Just a block away from the new Prius I found this other new arrival in the neighborhood. This one gets a bit worse gas mileage, though, but it might appeal more to the eyes of some of you.
The ’61 GM full-size cars were new, and substantially less flamboyant than their wild, winged predecessors. That goes especially so for the Buick; the ’59 Buick was really the wildest one of the bunch. The 1961 looks mighty tame in comparison. And in addition to the new bodies, the four door hardtops featured completely new roof line, ushering a trend to more formal lines.
This new roof line was only on the B-Body cars; the larger C-Body four doors still had either the airy six-window roof, or the ‘flying wing’ roof.
Of course, the ’61 B-Body two door hardtops still had the ‘bubble’ roof, the biggest carryover from the previous generation. My CC on this one here.
Well, the ’61 may have been toned down some from 1959, but there was still plenty going on its front end, including one of the last “Dagmar” bumpers. A bit baroque.
The iconic Buick styled steel wheels were not yet available in 1961; the first appeared on the ’64s. Buick was proud of its finned aluminum brake drums, and these wheels show them off, some.
The LeSabre’s interior is pretty typical mid-level GM for the early 60s. The Turbine Drive automatic backed up a 364 inch version of Buick’s nailhead V8, which came in three versions for the LeSabre. The standard version was rated at 250 hp, with a two-barrel carb but high 10.25:1 compression. A low compression version with 235 hp was available for those not wanting to pay for premium fuel. And a 300 hp version with a four-barrel carb (and high compression) was optional. Interestingly, all the Buick engines were already called ‘Wildcats’, before the Wildcat model appeared in 1962.
Time to keep moving. Welcome to the neighborhood!
I’d take the 61 LeSabre any day over the Prius. It may not get the best fuel economy, but what good is fuel economy if the car is hideous to look at?
Alternatively, what good are looks if you’ve run out of gas?
It looks mighty fine sitting still
Not really a fan of the `61s because I don`t particually like the pointed front end and pushed in rear treatment, but I am a fan of “bubblebacks”, and it looks good on this car. As for the Prius, well, if you can`t say anything good…………….
Those protruding, spear-like front fenders always looked like “cheekbones” to me.
I always thought of them as walrus tusks.
It’s interesting that the B-body four door hardtop moved on from the flattop look, since the B-body post sedans adopted it for the first time in ’61. In toned-down form of course.
The GM 1961s were noticeably smaller (and maybe 200 pounds lighter) than the 1960s and I logged a lot of left seat time in a 1961 B body Pontiac Ventura 4 door painted in Honduras Maroon. Don’t the words “Honduras Maroon” just roll off the tongue so nicely?
As noted in your prior CC, this Buick has the mirrored instrument panel first introduced in 1960. In the attached photo the just visible top of a control wheel in the white cove to the right of the speedometer was used to position the refection of the backwards instruments towards the driver.
That’s funny, my mother’s 74 Luxury LeMans was also painted Honduras Maroon. I would guess that it was not the identical color, as I think GM reused names from time to time. But I agree, it was a good name for a color.
Hi JP, Did it look like this?
Like this. Not our car, but this was the 1974 version of Honduras Maroon. I looked it up at Paintref.com, and there were evidently two separate color codes/paint formulas. This one was a 74-75 color seen on Chev/Pontiac/Olds/Buick under 4 different names.
Actually, according to Paintref.com, Your early 60s version of Honduras Maroon was the Chevrolet name for that color in 1961-62. Pontiac called it Coronado Red in ’61 and Garnet Mist in 62 (the name Oldsmobile also used.) Buick called it Titian Red and Cadillac called it Pompeiian Red.
The most fascinating trivia is that the 1961-62 paint formula also cross referenced to Avanti Red on the 63-64 Studebaker Avanti.
With cars getting so long and low in the early sixties, I wonder how much the drag coefficients improved. The frontal area must be less and though the C pillar is vertical the car at least seems streamlined.
I would have definitely deleted down to the 235 gross hp engine. 15hp is not enough to justify high test for the long life of this car.
Premium was 4 cents more than regular then. But with a two barrel carb, I would expect to burn regular. With the 4 barrel, premium would be expected. $50 would have made the difference between premium and regular on 1250 gallons of gasoline, and that should have gotten you 12,000 to 15,000 miles.
$50 in 1961 is $398 in 2016, and this car is 55 years old and has probably covered many miles.
Today’s cars burn half the fuel (roughly) that this Buick did. Premium averages about 50 cents per gallon more than regular. So premium would cost about $300 more or so. But most of GM’s non supercharged or non turbocharged engines do not need premium. Back in the 60’s a 1000 gallons of gas was $300 to $400 depending on early or late 60’s and regular or premium. Now 1000 gallons is $2000, but not long ago was closer to $4000. But we should only need half as much now.
Wow…people would much rather talk hate than love today, huh?
GM’s ’61s were so clean for the time, especially the Chevrolets (in my opinion). Probably my favorite was the Bel Air sport coupe, in black.
Fords were pretty close, and Chryslers looked nice, too. All in all, ’61 was a pretty good year for cars.
“Wow…people would much rather talk hate than love today, huh?”
My thoughts echo yours completely.
Today? Try “every day on the Internet.”
I’ve always read these 1961’s were all-new bodies, but wondered whether they weren’t simply heavily-revised 1959-60 bodies. Anyone have definitive information on which it was? Fisher was very adept at taking existing substructures and presenting what looked for all the world to be completely new.
My suspicion comes from noting that the ’59-’60 75 bodies carry over all the way through MY 1965, yet for ’61-’64 appear to be dimensionally consistent with the C-bodies on which they’re based.
My Buick history book suggests that the 1961’s are restyled more than new engineering. The A-pillar is new and an engineering change. But the basic body design is carried over from 1959 through 1964 with annual styling refinements. The 1965 model year cars have a new body design (and styling).
1961 was the first year for the open driveline in the Buick, too. The last torque tube was in the 1960 models.
Yeah, The Cadillac series 75 keeping the enitre roof structure from 1959 all the way up to 1965 always intrigued me to, The Bs & Cs of 1961-1964 may have been a really radical reskin. Fisher was really good at it, How many realize that, for example that the 1970 Cadillac DeVille is actually a heavily disguised 1965 DeVille?
Those road wheels have a way of making any big Buick look better.
+1!
I agree. The road wheels are a great touch to any old Buick.
The formal roofline for the smaller body Buick four door hardtop seems to these eyes to be poor match. I very much like the smaller body car with the bubble top in a two door hardtop, or even the flat top look of the quite rare two door sedan.
On the bullet shaped Buick body the formal roof looks wrong. Better, these eyes tell me, that top on an Olds Dynamic or Super 88 – cars with a more formal, upright nose.
I’d be happy to have any ’61 Buick living in my neighborhood.
The ’61 Buick is part of my family’s lore: my great grandmother, along with my grandmother (who lived with her at the time and did most of the driving), got an Invicta to replace a ’58 Buick Roadmaster. Though I never knew the car (it was long gone before I was born), my grandmother would talk about it for two reasons:
1) My grandmother hated the ’58 Buick, thinking it was too big and “tacky” and she was happy to get into the smaller ’61, which she described as much easier to drive.
2) It was the first car they got with seat belts, and that resulted in a very funny family story to be shared for years around the dinner table. Apparently, when they were taking the car home from the dealer, the salesman must have buckled my great grandmother into the front passenger seat. When they got home, she had no idea how to get unbelted. She was an old-school Southern Belle, and she put on quite a show, commanding my grandmother to “fetch some scissors at once and cut her out of this car!” Luckily before any belts were cut they figured out how to unbuckle the seat belt–and never put it on again. Ever.
’61 car matches ’61 house. Just as the Prius matches the solar chickens.
Nice ride. While I have no issues with modern cars, you can’t deny that the old cars had character that is missed in the vehicles of today. Buicks had character in spades, and it’s nice to see an old one in good shape. I’d love to take it for a long drive and give that old nailhead a good workout.
I really hated those flat-roofs like on the ’60 Electra but this LeSabre’s hardtop roof looks terrific and almost Thunderbird-like. The wheels look great too, really natural with the hardtop roof.
“Wow…people would much rather talk hate than love today, huh?” .
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Nope .
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Not when Paulie rolls out a beauty like this one .
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I’m a Bowtie Guy but I’d rock that white ’61 Coupe in a heartbeat .
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Leslie’s Dad who worked at Kinney Pump in Boston was a die hard Buick Man to his toes and he had one of these when it was just a couple – three years old .
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I always loved riding in Mr. Simpson’s Buicks .
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Good times , fond memories and those were in *very* short supply in the 1960’s .
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-Nate
Love it! The ’61 is one of my favorite Buick designs–the pointed fenders, the curves of the rear bumper, it all works together to create a fantastic shape. and while the styled steel wheels may be a bit too new, they work perfectly here. Nice find!
The ’61 GM B bodies are some of my all time favorites. Not a bad one in the bunch, especially the bubble tops. The Pontiac was probably the best of them, this Buick is a fine example. A major change from the previous gen. Trimmer and athletic. Love the A pillar and vent window.
One of my friends in the ’70’s had one of these. It was the EXACT same color as the one in the article. It had seen better days, but it WAS always reliable.
I think he got rid of it when he fell in love with a ’68 Camaro…