make clear that the market had moved on. The shape of things to come was this Regal coupe, which has the 350-4V engine, Turbo Hydra-Matic, air conditioning, notchback bench seat, AM radio, and wind-up windows. Buick sold 91,557 Regals in 1973, many of them probably equipped very much like the one pictured above.
The Gran Sport returned for 1974, but it was now automatic only. Sales totaled a meager 3,355 cars, and the oil embargo soon squelched what demand remained for the 455. 1974 Gran Sport 455 production totaled 579 cars, Stage 1 production just 478. The Gran Sport option was still available with the 350 for 1975, but the 455 was gone, and sales totaled only 1,288 units.
Buick tried again later, adding its turbocharged V-6 to the Century and Regal, and a 4-speed manual transmission was available on the Buick intermediate line in 1978 and 1979. However, you couldn’t combine the two: The 4-speed wasn’t available with the turbo engines, or in California. The 4-speed again sold in tiny numbers (just 833 cars in 1978 and 386 in 1979), and was dropped for 1980; Buick’s turbocharged ’80s muscle cars, the Regal Grand National and GNX, would be automatic-only. So, in that respect, this rare 4-speed Century Gran Sport — which sold for $50,000 back in 2017 and $46,200 a year later — really was the last of its kind.
Related Reading
Curbside Classic: 1973 Buick Century Regal – The Confident Colonnade? (by Perry Shoar)
Curbside Classic: 1974 Buick Century Luxus Colonnade Coupe – It’s Impolite To Stare (by Joseph Dennis)
Curbside Find: 1974 Buick Century – Colonnade Still Standing (by Jon Stephenson)
Curbside Classic: 1976 Buick Regal Coupe In Flint, Michigan – Back To My Roots (by Joseph Dennis)
Curbside Classic: 1977 Buick Regal Landau – Cape Cod Colonnade (by Brendan Saur)
Funny on how the emphasis is on the 4 speed manual whereas in the early seventies, in Europe the 4 speed was the boring standard. An automatic was rare but could be found on upper class cars.
The 5 speed was the thing to have!
American engines had enough torque that most did fine with only a three speed. Five speeds became popular in the USA when people began buying 88 horsepower Toyota Corollas due to the gas crisis. For anything larger than a four cylinder, Americans preferred an automatic. The manual is nearly dead in the USA, which is why so many enthusiast sites are interested in them. Few things attract more interest than those that are out of reach.
I consider the 1973 Buick Gran Sport to be the best looking of all the Colonnade coupes. But if I had been buying a GM muscle car in 1973, I would have purchased a lighter, less expensive Chevrolet or Pontiac.
My thoughts exactly. 3 speed did fine on these, and why spend the money when you can get basically the same thing for less.
Aside from the PLC Pontiac and Chevrolet versions, the round-headlight Century is my favorite colonnade.
I’m a bit intrigued as to the base 3-speed car, though. I wonder if it was column-mounted only or if possible to get it as a floor shift. Either way, I would imagine it’s just as rare as the 4-speed Gran Sport.
Kind of reminds me of the base 1973-74 Road Runner that had a 318-2v (but dual exhaust) and a floor-shift 3-speed (which I think could be upgraded to the 4-speed).
FWIW, a two-speed manual would have worked quite adequately with this engine for normal driving. Seriously.
The Buick 455 was at least 150 lbs lighter than a Chevy 454 and a good 35 lbs lighter than a Pontiac 455.
Given the powertrain weight advantage conferred by the Buick 455, any difference in the cars would have been due to non-powertrain equipment.
Pricing is something else. Buick still fancied themselves as being upscale from Chevy and Pontiac. Even so, the traditional GM pricing brackets were well on their way to breaking down by the time of the 455. Not sure how much of a difference would actually exist in identically equipped cars.
IIRC, 5-speeds were not at all yet common or available on mainstream European cars in 1973. That came after the energy crisis. The VW Golf didn’t offer an optional 5-speed until the 1980 model year.
I think 5 speeds were almost exclusively an Italian thing until the early 80’s, not just Ferraris and their ilk but also Alfa and later Fiat. The first US market Corolla with a 5 speed was 1972, and the GM H-Bodies (Monza etc) got a 5 speed several years before even the Scirocco, let alone the Golf. Even on the 911 the 5 speed was an option (4 speed standard) for several years.
Oldsmobile offered a 5-speed Cutlass with the 260 V8 in 1977 (last year of Colonnade body), 1,562 built according to this CC article:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/auction-classic/1977-oldsmobile-cutlass-supreme-5-speed-rare-stick-shift-colonnade-coupe/
I forgot about that, but now that you mention it I recall the article and how unlikely it seemed to have a 5-speed available in that car.
By the early ’70s, very, very few American six- or eight-cylinder cars had manual transmissions of any kind. The installation rate for automatic on U.S. domestic models for 1973 was around 95 percent. A lot of cars still nominally had a 3-speed manual, but the main reason was so that carmakers could advertise the lowest possible base price, so the standard transmission was as cheap as possible to keep the price down. Any transmission a buyer other than the meanest cheapskate might actually WANT (including the heavy-duty floor-shifted 3-speed you could get on some of these Colonnade intermediates) usually cost extra.
Trying to turn the bloated Colonnade into a muscle car is comical.
Oh please. You’ve obviously never driven one.
The term “muscle car” is about the most vague automotive term anyway.
The dealer’s still in business. Chicago ‘burbs, this must’ve been a summer-only car from new;
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Marquardt+of+Barrington/@42.0571044,-88.0703271,34614m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m14!1m7!3m6!1s0x880fa72f5fb3fd39:0x9b0706de10e386f5!2sMarquardt+of+Barrington!8m2!3d42.1324579!4d-88.1353013!16s%2Fg%2F11rvfyz6pq!3m5!1s0x880fa72f5fb3fd39:0x9b0706de10e386f5!8m2!3d42.1324579!4d-88.1353013!16s%2Fg%2F11rvfyz6pq!5m1!1e1?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDMzMS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
The older I get the more I appreciate the styling on Buick’s version of the colonnade. Really, GM’s four Divisions did an amazing job of giving each brand a distinct flavor from its styling. The 1973 edition of the Buick is almost perfect, marred (in my view) only by the awkward cut lines for the hood on the front fascia. And a darker color would hide that.
I had forgotten (if I ever knew) that you could still get a Stage 1 455 and a 4 speed in a 73 Century. Between its looks and its powertrain, this might be my favorite 1973 Colonnade of all time.
I agree – It is really a handsome machine, the ’73. Flipping back and forth between pictures of the ’72 and the ’73, and from a purely aesthetic perspective, it’s closer to a push for me than it’s ever been.
I have the ’74, and the ’77 Buick brochures in my collection. The ’74 edition has HP ratings, more engine choices. All gone by ’77.
I’m generally not a Colonnade fan, but that GS is sharp. Tuck the bumpers and we’ve got a deal.
Enjoy this vintage road test of the Buick Century GS from Bud Lindemann’s Car & Track. 😉
Neat, thanks for posting!
I was just thinking, “This car is 100% a leisure-suit-era Bud Lindemann special.”
I don’t have a problem so much with the “frenched” marker lights up front, as the fact that the entire width of the hood doesn’t stop at the horizontal crease above the grill, and instead leaves that weak little body-color panel around the marker light. It looks unresolved at best.
On the other hand, this generation of the Century had arguably the nicest interpretation of the Buick “sweepspear” in a long time. Here they seem integral to the design, rather than applied — and substantive.
“Unresolved” does sum it up, yeah. I think the Century actually has the nicest side profile of the two-door Colonnades, but it’s like they had only finished sketching in the nose when they ran out of time.
What gets me about these is how back then you had so many choices as to how to equip your car – buckets or bench, manual or power seat, console or not, different upholsteries and colors, etc., unlike today where you may have three or four prepackaged equipment groups and a handful of mostly greyscale paint colors as your only choice. I mean, only about 0.8% of buyers of these prefer a stick shift yet there are two manual transmissions on offer. And yet, GM was firm about certain things, like no Stage 1 engine or 4-speed in a sedan, much less a wagon. Have to get the Gran Sport package to get those items too.
I find the front clip on these remarkably dull and generic; there’s nothing that says “Buick” about it. It could just as easily be a Plymouth.
Did drivers of cars with more powerful engines really get into collisions more often or more severe enough to warrant such a higher insurance rate? I checked before buying what it would cost to insure a VW Golf with a small 1.4T engine vs. a Golf GTI, as well as a Golf Alltrack, and was surprisd there wasn’t much difference.
Insurance premiums are based on risk. The chance of a 455 powered anything getting into a crash is simply higher than a car equipped with a 350. Said 455 was most likely bought by a youngish male driver and young drivers get into more accidents.
Insurance premiums were a major factor in the demise of the muscle car, but baby boomers were kind of moving past it by 1973.
Statistically, yes, and insurance companies were also nervous about cars like this because they were frequently stolen (and stolen cars carry a whole set of additional liability risks), and because if they were involved in collisions, they tended to be expensive to fix. The surcharges of this period were largely prompted by the insurance industry looking at aggregate 1965–1969 claims data and yelling, “Danger! Danger, Will Robinson!”
While opinons on styling are objective, there is no denying that the 73-74 Stage 1 Century’s are some of the most solid performing cars of the era. There are probably 5-6 Centuries actively raced in stock and stock appearing drag racing, which would be more than all the 73-74 Chevelle’s, Corvette’s 442’s and GTO’s (and Sport LeMans, Grand Am’s etc. ) combined. Certainly more than the 73/74 440 Chargers, GTX/Road Runners or any Ford/AMC products. The only 73/74 performance car that comes close (or possibly outnumbers) the Century is the 455SD Trans Am and Formulas. Given that these racers (me included) could drive anything they chose, the fact that they are still so prevelent speaks volumes. As for me, my Century is still a 8.5:1 car with stock gearing, and has run a best of 13.6 at close to 4300 lbs. Performance was nowhere near dead in 73 if you knew where to look. As an aside, if I had to choose one of the competitors I’d look close at a manual transmission 442, they deserve a seat at the Supercar table.
Fantastic looking GS! You, sir, are living your best life.
I’m assuming that class must use the stock cast iron exhaust manifolds?
It’s a toss-up as to the best-looking colonnade in 1973. I’d give the slight edge to the Gran Sport Coupe over the Pontiac GTO.
Aaron, you’ve been on a tear lately with the 4-speed Colonnade cars. Now I’m going to be a little less shocked when you post a Colonnade GMC Sprint with a 4-speed.
Great car, sadly rare, though the percentage of modern car collectors interested in these may be similar to the percentage of supercar buyers who originally bought them. That is to say, small!
I agree with others that Buick’s interpretation of the Colonnade was good, though honestly I’d be hard pressed to pick a favorite between any of the B-O-Ps in optimum spec and condition. I like the way the rear quarter window slope matches the sweepspear.
I assumed this was another of the miraculous survivors that Aaron usually digs up, but the listing says it is restored. If that was a money-making endeavor, these late era muscle cars have really come of age.
The world wasn’t very interested in a Buick performance car in the 70s, but I’m happy that the idea was redeemed in the 80s for a few years at least when the Grand National had a good run and retains a strong cult following.
Late to comment so I’ll be echoing a lot of comments but the Collonade fastback styling really specifically favored these, there’s not a bad angle, which makes the rather ho-hum front end treatment all the more perplexing, but nevertheless I still prefer it to the other GM alternatives.
“Muscle car” Collonades(and really all these transitional models from the big three…and AMC from the same time) are interesting, Pontiac was throwing a huge net to capture every straggler of musclecardom with the Lemans GT, GTO and Grand Am at varying price points where Buick was still just trying to make it into that market even with it collapsing. A shame as the Buick 455 really seemed to be a potent player to the end.
I love this featured car, even the vinyl top for a change. The color combo and road wheels are perfection and the manual transmission in such a heavy luxurious beast appeals to me in exactly the same way my converted one does in my Cougar. I’ve long pondered whether the styling directions would have gone this way even if muscle car era powerplants weren’t effectively rendered obsolete by insurance premiums and emissions, and cars like this are a glimpse into that scenario
I have one of these! Not a big block or stage 1 car but one of the many GS 350 cars. I see few colonnades at car shows, usually Monte’s but I’m always the only colonnade Buick. As a kid (well now i’m in college so that wasn’t soooo far away I guess lol). I really wanted a 400 4 speed 73 GTO but couldn’t find any around, so i looked at other colonnades and found my sweet GS!