1963 Buick Wildcat: Only 30 ’63 Wildcats Had 4-Speeds — Here Are Two Of Them

The B-body Buick Wildcat was supposed to be the sportiest full-size Buick, but it was thoroughly overshadowed by the glamorous new Riviera. However, the Wildcat offered one feature even the Riviera didn’t: the very rare 4-speed manual transmission. The convertible and four-door hardtop pictured above are two of only 30 Wildcats built with that option in 1963.

Buick introduced the Wildcat midway through the 1962 model year. Technically part of the Invicta series, it was initially available only as a two-door hardtop, but for the 1963 model year, Buick also added a Wildcat convertible and a four-door hardtop. With a racy name and features like bucket seats with a full-length floor console, the Wildcat was supposed to add some excitement to the Buick line.

Then, Buick launched the Riviera, which swiftly made the Wildcat look very ordinary. The Riviera was a snazzy specialty car that’s still widely acclaimed as one of GM’s finest-ever designs; the Wildcat was a LeSabre with some fancier trim and more equipment. As Tom McCahill put it in Mechanix Illustrated that year, “The Wildcat soon found itself as important at Buick, prestige-wise, as being elected mayor of Weekhawken in a Presidential year.”

The Wildcat followed the usual full-size performance formula, combining the shorter B-body with the engine from the C-body Electra 225 — in this case, the 401 cid Wildcat 445, with 325 hp and 445 lb-ft of torque. In the Wildcat, it also came with standard dual exhausts, which didn’t increase gross output, but added around 25 net horsepower. This engine was optional on the 1963 LeSabre, as were the dual exhausts.

Although Turbine Drive had reverted to option status on the 1963 LeSabre, it was still standard on the Wildcat, and nearly all 1963 Wildcats had it.

However, for an additional $32.25, Wildcat buyers could trade the automatic for an all-synchro 4-speed manual, the ubiquitous Borg-Warner T-10 with the wide-ratio gearset (2.54 low). According to Buick production records, the 4-speed was extremely rare in the Wildcat, installed in just 30 cars.

The 4-speed was also optional on the LeSabre, for a hefty $263.38; it was a little less uncommon there than in the Wildcat, but still unusual, installed on fewer than 600 cars this year. As you can see, it didn’t require bucket seats or a console.

In 1963, only the Wildcat sport coupe and convertible came with buckets and a console. On the new four-door hardtop, a bench seat with folding center armrest was normally standard (with Turbine Drive cars also having a column shifter). You could order the all-vinyl bucket seats, center console, and floor shifter in the four-door hardtop, but it would cost you an extra $161.25. (The real leather upholstery that had been available on the four-door Invicta hardtop was no longer available.)

The Wildcat did not include power steering or power brakes as standard equipment, although very few cars were built without them. Together, those features added $150.50 to the sticker price. Naturally, there was a whole array of other options, the most useful of which was probably the $39.78 safety group, which included backup lights, a trip odometer, a parking brake warning light, an anti-glare rear-view mirror, courtesy lights, and a speed alert buzzer.

At some point during the model year, a second engine choice became available for the Wildcat: the 425 cid Wildcat 465, a bored-out version of the 401 with 340 gross horsepower and 465 lb-ft of torque. The 425 was not available at launch, and it isn’t mentioned in early 1963 brochures, although Buick had listed it in the 1963 AMA specifications. It was originally supposed to be standard on the Riviera, but it didn’t go into production until after the start of the model year, and it finally became optional on the Riviera in December 1962.

The Wildcat 465 WAS optional on the 1963 Wildcat, but it was as rare as the 4-speed, installed on only 30 cars (not all of them with manual transmission; some had Turbine Drive). Buick entered a Wildcat with the 425 and 4-speed in the January 1963 Pure Oil Trials, where NASCAR officials put a series of showroom stock passenger cars through acceleration, braking, and fuel economy tests. The Wildcat accelerated from 25 to 70 mph in just under 7.5 seconds, the slowest of the over 400 cid class. It was only a fraction of a second behind a pair of Chrysler 300s with the 413 wedge engine, but it was no match for the hotter 421 Catalina.

Tom McCahill got his hands on a 425/4-speed Wildcat two-door hardtop not long after that event. He found it had strong performance: 0 to 60 in 7.4 seconds and an observed top speed of 119 mph with an engine that clearly wasn’t yet broken in.

However, McCahill had unkind words for the car’s 4-speed, which he called “many notches from the greatest.” He thought the shift lever was about 8 inches farther back than it ought to be (a LeSabre without the console might have been better in that regard), and the high clutch pedal made gear changes awkward. McCahill allowed that the big-engine Wildcat was “a really fine automobile, provided you spring for the automatic transmission.”

The black four-door hardtop pictured here has not only buckets and console, 425 engine, and 4-speed, but also the Super Wildcat 465 engine, with dual four-barrel carburetors and 360 gross horsepower, albeit no more torque. This wasn’t yet a production option in 1963, although it would become one in 1964, with a price tag of $118.13, compared to $48.38 for the single-carb 425.

Even after it became a regular production option in 1964, the Super Wildcat dual-carb engine was never very common, in part because its power didn’t make the Wildcat any quicker. Motor Trend compared two 1964 Wildcats of virtually identical weight and found the car with the dual-carb 425, 4-speed, and 3.23 axle was slower to 60 mph and through the quarter mile than the car with the 401, Turbo Hydra-Matic, and 2.78 axle — it simply had too much carburetion for normal street use. Motor Trend thought it would have been quicker with the 3.91 axle, but Car Life tested that combination and got 0 to 60 in 7.7 seconds, no quicker than a single-carb 425.

The reality with cars like this was that unless you were actually going racing, 4-speeds and multiple carburetors were mainly for bragging rights. In 1963, the 4-speed did have some performance advantage over Turbine Drive, especially if you were reluctant to use the latter’s L range to shift by hand, but you had to work awfully hard for that edge, and the recalcitrant 4-speed shifter and clutch were just not sorted well enough. When Turbo Hydra-Matic replaced Turbine Drive for 1964, there was no longer any debate: TH400 gave away nothing in performance, was a lot easier to live with, and didn’t cost any more.

That was sort of the trajectory of the Wildcat as well. Being able to order its engine and transmissions on the LeSabre for less money left the buckets and console the Wildcat’s main attraction, and you didn’t even get those on the four-door unless you paid extra. For 1964, Buick tried to bolster the Wildcat’s position by removing the ability to order 401 or 425 on the LeSabre, but it didn’t really help the big ‘Cat’s image or performance bona fides, and sales were unspectacular.

As soon as the intermediate Skylark Gran Sport became available in 1965, most remaining interest in sporty Buick performance shifted there instead. By 1966, the 4-speed manual transmission was limited to the A-body and the dual-carburetor Super Wildcat engine was in its final year.

As of this writing, the auction for the red Wildcat convertible just ended on Bring a Trailer, and the car failed to sell after bidding topped out at $12,801. The car is not particularly original (it left the factory in black with a red interior, like the four-door), and its less-than-stunning condition probably did it no favors with bidders despite the rarity of its gearbox. As far as I know, the black four-door Wildcat hardtop isn’t for sale, and if it were, it would probably go for a lot more money.

 

Related Reading

1961 Buick Invicta 4-Door Hardtop: The Mostly Forgotten Sporty Buick (by me)

Vintage Car Life Road Test: 1962 Buick Wildcat Sport Coupe – A B-Body Buick Joins The Bucket Brigade (by me)

Curbside Classic: 1963 Buick Wildcat – I Think I Want To Fight (by Laurence Jones)

Vintage Car Life Road Test: 1964 Buick Wildcat with 425 V8, Dual Quad Carbs and 4-Speed Manual – More Carbs and Gears Are Not Necessarily Better (by Paul N)