1962 Buick Skylark

 1962 BUICK SKYLARK SHOW CAR that can be driven as a daily driver.   Runs as good as it looks.   Check the top for the two door HardTop style. where it is vinyl and creased to look like a convertible top … very cool.   Dead stock. except for the gorgeous metallic burgundy paint. done before they changed paint formulations to be more eco friendly but less pretty. and the interior was redone completely. both door panels and seats.   I bought it for the sole purpose of checking off an item on my personal “Bucket List”. which was to enter a Show Car in the annual local car show. which I have been attending for over forty years … and I got to show it last May (two of the pix are from that show). fulfilling its purpose for me. so either I sell it now or watch it slowly go bad. because I almost never drive anywhere. and you need to drive a car to keep it right (I have put under 100 miles on it in the year I have owned it).   And. with seven motorcycles and three cars in my driveway. I am disciplining myself to go down to a sensible onecar/onebike. This has always been a California car. and has its original Black Plates.   It has the most powerful version of the engine. a four barrel carb 195 hp version. and I have the original air cleaner with decals proclaiming this power output. as well as the original hub caps … although the turbine style mag wheels propel the car into a whole different league. IMO. just perfect for this model.   Extra gauges under the dash give you water temp and oil pressure.   16. 00 miles showing. and I guess that means 116. 00. although. to look at it. you wonder if it is really just 16. 00 … I am not sure which is right.

 The '62 General Motors “Mini-BOPpers” are perhaps the biggest sleepers in all of American Classic Cars!  And. as proof. how much of the following were you personally aware of (because if you did not know any of this. who would. and that is the definition of a sleeper. something significant that is missed by a bunch of snoozers rather than get noticed):

 What is the only year and model where Buick won the annual Motor Trend Car of the Year trophy. which was a big deal back in the day . 1962 was the year. and the new Special line of Buick small cars won. and the Skylark was the top of the line version of the Special model lineup.   I have the very rare key fob commemorating this win. and it will go with the car.  

 Brag all you want about the Mopar Hemi or the Chevy Mouse Motor or Rat Motor … but what is the only American stock block ever to take on the whole world AND WIN at the European Formula One Championship Series?  The little mill in this Buick!  (1966 series of Formula One. although they created OHC heads for it).

It is a 215 c. i. ALL-ALUMINUM V-8. and was one of the best three engines out of Detroit in those early days (the others being the Chevy small block and. to a lesser extent. the Mopar Hemi).   However. GM cheaped out and decided to use the cheaper-to-cast iron-block engines after only two years of using the little aluminum V8. and sold all rights to it and all the dies and casting forms went to England (an interesting side-note is that only a couple of years later. GM realized their mistake and tried to buy it back for substantially more than they sold it for. but were rebuffed).   (PS some of the design features of the engine made it into the fabled Buick 3. 8 litre V6. still in use today).   Rover used the engine for 40 years plus!  The TR8 Triumph model used the engine 15 years later. as did the MG8 (the 215 c. i. V8 – which is 3. 5 litres of displacement. so after 1963 it was forever called a 3. 5 Litre V-8 – weighed over 40 pound LESS than the puny 1600cc four cylinder engine MG had been using).   TVR used the hottest version of the engine. which in later years had fuel injection.   It can easily be brought from 3. 5 litres all the way up to 5. 3 litres. whereupon it becomes a torque monster weighing not that much more than a big bag of feathers.   [To kick up displacement that much. you overbore the cylinders to 0. 060” over and add a stock crankshaft and connecting rods from a certain Pontiac engine which had identical crank journals].   Ironically. this is the one Detroit mill where you must turn to Europe to get the after-market Hot Rod parts.   We are masters of extracting extra power out of a Chevy Small Block. but the English are the ones who have been Hot Rodding this V8 all these decades. and it is they who have divined the various tricks to improve it.

And more interesting facts nobody is aware of:  The three 1962 Mini-BOPpers were from the middle three divisions of GM. being Buick/Oldsmobile/Pontiac.   Cadillac did not deign to have a small car back then. and Chevy went the Chevy Nova and Corvair routes to smaller sizes.   But the platform used by the three BOP divisions was superb. a lightweight car among all the typical bloated US land yachts.   The Pontiac version had a fully independent rear suspension with a torque tube taking power from the engine to the chassis-mounted rear differential.   And the Olds version of the engine had factory turbocharging as an option.   Don't believe the myth about the Corvair being the first mass-produced turbo engine … nope. the Olds F85 Jetfire model was first. by a small margin.   The Jetfire had special trim. being the ultra rare version of the Starfire. which was the full size Olds muscle car. and both had massive chrome trim down their sides.   All three divisions had the T10 full-synchro 4-speed as an option behind the engine.   So. consider this – all aluminum factory-turbo engine. coupled with “four on the floor” shifting. in a light car with four wheel independent suspension … how many full-on sports cars had those features in 1962? … yet we are talking about GM passenger cars.   Did you know any of that?  Sleepers. I tells ya'!!!

Also published at eBay.com

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