1964 Buick Wildcat - Knock-knock. Who's There?

 

Knock-knock. Who's there? Nostalgia. Again. The family next door to my family and I back on Long Island had a light green, four-door, 1964 Buick LeSabre so my interest in this 1964 Buick Wildcat is a bit of a stroll down the block I grew up on in Baldwin, New York for me since these '64 Wildcats and LeSabre's are so similar looking. Baldwin, incidentally, where I grew up, is on Long Island and is a bedroom community of Manhattan that, without traffic, is just twenty minutes or so from Times Square. Baldwin's now a community with housing so expensive that for the same kind of money a falling-down lean-to goes for there, like the pre-war dump I grew up in, you can buy a lavish, freshly built McMansion in most any mid-western city. But I digress. 

Technically, a "wildcat" is a term that refers to a species complex comprising two small wild cat species; a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance the boundaries between them are often unclear. Euphemistically, then, it's not much of a stretch to say that Buick's 1962-1970 "Wildcat" was named after a feral, "household-pet sized" common cat. Ah, but what's in a name anyway, right?  

There have been five Buick "Wildcat" concept cars over the years in addition to the 1962-1970 production models; there were three in the 1950's, one in 1985 and the last one was in 1997. Come 1962, a Buick Wildcat was a sub-series of their Invicta; for '63 Willdcat became it's own line squeezed between the top-dog, err cat, Electra, and the LeSabre. Invicta stuck around for '63 but was only a station wagon; Buick dropped it for '64. 

From '62 through '64, Buick Wildcats's were dressed up with Electra like details inside and out and were stuffed with engines only available on Buick's haughtier models,  From 1965 through 1970 Wildcat was based on the same GM platform that underpinned the Electra and was, ahem, a whole other animal from these big cats. These large, semi-luxurious '62-'64's where also pegged as "full-size sports-cars" or "banker's hot-rod's." Wild, indeed. All of GM's divisions save for Cadillac offered "executive-sleeper's" like the early Wildcat's with Chevrolet, arguably, being the most successful at it. The advent of GM's very successful intermediate sized muscle cars made these cars superfluous if not redudant. If not, actually, irrelevant. 

Don't get me wrong, my ribbing of these lovely cars is purely in gest. I love 'em as I do many an old Buick and the idea of a gigantic, six-passenger car with serious beans is very alluring to me. Our '64 here is stuffed with a three-hundred and twenty-five horsepower, "Wildcat 445" V-8 engine. "445" referring not to the engine's displacement but, curiously, the engine's gross torque output rating. This engine, part of a series of Buick V-8 engines made between 1953 and 1966 that were known as "Nailhead's" in deference to their narrow intake and exhaust valves actually displaces 401 cubic-inches. A more powerful 401 engine, the "Wildcat 465" and a 425 cubic-inch "Super Wildcat" were optional. A four-speed manual and two-three speed automatic transmissions were available making for a daunting number of available power train options. 

Red here's "Wildcat 445" backed, somewhat disappointingly, with a column mounted (booooo!) Buick automatic, presumably Buick's most excellent "Super Turbine 400". Buick's automatic transmission's where the precursors of GM's famous Turbo-Hydramatic's. Sidebar for those of a certain vintage - how freaking dangerous was it to have someone sitting next to the driver in any car with a bench seat? Also, note, no seat belts. They weren't required on cars sold in this country until 1966. 

Aside from some bright work and perhaps a tad more scoot, there was little to differentiate our '64 Wildcat here from a LeSabre. Even the rear end treatment here is pure LeSabre whereas in 1962 and 1963 it was more Electra like. Naturally, Buick charged substantially more for a Wildcat than a LeSabre although, honestly, you think it cost Buick any more to make a Wildcat? 

I really, really like this car and it's tad unusual for me to be as smitten as I am with it. Perhaps it from my birth-year has in addtion of it reminding of my neighbor's LeSabre has a lot to do with that. The condition of this car is also spectacular and with a not-out of this world unreasonable asking price of just under ten-grand, I have to resist the temptation to call on it. Having one or two too many cars is a big deterrent as well and my car loving older son thinks this a fuddy-duddy "old man's car". 

There aren't many things about my childhood I'd like to relive again. The cars on the block I grew up on one of the precious-few things I wouldn't mind seeing again. You can't go home again, as they say, good lord, again, not that I'd want to, but sometimes it's a ton of fun to think about.