Buick started building cars at the turn of the last century. The whole world was changing back then. For the first time in mankind’s history, speed over the ground was increasing Since the dawn of time man could only move over the Earth as fast as hist feet, or the feet of animals could carry him, but at the end of the 1800’s steam engines had overtaken wind or animal power, and the trains where the speed demons of the era. However, as the 1800’s came to a close and the 20th century was born, speed was the word of the day. Distance over time.

The mad dash to go hither and thither in less and less time drove manufacturers to invest the money into developing lighter and more efficient ways of powering vehicles, and in May 1903 a man from Angus, Scotland named David Buick opened his doors in Detroit in 1899 and founded what is currently North America’s oldest automobile manufacturer, and by 1905 Buick was offering quality cars priced for the average middle class American.

The Model B was Buick’s first widely available model and period advertising states that is “The Car Of Quality” which features a two cylinder opposed engine of 21hp, as well as a two speed transmission featuring both forward AND reverse gears! Furthermore this automobile is listed as operating comfortably from 4 to 25 mph with the high-speed clutch in, and was advertised as being “simple in control”.

Prior to the introduction of the Model B in 1905, only 40 Buicks in total had ever been built, but 1906 saw a production of 1600 cars, and over 4500 built in 1907, proving that Buick was supplying a quality and in-demand product that was attainable by a wide array of customers despite changing owners and moving the entire factory from Detroit to Flint, MI. A remarkable feat even by today’s standards.

(WARNING! This intro is tongue-in-cheek)There was a time in America when manufacturers built what folks called “muscle cars”. Decades-long arguments have raged ever since, over this one or that one, which was faster, which was cooler, which was the easiest to modify. You know, gearhead stuff. The kind of subject that makes the wife/girlfriend’s eye glaze over more or less instantaneously.

Well it all sort of came to a head back in 1984. You see there was this magazine called “Popular & Performance Car Review” which published a list of “Fifty Fastest Musclecars”. Now where that particular list created a massive uproar among the gearhead community was in listing the 1970 Buick Skylark Gran Sport Stage 1 as the third fastest musclecar behind the 1966 Shelby Cobra 427, and the 1966 Corvette 427.

The Hemi/MOPAR crowd was fit to be tied. They all started hollaring about how everybody knows that Buick stands for “Big Ugly Import Car Killer” and that the only folks that drove a Buick anyway were all sucking back the Geritol and looking for a place to cash their Social Security checks. The Buick community of course started singing the Etta James hit “At Last” and high-fiving each other because there it was in print that the Buick’s weren’t just grandma’s grocery getter.

To settle all the hubbub, the editor of Popular & Performance Car Review arranged to have a 1/4 mile race between a ’70 Buick GS Stage 1 and ’70 Plymouth GTX a at the Gainesville Raceway. The Buick ran at 12.30 and the Plymouth at 13.03. Much like in politics, all the race did was increase the hubbub and harumphing. One side accused the other of running high performance parts and special motors, the other side was shaking it’s head and saying “Nope”. And like the western TV shows of old, the Buick gunslinger was the fastest draw in the west and was repeatedly challenged to a duel to find out who was faster. That day in 1985 however, the 1970 Buick Skylark Gran Sport Stage 1 was the fastest musclecar on the track.

I remember watching stock car races on TV with my granddad and uncle at my grandparent’s house back in the late 70’s and early 80’s.  The races were popular, but not the spectacle that they are now. It seems like ESPN started broadcasting them on the new “cable TV” in 1980 or ’81, but we were still watching them on NBC SportsWorld, because the only racing you could get on CBS WIde World Of Sports back then was Grand Prix.

In the 1981 Winston Cup season for example, you saw Darrell Waltrip and Bobby Allison trading victories back and forth with an occasional Richard Petty or Cale Yarborough upset. The funny thing about that ’81 season though…it was dominated by the Buick Regal! What set the Regal apart from the Pontiac Grand Prix, the Chrysler Imperial, the Ford Thunderbird, the Chevy Monte Carlo, and the Olds Cutlass which are the other makes and models raced that year, was pure aerodynamics.

GM had dictated that all it’s cars in the series would be powered by the Chevy 358 small block, so the only way for the Buick Regal to set itself apart from the herd, apart from the nut behind the wheel, was in airflow. The Regal featured a fairly raked windshield, the double sloped grill, and smooth side panels all the way down the car. The combination of smooth airflow over the body, the 358 under the hood, stunningly good handling on the track, and a talented butt in the seat, brought home 12 wins and 21 finishes in the top five, and even more Regals in the top 10, across the 30 race season.

Darrell Waltrip won the Winston Cup championship in a Buick, Bobby Allison came in second in a Buick, Harry Grant came in third in a Buick, Terry Labonte came in fourth in a Buick, Ricky Rudd came sixth in a Buick, and even The King, Mr Richard Petty placed 8th in his only season driving Buicks.

So when you see that beat up Buick Regal driving down the street, remember this: it may be 34 years since the Regal’s heyday but there my friend, goes a former thoroughbred.

…TANK! Yes indeed, Buick was the sole builder of the M18 Hellcat Tank Destroyer which was introduced as a prototype at the battle of Anzio in Italy early in January of 1944, but it wasn’t until the invasion of France that the M18’s really hit their stride. The Hellcat had the distinction of being the fastest tank in the world until the turbine powered M1 Abrams was introduced in 1980. That’s 36 YEARS of being the fastest armor on tracks!

Over 2500 M18’s were built, with every single one built by Buick. They saw service all through the European theater from January 1944 until the end of the war, as well as on mainland China and throughout the Pacific, although with the lack of Japanese armor the M18’s were more used as direct fire support for the infantry in demolishing bunkers and as mobile armored shields.

Now a word about their speed. They were the only tank in any army to be able to reach up to 57mph. They achieved this by sacrificing weight in armor, meaning they were sitting ducks in a stand-and-fight slugging match with other tanks. Where they absolutely shined was in fast hit-and-run ambushes where they could use their speed to outmaneuver slower German tanks and bring the M18’s stout 76mm cannon to bear very successfully against enemy tanks lightly armored sides and rear.

After the war they remained in service, and saw action in the Korean conflict. The Yugoslavian army used them after they were refurbished by Brown and Root in the 1950’s and even saw service in the 1990’s during the Croation/Serbian/Bosnian/Hertzogovinian wars. I mean, Venezuela STILL has 75 M18’s in service or reserve!

Ask any engineer, it’s hard to beat a winning power/weight ratio. With it’s 450hp radial aircraft engine, brilliant suspension system designed by Buick, and the lowered weight of less armor than it’s counterparts the M10 and M36, the M18 was the sportiest vehicle on tracks. Heck, it’s still the sportiest thing on two tracks powered by a reciprocating engine! I dare say the M18 has a chance to see it’s 100th birthday and still see examples in operational condition, a very big tribute to the men and women at Buick who designed and built the Hellcat as well as the men who served inside them.