What with Vietnam, Nixon, Unleaded Gas, Recession, Catalytic Converters, Inflation, Jimmy Carter, 5 mph bumpers, The Iran Hostage Crisis, Two Gas Shortages and Disco, actually, now that I think about it....I like disco music, the 1970's were a challenging time for this country. There were a lot of good movies that came out in the '70s too...so with that and disco, it wasn't all bad. Just mostly bad.
Growing up in the '70s felt like showing up to a great party The Morning After. While the house was trashed, you could tell that it must have been some soiree. The United States had won two World Wars inside of twenty five years and became, without question, the greatest super power the world has ever known. Pretty good reason to get your freak on. There was, however, like with most great parties, a hangover.
Large, lavishly equipped cars have seemingly always been a status symbol. After World War II, the size of American cars, in general, increased dramatically. They reached their their greatest bulk in the early 1970's.
GM's new for 1971 full size "B bodies' being the biggest of them all. They only got bigger as the decade slowly marched on when federally mandated 5 mph bumpers were bolted onto already existing designs. These cars were so large, in fact, that GM's new for 1973, intermediate "A bodies", like our Buick Century, seemed svelte by comparison.
So svelte, in fact, that when GM "down sized" their full size cars for 1977, they used the B body platform, like the one that underpins our well worn subject, as their underpinnings.
The new for 1973 Buick Century and all of its "A body" stable mates, broke no new technological ground although their styling was, subjectively, handsome. As many love these cars as dislike them. I'm partial, of course, to the coupes like our Century here.
1974 was significant for the Century for several reasons. First, it was the year that "the big bumpers" were on both the front and back (of all cars, actually, sold in this country), it was the last year cars sold in the U.S. didn't have catalytic converters, and lastly, the last year the Century had a Buick V-8 as its standard engine. That is a Buick 350-2, a Buick built 350 cubic inch mill not be confused with "350 engines" from Chevrolet, Oldsmobile or Pontiac. They're all different. The "2" in 350-2 denotes a Rochester 2 barrel carburetor. Starting in 1975 a 231 cubic inch "Buick" V-6 engine would be the base engine in these big, heavy cars. A Buick 455 V-8 was available albeit with a 2 barrel carburetor; remember again what model year we're talking about here. I have to imagine people had to have been slightly aghast at the middling performance of the V-6 in these whoppers. Salespeople, no doubt, up selling the fuel saving potential of the V-6 versus the V-8. Honestly, the fuel savings was minimal. This was all a way for GM to sell large cars in a market that didn't want them. Cheaper to put a smaller engine into a car than an entirely new car. That "new" would have to wait until 1978. Read more about them here. http://charleyconnolly.blogspot.com/2013/04/1979-buick-regal-unsoldbut-not-unloved.html
The 231 V-6 would eventually mature into a fantastic engine but in the mid '70s, it was a lumpy, sluggish, shaky mess. Not unlike the way a person feels after imbibing too much the night before.
How about a little hair of the dog in the way of a nice V-8 to make you feel better?
In 1973, Buick replaced their mid size model, the Skylark, with the Century. The Century nameplate first appeared on a Buick model in the 1930's and was said to be for an automobile that could accelerate to 100 mph. In England, that's called, "doing the century".
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