If you like kittycats, don’t be embarrassed. I have a treat for you here with a close look at one of the coolest ‘Cats ever. Dog lovers should like it, too. At the end of the article I’ll delve a bit into how the Wildcat fit into Buick’s lineup at the time and historically.
Here’s how you know you’re certifiable: if you can go to multiple car shows/auctions where you see several hundred vehicles you personally like (among a few thousand) and pick out one you love above all others. But certifiably what? I don’t know. My wife would say insane. I’d counter it’s only a case of car crazy, but probably more specifically Buick Obsessive Disorder because I exhibited the same behavior five years ago when I last journeyed to Arizona in January. I still dream about that Riviera. This time it was a charming feline that got ahold of me and made me wish I had gone there to actually adopt a vehicular pet instead of just soaking in the atmosphere of being in the desert surrounded by excellent cars and history for three days.
Included in my long time automotive interests are Buicks, large cars, sporty cars and 60s cars. The junction of all those is somewhere around the 1962-70 Wildcat. Let’s briefly review that cool cat before getting into why this 64 is more special than most.
1962
Buick introduced the Wildcat midyear 1962, as a coupe-only submodel of the Invicta, Buick’s midlevel fullsizer. The new model was initially Buick’s answer to the growing Personal Luxury Car trend and cars like the Ford Thunderbird, Pontiac Grand Prix, and Oldsmobile Starfire.
1964
The 1959-62 Invicta was the successor to the long-running Century model (1936 edition of which some would claim was the first muscle car), which combined the smaller B-Body with the C-Body car’s larger engine. With the introduction of the Riviera for 1963, the Wildcat was no longer primarily a Personal Luxury coupe for Buick. That year it replaced the Invicta entirely in coupe, sedan, or convertible models but continued with the 1962 ‘Cat’s sporting pretensions.
1964. Don’t you dare drive that on salty winter roads, no matter what the swarming ski bunnies say.
For 1964, the sporting nature of the Wildcat was both diluted and concentrated. It was diluted by having a pillared sedan added to the choices and bucket seats becoming optional across the board. It was concentrated, though, by having more powerful engine offerings. Buick stirred confusion by calling all their V8 engines “Wildcat ###”, whether installed in a Wildcat or not (similar to Mercury calling all their 1964 engines Marauder). They multiplied the confusion by the number following “Wildcat” being not displacement or horsepower, but torque. In the Wildcat’s case, the standard engine was still the Nailhead 401c.i. “Wildcat 445” four-barrel V8 making 325hp and 445lb-ft, shared with the Electra as it had been in 1962 and 63. The Wildcat’s performance status was further enhanced, in comparison at least, by the 64 LeSabre being demoted from its previous two-barrel 401c.i. engine to a 300c.i. (and losing 55hp standard).
The Wildcat didn’t have any chassis enhancements over the LeSabre or Electra that I’ve been able to find, though slightly larger tires were optional on Wildcat only.
The first thing that sets this auction car apart from the pack is its engine. The ‘Cat’s optional engine #1 was the Wildcat 465, a four-barrel version of the Nailhead bored out to 425c.i., making 340hp and 465lb-ft (as the name implies). This had been new in 1963 and available in the Riviera only. Option #2, as seen above in our car, was the Super Wildcat, a new dual four-barrel 425 with special camshaft and distributer that was rated an extra 20hp, with the same torque rating. The Wildcat 465 was also standard in the Riviera and optional in the Electra and the Super Wildcat was also optional in both the Electra and the Riviera, so the Wildcat unfortunately can’t claim any exclusive power.
What was unique to the Wildcat and sets my dream ‘Cat further apart, is a 4-speed manual transmission. This transmission was not available on the Electra or Riviera but was on the LeSabre. Both Wildcat and LeSabre had a 3-speed manual standard, but buying a Wildcat was the only way to get the big block engines with a stick shift.
Being a Buick, the factory wasn’t going to send their car out in the world with a naked rubber shifter boot sticking out of the floor, so performance-minded Wildcaters not interested in buckets got this sharp mini-console.
While cursive handwriting is almost a dead script in 21st century America, it was alive and well in 1964 (fighting cultural decay, we have our 10 year old taking a cursive course, so she can read the Declaration Of Independence and stuff like that). Are there any modern cars using cursive name badges? It’s hard to imagine there would be. Perhaps lost to history is the reason for not having the d flow directly into the c, but I’ll bet there was one.
Now step back and take it in. I don’t know about you, but this is my idea of a seriously handsome 60s car. From the era of peak GM and peak Bill Mitchell, that puts it near the pinnacle of automotive styling for all time. We know there was major room for improvement in handling, safety, and efficiency. It wasn’t long before the demands for those things took a toll on the uninhibited practice of the automotive styling art, seen here in its pure distillation when looks, image, and power were still the most important things in high end models.
The overall effect is that Buick built something of a sleeper here. The Wildcat looks sporty, but not real sporty. The Wedgewood [baby] Blue gives it an unthreatening look, as do the standard hubcaps (this was the first year for Buick’s superlative chrome road wheels, which I’d forgotten were called “Formula Five” in 1964). The original purchaser surely special ordered it and sprung for the top engine, top transmission, limited slip differential, dual exhaust, power steering and brakes, and a tachometer. He forsook any other options that I could spot, like air conditioning, buckets, power accessories, etc. Built for speed? Apparently, which makes sense given that there was no such thing as midsize Buick muscle at this point.
I’m sure there’s an interesting history to be told about this car, but regrettably none was given in the auction writeup.
If it was built for speed, it wasn’t abused. In fact, it’s said to be a mostly original rust-free car with 78k miles, sporting original paint and cloth upholstery, both in near perfect condition. The effect in person was catnip, so to speak, for this guy who has written so much here about loving unrestored original cars.
One would expect a car equipped like this to be rare, but how rare? ~23k of the 84k 1964 Wildcats were coupes. The seller claimed 114 of those had the Super Wildcat engine, though Hemmings Classic Car says it was 366 coupes out of 638 across all Wildcats. Either way, that’s pretty rare. I couldn’t find a 1964 number for the 4-speed, but in 1963 the 4-speed was only put in 346 cars so we could probably safely assume it wasn’t greatly more popular in 64 (the 4-speed was dropped after 1966). How many of those Super Wildcats got the floor rower and how many survive? Can’t be very many!
The price for all this? $35,200 including buyer’s fees. I don’t know the documented book value for this car, but that seems like a pretty reasonable price for what’s basically a full-size muscle car with this level of rarity and originality. Ah, if only I’d come there to buy something…
1963
There have been a number of CC writeups featuring Wildcats and the model is actually a little controversial, around questions like: Was it really a performance car or a pretender? Does it make any sense? Did it help Buick?
The Century had been the “performance” Buick since 1936 and was quite popular in the mid fifties, but the name was dropped in 1959 when the Buick family gave all their kids new, semi-meaningless names. LeSabre and Electra turned out to be good choices, but Invicta never caught on. Sales dwindled and Buick smartly, IMO, gave the model a more evocative name in Wildcat and a more explicitly sporty image. The refocused package was a success, with sales steadily increasing through 1965, far outpacing the 59-62 Invicta. Production headed the other direction after that, but stayed respectable through 1969. Sporty big cars were on the way out and Buick replaced it with the more Invicta-like Centurion in 1971, for some reason, and got Invicta-like sales in return until dropping the mid-level full-size concept entirely after 1973.
1966 Riviera GS – How did she drive it there? Why isn’t she upset?
I would say the Wildcat was completely in keeping with Buick history before and after. The Century was named in the 30s, after all, for the car’s claimed top speed. Since then, Buick has pretty consistently offered sporty and/or performance models for the minority of their customers who like that sort of thing: GS packages on 65-75 Rivieras, 65-73 Gran Sport Skylark-based muscle cars, all variety of turbo 78-87 Regals including the legendary Grand National, 78-80 turbo LeSabre Sport Coupe, 79-89 S-type and T-type Rivieras, 85-89 T-type Electra and 86-88 Grand National/T-type LeSabre, 91-2020 Gran Sport Regals, supercharged 92-05 Park Avenues and Rivieras. Did I forget any?
1965. Photo courtesy of Classic American UK magazine.
Many people think tastefully restrained luxury, not sport and performance, when they think of Buicks. Buick clearly wanted an alternative to that perception for most of their history and the Wildcat was an integral part of that heritage. While the Wildcat may have been impractically large for that role and only been a double-threat (power and looks) rather than the triple threat that came to be expected later (power, looks + handling), it was hardly alone in the U.S. market in that. To its credit, Buick did have above average brakes in the 60s with their relatively large finned aluminum drums. Personally, I think the Wildcat was one of the most appealing full-size sporty/performance cars of that brief period in the 50s and 60s when they were popular.
GRRR!
The Wildcat moved to the Electra’s three inch longer wheelbase in 1965. 1964 was the only year a Wildcat on its shortest wheelbase (123 inch) could be combined with a 360+ horsepower engine and a 4-speed manual transmission. By those metrics, our auction car is the ultimate high-performance full-size Buick. A sleeper, yes, but a sleepy kitty it is not!
photographed at Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale, AZ January 26, 2023
for further reading:
Curbside Classic: 1965 Buick Wildcat – Sabre Tooth Cat Or Dodo Bird? by PN
Curbside Classic: 1963 Buick Wildcat – I Think I Want To Fight by Lawrence Jones
Auction Classics: Arizona 2023 – It’s Only Original Forever, part 1 of 2 First in my series of auction articles, in case you missed any. Features all-original GM cars. Links at end to the whole series.
I would have walked past this vehicle and not have known it’s treasure. Thanks for the essay!
Same here! I picture Aunt Helen driving to mass in a car that looks like that. She’d have gotten there in a hurry in that very cool ride. Quintessential sleeper!
Thanks! I’d give you more credit. I think you would have stopped to look at it. Going to Barrett-Jackson, one expects exceptional cars and unmodified full size 60s cars are few and far between even there, especially one in an old-lady color like this. For hunters of cars-with-stories like us, it practically screamed, “Look at me, I’m special!” So I believe anyone who would read CC would stop and at least skim the info sheet on a car like this to see what its story is. Heck, I would have been plenty happy to spend several minutes looking at a car like this even if it was only a LeSabre.
Those are some beautiful cars and built better than these today.
The one in the “snow” – no tire tracks, no footprints outside the driver’s door, hmmm, this one has been there for a while. Yet magically there is no snow on the car. Winter got spoofed in that one.
HaHa! I think the ad is a screenshot taken from that guy’s head when he was sleeping.
I have a friend with a dark blue 4 door hardtop with the same set-up… Ordered new by a Dr… Buicks old slogan used to be “the dr. Drove a buick” these cars should read “the dr. Drove a quick ass buick”…
I’m sure it was purely in the interest of providing rapid patient care.
A four door would be even more of a sleeper. I think I would personally like the dark blue better.
Wow, that’s gotta be VERY rare!
This is a stunning car and a fine example of GM’s rectangular look, if I may call it that, during the 1961-64 period. Note the beginning of the W-shaped front end in plan view, which would be fully realized in both the front and rear in 1965.
I still have my AMT 1/25 model of a ’64 Wildcat convertible (not up to the Peter Wilding standard of paintwork). Of course, the model came with bucket seats and a full console.
I’ve not ever seen or noticed that mini-console for these 4-speed big Buicks. Cute!
My uncle, an engineer, bought new a 63 Wicat 4 dr hardtop. in true blue Red (not resale red) qith a white painted roof and tu-tone interior. I remember it having the Buick Sport wheels. But as they were not abvailabale in 63, he must have had them installed as soon as available. I did asmire that car, wven though 4 doors, but Hardtop, so it was cool enoug for then 12 year old me. I remember the 455 badging on the Air cleaner lid. Of course, being a not up on torque preteen I thought horsepower or displacement. So much more than the 389 in My dads 63 Bonneville. (silly me) I would love to have that car, today.
Good write-up. Always loved the 1960s and 1970 Wildcat. Buick’s chrome sport wheels were as beautiful as the Pontiac 8 lugs. Light blue is not my favorite color for a car, but this Wildcat is a beauty.
As I’ve mentioned in the past, when I was in high school a friend had a new 1965 red Wildcat convertible that I got to drive occasionally. It had the “Wildcat 465” engine (425 cu in with 465 pound-feet of torque) and four speed. That engine did a good job of moving such a large car. Most people were surprised when they looked in and saw the four speed on the floor – a long shifter with a white knob as I recall. The car had bucket seats and I do not remember what kind of console the shifter was mounted in – maybe like this one. I imagine production numbers were pretty low for that setup (the friend’s family owned a Buick dealership and special ordered the car). It was a total blast to drive. It looked pretty great, too – red, red interior, white top. One of the most memorable cars in my lifetime. Wish I had some pictures.
As a person who missed the era of a la carte car ordering, this one fascinates me. I have to believe that most folks who were buying full-size Buicks in 1962 were of The Greatest Generation, the men who fought in WWII (or were exempted). My father would have been among them, except he was an Oldsmobile man.
And based on my father, most of these men grew up when manual transmission was your only choice and it was considered a chore, and they couldn’t buy cars with automatic transmissions fast enough. My father’s first new car was a ’52 or ’53 Chevrolet with Powerglide.
But of course there were still pikers and folks wary of new technology, and the automakers mostly still let them pick a 3-speed column-shifted transmission.
But a 4-speed transmission with floor shift was a *very* deliberate choice, especially in a full-sized car. That’s why this particular Buick’s existence fascinates me.
The 4-speed certainly wasn’t popular with typical Buick buyers. Hundreds out of 80k. I’ll bet far less bought it in the LeSabre. I would imagine 3-speed cars weren’t much more common. Whoever ordered this car was a real nonconformist all right. I’d love to know the car’s history!
The subject has been covered on CC before, which I’ve been very interested in the fact that Detroit makers had manual transmissions standard in big cars long after the take rates had dwindled to the low single digits. What was the business case for offering these to such a small minority?
The Wildcat didn’t seem like so much of a PLC as more of a competitor to the Chrysler 300 (non-letter) and Mercury Marauder S-55/X-100, full-size, sporty car which quickly lost favor when big-block, intermediate cars (i.e., GTO) began arriving on the scene.
To that end, Buick’s small-valve ‘nailhead’ V8 actually served quite well. No, it wasn’t a high-strung, high-rpm engine, but much more in line with the old auto industry adage “Americans talk horsepower, but drive torque”. In that regard, the massive low-end torque of the Wildcat suited it just fine.
It’s worth noting that the big Buick lasted a bit longer than the 300 or Marauder, with the Wildcat’s replacement, the Centurion, making it through 1973.
I’d agree for the most part. The 62 was coupe only, like the Grand Prix which was definitely a PLC. Though the original PLC, the 58+ Thunderbird, could be had as a convertible. So who knows. Certainly the 63+ Wildcat was a direct competitor to the non-letter 300 (maybe even the letters if equipped right), the S55/Marauder, the 500XL, etc.
I’d argue that the Centurion wasn’t in the mold of those earlier cars. It wasn’t marketed as a sporty car at all. e.g. coupe was called “formal coupe” and bucket seats weren’t available. Only a standard 455 would make it even plausibly a performance car (and a 350 was standard in 73). I’d say the 70 Wildcat was the last from Buick in the true sporty full size mold. Mercury’s last Marauder was 1970 and the 300 lasted to 71.
While the Centurion lacking a bucket seat option and an annual decrease in engine performance certainly isn’t keeping with the whole sporty big-car ethos of the previous 300/Marauder/Wildcat, I’d argue that, for the time, the Centurion was about as good as it was going to get for a big, sporty car. The market was definitely shifting to brougham and the Centurion was a dying breed on its last legs.
It should be noted that the Centurion did have a big improvement from previous year’s Wildcat sales, although that could have been helped by crossover buyers from the discontinued 300 and Marauder.
That 1966 Riviera GS is sitting on a rock that looks very similar to the setting used for a 1965 Chevrolet Impala television commercial.
That is great! That Impala isn’t just getting licked by spray, it’s practically washed off the rocks by huge waves. It’s already lost a couple hubcaps. Give it an hour or so of rising tide and it will be gone. I’m not sure how that poor car in peril makes people want to buy it. I definitely don’t want to buy THAT car after its full body salt water bath even if it could be rescued.
A couple of things: first, imagine the ad agency discussion about how great an idea it would be to stick an Impala on a rock in the middle of the ocean (and a turbulent ocean, at that). I mean, look at how the car is being buffeted; it seems that any moment it’s going to go flying off and into the ocean.
Second, there’s the expense and difficulty of doing it. It’s no wonder they left off the wheelcovers off; I have no doubt at that point everyone involved just wanted to get the shoot over with and get the hell out of there.
Wouldn’t it be great to find out that the ad agency decided it would be too dangerous to retrieve the car and just left it out there to fall into the sea (which is what looks like is going to happen at any moment, anyway)?
About 10 years ago I ran across a ’64 Wildcat 4 door hardtop with the dual quad 425 and a 4 speed transmission at the Syracuse Nationals. It was black with a red interior and had bucket seats and a full length console. The owner was out of Connecticut. I do have pics on one of my old phones.
Locally there is a ’64 LeSabre wagon with the 425 dual 4 barrel engine but that is a bench seat column shift automatic. That gentleman purchased it in Connecticut in 1977 and has kept it all these years.
My Wildcat is a ’68 4 door sedan. The 430/auto combination propels it to lower 14 second quarter mile times. It was rescued from a North Carolina junkyard in 1987.
Those 64s sound like wonderful unique beasts! I’d love to see them. You should do a COAL article here on your 68, sounds like a story.
I really want to take it for a drive…I wonder what it sounds like when both four barrels are wide open. Pretty good, I’d say.
That’s an oddball for sure. The original buyer may not have been a performance buff though, I have seen a few large cars from this era equipped with a 4 speed that were originally purchased to tow a heavy trailer. When you consider the marginal brakes (Buick was better than some) and perhaps iffy automatics of the day it makes sense, at least in mountainous areas.
A buddy and I once owned a ’67 Bel Air wagon with an L-35 396 and a 4 speed that had been purchased for this reason. You don’t wanna know what we did with it…..
Robbie, a guy I worked for had a ’65 Skylark GS with a 401 and a 4 speed, and a ‘6? Riv with the dual quad 425. One way or another the 425 ended up in the GS for a time. It was not an RPM engine but it sure had torque to spare!
I hope this one goes to a good home, Robbie woulda loved it.
Great memories in what would today be pretty valued cars!
The towing rationale does make sense why some would choose a manual and big engine in a mainstreamer car. Thanks.
Only 20hp more from the dual quad carbs? Not much of an improvement, but even with special camshaft the choke point remains those little nailhead valves, as Paul explained in his previous technical article on these engines. Pretty cool sleeper though..
15-25 additional hp from a dual quad setup over a single quad was pretty much universal back then. It applied to just about every engine I can think of, as long as the other elements were essentially the same. 426 Hemi, 409 Chevy, 427 Ford; they all had between 400 and 410 hp with a single quad, and 425 with dual quads.
Of course, these were gross hp numbers, and they do have to be taken with a pinch of salt. More venturi area by itself won’t do all that much, unless the single quad version is decidedly under-carbed.
My parents owned a ’64 LaSabre when I was a kid. It was brown in color and had an aftermarket air conditioner installed. We used it on the camping trips we took every year to tow a StarCraft camper (the kind where you had to use a crank to raise the roof and slide the beds out). I also remember the horrible vinyl seat covers they put in it to protect it from us 3 boys. I liked the car but they eventually sold it to a high school neighbor kid and got a ’70 LaSabre. My parents were Buick people. 🙂
This is an odd one. The baby blue paint and the cloth bench seat seem at odds with the performance options on this one. That’s what I love about original cars – some of them just don’t make sense to me.
I thought Wildcat was one of the great names of the era. If I could make it to W while playing my game of alphabetical car spotting, a Wildcat was always a welcome sight.
My grandfather had a 57, Century I believe. All chromed out. As a 2 or 3 year old I burned my finger on one on the rear seat cigarette lighters – the ones mounted on the side of the front seat. One of my earliest childhood car memories.
He also had an early sixties model, I cant remember which. But he had a 66 Wildcat coupe just like the blue one in the garage pic, his was tan but it had the same wheels and trim.
His last Buick was a 69 Wildcat hardtop that got passed on to me in college. It had a 430 4 barrel, 340 horsepower FM stereo. A living room on wheels. That thing was a monster that could burn rubber for a block. I spent a lot of money on gas.
Later sold it and bought my first of several Hondas.