1969 Buick Skylark GS 400 Convertible - Strong Enough For a Man But Made for a Woman

 

When I was a kid, I felt these uniquely styled Buick Skylark's to be cars exclusively for women. Funny, these days I have to tell myself they're not every time I see one; old habits die hard, I guess. That was probably because my childhood friend Lori's mother had one. A kind although genteel woman, she let it be known to us neighborhood kids in the carpool circuit that it was her car, not her husband's. Lori's mom's car was a 1969 Skylark in "Cameo Creme" whereas my Facebook Marketplace find here is a 1969 GS400 in "Signal Red". Like ads for Secret anti-perspirant used to claim, "strong enough for a man but made for a woman". 

The Buick GS was marketed as a separate model from the Skylark although it was just a Skylark with stronger engines, heavier duty shocks and springs, wider wheels and tires and unique trim pieces and ornamentation. 

For 1967, GM updated what they referred to internally as their "A-body" intermediate or mid-sized models taking out three-inches of wheelbase from the coupes to improve, they claimed, handling, balance and directional stability. For 1968, stylists also whipped up, subjectively, some of the best looking and today some of the most valuable automobiles ever made. The wildest of them all the Buick Skylark and GS. Speaking of value, while this car is not as valuable as say a 1968 Chevelle convertible, Pontiac GTO or Oldsmobile 4-4-2 would be, it still commands and asking price of $24,995. 

Some thought the styling so avant garde they first believed these cars to be a new-for-1968 Riviera as its lines purportedly ape those of the then current Riviera. I don't get that although I do appreciate the "sweep spear" styling detail that would wane as a Buick staple as the 1960's melted into the blur that was the '70's. The convertible top on our '69 here does mute the flying buttress effect of the rear windshield flowing into an all but hatchback inspired trunk or deck lid on fixed roof models. 

The "400" in "GS400" denotes Buick's new for 1967 400 cubic-inch V-8 and was a powerhouse. Making 340-(gross rated) horsepower, it was the big mill that replaced the curious Buick "Nailhead" V-8 engine. The little brother to the Buick 430 and later 455 cubic-inch V-8's, there may have been no difference between the Buick 400 and 430 as GM had a stipulation at the time limiting the size of engines in their intermediates to 400 cubic-inches. There's scuttlebutt there was no difference between Chevrolet's 396 and 427 engines, so anything is in fact possible. 

There was also a GS350 - that car powered by Buick's 350 cubic-inch V-8 engine. Tuned to 280 gross rated horsepower, like all GM 350's back in the day, it was unique to Buick and shared little with other "350's" Oldsmobile, Pontiac and Chevrolet made. Cadillac never made a "350". 

Buick updated the series for 1970-1972 removing just about everything that made the 1968 and 1969 models distinctive making the Skylark all but a trim level of the Chevrolet Chevelle. Not in and of itself a bad thing but being one rung below lordly Cadillac on the GM pricing ladder, you'd think a "Buick" would at least be somewhat distinctive. By the early 1970's GM had long run out of ideas as to why buyers should pay more for one make over another. 

Secret anti-perspirant's famous tag line was introduced in 1972 and to this day remains one of the most famous advertising lines of all time. 

1969 Buick Skylark - Strong Enough for a Man but Made for a Woman

Few things take me back...back...back...like old cars do. This 1969 Buick Skylark takes me back to kindergarten in the fall of 1969. The family up the block from us back on Long Island had one of these and it was one of the vehicles in power rotation in the neighborhood kiddie car pool.

 

I remember having a little crush on Laurie whose mother drove what I determined to be the pinnacle of automotive femininity. Funny how I don't see it quite that way now but I remember at the time thinking the car's design was much like "Secret", that antiperspirant targeted at women; "Strong Enough for a Man but Made for a Woman". 

GM's reboot of their 1964 intermediate "A-bodies" for 1968 was decidedly uneven. Personally, I thought the Pontiac's the best looking of the lot followed by Chevrolet in a distant second-place. Then the overstuffed Oldsmobile's and lastly these "out-there" Skylark's with their tapered hind quarters. Cadillac, of course, didn't get one. Only in retrospect can we intelligently say that they might have been a mistake for the "Standard of the World" as Mercedes was already making inroads with much, much smaller and far more expensive cars. The Cadillac "bigger is better" axiom in full stride in the late '60's. They weren't any better than a Chevy at the time but by golly they was sure bigger. 

I remember thinking that if only they'd get rid of this funky rear end, this might just be a car that a five or six year old car crazy little nipper could get his Hush-Puppies around. 

Ask and ye shall receive as this debate-ably odd rear end treatment last only two model years. All of the "A's" received some updating for 1970, the Skylark more than any other as Buick nixed this design for something far more conventional. If lacking in distinction. 

Hard to tell sometimes if a 1970-1972 Buick Skylark is a Chevelle or not. And  vice versa. 

Laurie and her family moved to Arizona when she was was in the second grade. We keep in the vaguest of contact through Facebook. That peripheral contact with people I used to know, especially from when I was very young, one of the few things I like about social media.