Posted by Lou Burch, who said “parked outside BIG Brewing, Norman, OK. This is how I like them: mean, gnarly, and with four portholes.
Cohort Pic(k) of the Day: 1955 Buick Buick Century Riviera Hardtop Coupe – Don’t Mess With Me
– Posted on August 12, 2022
Cuba comes to Oklahoma! This car could be the star of a dystopian thriller on screen.
I love it except for the seats lifted right out of a Crown Vic and those horrendous LED Halo headlights.
Buick’s “bankers hot rod” was certainly a desirable car back in 1955. Just put the Dynaflow selector in D, floor the accelerator and listen to the big Nailhead spool up. Great idea putting the big Roadmaster engine in the junior body.
1955 was a huge year for Buick with 738,000 sold, vaulting past Plymouth for third place in the industry. However, quality control suffered in its quest for these high numbers that soured the public on Buick a few years later.
SWEET
Exterior perfect, interior – WHAT? – you settled for that instead of springing for period quality? Talk about dropping the ball on such a sweet ride.
Wow, this Buick was made in the year 195?
“Wow, this Buick was made in the year 195?”
Yes, everyone gives so much credit to the advancements brought under the Roman Empire, but the North American continent was clearly far more advanced than any other place in the world during that period. It would appear, though, that the dark ages that followed were even darker here than they were in Europe, and American civilization completely lost the ability to build large V8 powered cars (or any cars at all) by the year 300.
Back in the Day it was common to replace chewed up old original seats with a better set from the wreckers. Back when cars like this Buick were disposable beaters, nobody cared. Today it is much cheaper to do the same than to rebuild the original seats, even though there are lots of sources available for original type materials. The car loses a lot of it’s personality and character when that is done.
A mate of mine had one of these ex US embassy black paint and very tidy still LHD he spr5uced it up and sold it as usual.
A nice car but looks crappy .
-Nate
I’d be scared if that thing pulled up behind, and started tailgating me.
Hey Paul? We still need to connect sometime soon. I scored on yet another one of my uncle Johnny “JB” Bartlett’s Buicks, this one a ’55 Century 4dr sedan (post), with a 3 speed manual transmission! A hot rod buddy of mine found it recently, and I’ve even picked up a refurbished tranny and rebuilt 264 Nailhead (stock for a ’55 Century would have been a 322). This old boy ain’t pretty but I’m going to get him back on the road.
Dave Bartlett
Awesome! Need to write that up for CC when it’s up and running.