The Wildcat started out life in 1962 as a specially equipped two-door hardtop coupe to do battle with the likes of the other big sporty coupes, such as the Pontiac Grand Prix, Olds Starfire/Jetfire, Mercury S-55 and the Chrysler 300. By 1963, it became a series of its own, essentially replacing the Invicta, and spawned a convertible and…a four door hardtop. By 1964, a four door sedan was added. Seriously? A Wildcat sedan?
So it went with the endless name debasement in Detroit.
This is how it arrived, “With The Sure-Footed Sock Of Advanced Thrust!” Um, if you say so. What exactly was “Advanced Thrust”? Buick moved their V8 engines further forward than typical, to reduce the size of the transmission tunnel. But Buick is implying that increasing the weight over the front wheels has benefits, such as “Precision Cornering”. Of course!
There was a consolation with the adoption of a four door hardtop in 1963: It came standard with front bucket seats and a console. And a four speed manual transmission was optional, backing up the 325 hp 401 “Nailhead” 401 CID V8. I wonder how many of those four doors with a four speed stick were ever sold.
Things got decidedly less wild in 1964, when the sedan joined the line and the bucket seat interior become optional on the coupe, convertible and hardtop sedan. The four speed manual was still listed as optional, as was the bigger 425 inch version of the nailhead V8, rated at 340 hp.
Whereas through 1964 the Electra 225 had its extra 3″ of wheelbase length at the rear, making its C-Body actually roomier in the back seat, that changed for 1965. Now all the B and C bodies had the same basic body length from the cowl back, and the additional 3″ of wheelbase for were in a longer front end. And the Wildcat got to share that longer Electra 225 front end, as can be seen here, with the shorter LeSabre at the top. GM’s endless body musical chairs.
I didn’t get a shot of the interior, but here’s one of a hardtop coupe from the web. Nice, even if the dash is toned down from those wonderful ones a few years earlier.
I got up close and personal with a ’67 Wildcat sedan—and its owner, which is detailed in the eponymous chapter of my Auto-Biography. I never indicated that her car was a sedan, and I only showed images of the hardtop coupe. But the driving experience was the same, so it was an innocent little sin of omission. I didn’t have a car at the time, having recently sold my ’64 40 hp VW. Driving the 360 hp Wildcat—the ’67 got the new 430 inch V8—was quite the contrast. Except for its ability to still provide some palpable thrust when floored at 80, it drove and handled like the typical big GM cars of the time: adequate, but not at all inspiring, of fast driving was on the agenda. Of course its shocks were probably a bit soft by this time (1973), but I doubt fresh ones would have made much difference.
Barrelling down I-80 at 80+ to our favorite swimming hole was a blast, although even with pre-energy crisis gas prices, filling it up after running it hard was painful. No wonder I drove VWs; I could fill it up for three bucks, and it would go over 300 miles on that.
The Wildcat name didn’t last long; by 1971, it was reborn as the Centurion. Buick struggled to find the right name for its in-between big cars. They should have just kept “Super” or “Century” as it was back in the 1940s and ’50s. Yes, it was super driving it at the century.
Related reading:
The Buick Nailhead V8 And The Source Of Its Unusual Valve Arrangement
Great car to see again! I always wished that these cars had less hood and less trunk and more interior space within the given overall length.
I like the model used in the ad. A sharp contrast to so many of the models wearing evening dresses who looked like objects and while often pretty, do nothing for me. And shes not just some “hottie” ..she just looks fun in a normal healthy way….whoa just realized..no wedding ring.intersesting
Buick’s attempt at marketing “old folks cars” to a younger demographic. This is reflected in Buick brochures of the early ’60’s. In my family, middle aged and older women drove them.
A 4 door Wildcat was almost as odd as a 4 door Thunderbird.
For 67 Buick offered a 4 door hardtop and a post sedan Wildcat but no 4 door hardtop LeSabre. Musical chairs indeed.
In two series almost 50,000 1967 LeSabre four door hardtops were built.
I stand corrected and have that photo in my copy of the “Buick -The Magazine For The In Crowd ” Another case of coupe myopia on my part.
My high school ride in the early nineties was a ‘68, a Custom 4 door hardtop equipped with the optional 3.42 posi (just like my current ‘67 Riviera GS that i bought to replace it in 2000). My favorite model has always been the 1965 Wildcat hardtop coupe and here in Canada, the 1964-65 coupe and convertible models still came with standard Custom bucket seats that were extra cost options in the US.
I currently have a 1965 Wildcat but mine is a hardtop sedan. It’s got the optional Custom cloth trim which was standard on the Canadian-made pillared sedan and available at extra cost on the hardtop sedan.
The watering down of the sporty big car where it could be ordered uncomfortably close to entry model stripper was unfortunate. I’m sure the thinking was it might sell better with a lower entry price, but it killed any image these cars may have had.
Cars like the Wildcat and Chrysler 300 were essentially option packages, why not just offer the model name with at least buckets, console, styled road wheels, maybe a tilt wheel, dual mirrors and a handling package? It may not have sold well, but it would have been eye candy in the showroom. Let the customer spec a LeSabre or a Newport if they want à la carte features.
Yes, but unlike any year of the Wildcat, the 300 series (which lasted through 1971) gave the buyer unique front-end and/or rear-end treatments, including headlamp doors starting in 1968. The 300, having originated as the letter-cars through 1965, had more of a justification for trying to extend the “specialness” of the name, which presumably meant something to the 300’s limited number of buyers.
True, but these are just cosmetic changes that don’t cost a ton to tool for. Chevy used varying front and rear appearances on it’s Bel-Air, Impala and Caprice trims. It’s parts bin stuff, just like functional options.
I guess we must have a different definition of treatments.
On the pictured example the grille, and front fenders are not shared with either the LeSabre or Electra and I think that holds for all years of the Wildcat as a model. The Wildcat Venti Port treatment is unique requiring that (slightly) different fender.
Out back the pictured Wildcat does use the same basic body and taillights as the LeSabre but it has a bright metal with black accent trim panel between the lights that isn’t on the LeSabre and the tail lights have silver paint on the ribs of the Wildcat but not on the LeSabre. That taillight panel went away for 67 but the lights were still unique to the Wildcat.
Except for 1962 where it shared it’s grille with other full size Buick models and it’s taillights with the Electra 225 (the regular Invicta had the same taillights as the LeSabre), all other years had had unique front and rear end treatments.
Here in Canada, the Chrysler 300 was available as a 4 door sedan and some models like the 1966 didn’t have the unique taillights that the US model had.
The Buick Wildcat wasn’t available in base trim before 1967 and it came with unique features, the 4 door sedan and hardtop had C body interior trim and the 2 door models came with standard bucket seats and console with a standard tachometer before 1966. When power windows were ordered on the 1965-66 models, this included power vents. On Electra 225s (which were imported from the US), they were a separate option and rarely ordered.
The base Electra 225 also had cheaper interior trim than the standard Wildcat and less appointments.
My 67 LeSabre coupe was ordered ala carte. It’s optioned as a LeSabre 400 without the 400 script on it’s flanks ( 340 4 barrel, SuperTurbine 3 speed auto transmission) plus air conditioning, speed minder, remote trunk release, AM radio and Buick script floor mats.
I remember an article of Collectible Automobile about the 1971-76 Buick showing some clays models of the proposed 1971 models and they once toyed with the idea of a 1971 Buick Wildcat. They didn’t said why they dropped it for Centurion.
As for Century, Buick recycled it for the mid-size/intermediate Colonnade for 1973. Strange they didn’t recycled the Wildcat nameplate for the mid-size line-up as well.
My Uncle Norman Had a new 63 Wildcat 4dr hardtop. in “true” Red (A spot of blue to avoid the orangeness of “resale red” with a white painted roof. Fully Loaded. It originally has steelies with wheel covers, However he had the gorgeous Buick Sport wheels installed. It was a gorgeous car. Even made my Dad’s 63 Bonneville Hardtop look a little dowdy. Unc. kept that car for years. even after moving to a Riviera in 67. I do not know what happened to it. but last I saw it was parked in a Garage/barn on his property, This was in the mid 70s. next to my Grandmothers 58 Belair 4dr. The Belair was sold to a collector in the early Oughts. No word on what happened to the Buick. I asked about the Buick when My Aunt told me the Chevy was sold, she answered ‘it’s still there, I think. I need to find out. Could it be a family barn find? What to do…I am in Phoenix. The car, if it still exists, is in West St. Louis County. Need to make a call.
Random tangential musings regarding the 4-speed manual…
Prior to the early 50s, buyers of low-priced cars were *forced* to shift their cars. And with unsynchronized gears (at least 1st, and maybe the other two as well) it wasn’t “sporty” or “fun” – especially for city drivers. It was a chore.
A lot of people (including my father, b. 1925) couldn’t wait to rid themselves of the chore of shifting. In fact, my father’s first brand new car purchase was a ’52 or ’53 Chevrolet coupe with Powerglide. He never looked back, and neither did many/most of the folks of his generation.
I can’t imagine that the Wildcat sold more than a handful of manual transmission versions.
My father was a salesman and the companies he worked for invariably provided him a car with three on the tree. New York City made up a significant part of his territory.
Which led him to loathe manual transmissions. He would always give me a hard time for wanting to get a manual car, saying if I had to endure what he did driving those company cars in traffic, my tune would be way different.
Later, his bosses wised up and provided their salesmen with automatics, which by then were de facto standard in any car you bought from stock.
Last week, we saw that Pontiac added 3 inches for the Bonneville behind the rear door, with no change to the Catalina’s interior room either. It seems wasteful that they offered these small variations in wheelbase and body size with little benefit. Guess they made it up in volume.
I’m not sure about these years, but for ’67+, the B & C sedans had about 2 inches more rear leg room than the hardtops on the same wheelbase.
The 60’s was an odd time of neglected middle children in mid-price car lineups. Buick’s Invicta and Wildcat were always slow sellers, ditto Mercury’s Montclair that slotted between Monterey and Marquis. Chrysler’s 300, Pontiac’s Ventura and Executive are the others that were offered but not commonly seen on the streets. Oldsmobile seemed to be the exception, where Delta and Super 88s did well but low enders like Jetstar 88, Delmont 88 were less popular.
I guess everyone figured out it was easier to just add a badge that said “Custom” and some nicer interior trim than to field an entire separate model line.
The ’66 4 dr Wildcat sedan was a little seen model. This one looks sharp wth it’s aftermarket wheels and black walls. Shell beige was a very popular Buick color back then. I seem to remember noticing the longer Electra front clip on these models, which were comprised mostly of hard tops.
I would have found it very hard to buy a sedan after seeing this.
I experienced a kind of prequel CC effect by finding a ’64 Wildcat sedan advertised on CL last month. I had known that there was a four door hardtop available, usually well optioned out often with buckets and console. I didn’t know that there was a sedan offered. The example pictured was dull and dirty I thought it might just be a LeSabre, I thought that the seller might have referred to it as a Wildcat, because the name on the air cleaner specified the Wild cat V8. I looked through my reference library and learned the truth, the sedan was added in ’64.
A base Wildcat and a base LeSabre were pretty close in spec. They both came with a pretty plain two bench interior, and a standard V8. The LeSabre had a smaller two barrel Nailhead with single exhaust. It appears that the Wildcat came with the 401 standard and 425 optional, four barrel dual exhaust set up. From this post I learned that the Wildcat had the longer wheelbase than the Le Sabre. The Wildcat had the complex die cast grille, fancy tail light panel, body side moulding and triple fender hashes.
I could see that attraction of the four door hardtop, especially with buckets, console and road wheels. The sedan, not so much. I like the Wildcat name and trim but why would you want a cheapie spec sedan? I think that a year later the 425 became available in the LeSabre. I know that the LeSabre had to be a little cheaper, but was maybe 100 or so bucks that much of a difference?
I like Buicks from the Sixties, and have had a few Rivieras, but a well appointed Wildcat would still be tempting to me.
My high school ride was a 69 Wildcat coupe. 430ci 4 barrel Nailhead with dual exhaust. Brown Metallic with a creme vinyl top, with the Buick sport wheels. One sweet ride for a 16 year old. Pegged the speedo at an indicated 120mph on several occasions. Looking for a 69 or 70 Wildcat convertible.
1966 were the last year for nailheads. You had the more more modern redesign of the Buick V8, which is a good thing.
I’ve always like the Wildcat name, but I don’t care much for the sedans. Make mine a 2 door hardtop or a convertible with a decent handling package to go with the name. Though the Wildcat name never made it to the Seventies, I think Buick could have done worse than offer it as a special Century model. Keep it as a 2-door with the classic Buick road wheels, a firmer, sporty suspension and plenty of power.
The colonnade Regal would have made a nice Wildcat. So would the 1977 LeSabre Sport Coupe, and with the turbo V6 that came out a year later, worthy of the name, at least for that time.
Buick might have been a little ashamed to put the name on anything less than a big coupe with a monster 455 in front. It never resurfaced except on a 1980’s mid-engine concept vehicle with a hot V6.