1956 Buick Special - It's Always Cloudy in Cleveland

If it weren't for the late model blue crossover and 1971 vintage Buick Elecrra wheel covers, this photo of a 1956 Buick Special could have been from the 1950's or early '60's. Shoot, why not the early '70's as folks routinely used period incorrect wheel covers back then to "hippen" up an old car. 

Put some old-timey filters and it appears to be even more of a relic from the past. The photo, that is. The car speaks for itself. Funny, even when I was the same age as the kid in the picture these cars seemed impossibly old. 

The Buick Special was, historically, Buick's least expensive model and not surprisingly was most model years their best seller. Buick festooned "Special" to myriad other models as well but more so as a sub-brand as opposed to a distinct make. As if a badge of shame, Buick Special's of this vintage had three decorative venti-ports while all other Buick's had four. 

This literal barn find, more like a "garage find", with an asking price a very ambitious $8,000, is in fact "special". Two-door hardtops had been around if not in vogue for years but this was the first four-door hardtop. The term "hardtop" somewhat a misnomer since all cars that don't have a soft, convertible top are hardtops, but the term refers to a fixed-roof automobile with the styling of a convertible. 

You can't see it in this photograph, or perhaps it's been eroded away by sixty-five years of exposure of time or what not, but in the circle of the ornamentation on the trunk lid here, Buick called out not only the make and model of this car but the model year as well. Can't say I'm aware of any manufacturer ever do that before or since. 

There's a lot to this Special that makes it alluring and a lot, frankly that scares me as well. Four-door cars are the unloved entrails of the classic car world and I avoid them like I do folks with Covid. Its sky-high asking price would scare off as many would be buyers as having to find parts to rebuild this old Buick "nail-head" engine would be. Nail-head referring to the intake and exhaust valves on this engine that were long and thin like nails. 

At least she's somehow survived all these years and hasn't succumbed to the elements up here in always cloudy Cleveland. Or been in a demolition derby.