Only 678 Buick GSX Stage 1 models left the factory in 1970, and this Saturn Yellow 4-speed is one of them — a 360-horsepower, 510 lb-ft muscle car that Motor Trend clocked at 13.38 seconds in the quarter mile, its fastest test of the entire year. One former owner kept this exact combination for twenty years. See what made Buick’s forgotten muscle car a legitimate contender.
Buick doesn’t usually show up in muscle car conversations — the brand’s reputation was built on comfort, not quarter-mile times. Then 1970 happened, and for one model year Buick built something that could out-run cars from every other GM division. Only 678 people ever got the chance to buy one factory-new. This is the story of what happened when Motor Trend actually put a stopwatch on it.
360 Horsepower Wrapped in Saturn Yellow
This 1970 Buick GSX Stage 1 4-speed produces 360 horsepower and a massive 510 lb-ft of torque from its 455-cubic-inch V8, finished in the striking Saturn Yellow that became one of the GSX’s signature launch colors. Buick built only 678 GSX models for 1970, making this already one of the rarer entries in the muscle car era, and the Stage 1 package pushed the standard GSX’s performance envelope even further with a more aggressive cam and higher compression.
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Motor Trend’s Fastest Test of the Year
When Motor Trend got a Stage 1 GSX on the strip in 1970, it ran the quarter mile in 13.38 seconds at 105.5 mph — a number the magazine flagged as its quickest test of the entire year, ahead of muscle cars from Chevrolet, Pontiac, Ford, and Chrysler that carried far more performance reputation than Buick. That result is the single fact that transforms this car from a curiosity into a legitimate player among 1970’s fastest factory muscle cars, and it’s the number V8TV leans on throughout this episode of Muscle Car Of The Week.
An Owner Who Kept One for Twenty Years
One commenter identifies themselves as the former owner of what they describe as the most highly optioned GSX ever documented — a 1970 Stage 1 they owned from 1997 to 2017, out of five different Buick GS-series cars they’ve owned over the years. That’s two decades of stewardship over a single car, and the commenter calls it the best of the five, a strong endorsement from someone with direct comparison across multiple generations of Buick’s performance lineup.
The Hood Scoop Myth, Debunked
A detailed comment on this video corrects a common assumption about the GSX’s dramatic hood scoops: rather than feeding the engine extra air, testing found they actually created a negative pressure zone once the car was moving, meaning the scoop placement was driven by styling rather than function. The same commenter notes that a common period modification was flipping over the top plate of the air cleaner, opening roughly a one-inch circular gap to improve airflow to the engine — a cheap, practical fix that real owners used to claw back the performance the factory scoops didn’t actually deliver.
The Oiling Problem Nobody Talks About
Buick’s 400/430/455 big-block family wasn’t originally engineered with racing in mind, and one commenter details the internal oiling and strength issues that resulted — problems Buick eventually worked to resolve for the 455 in partnership with tuner Jim Bell of Kenne-Bell Enterprises in West Covina, California. According to the same commenter, who personally incorporated Bell’s oiling modifications into a rebuilt 400, those fixes made the blocks solid up to 550-600 horsepower applications, with girdles needed only above that threshold — genuinely useful information for anyone building one of these engines today rather than just admiring it on video.
Jim Bell’s Fingerprints on the Motor Trend Test
That same commenter connects an even more specific dot: the two Stage 1 GSX test cars Motor Trend used for its 1970 Arizona desert testing were both prepped by Jim Bell himself, meaning the magazine’s record-setting quarter-mile time wasn’t just a stock car off the showroom floor — it reflected careful carb setup, ignition timing, and tire pressure tuning from a tuner who specialized in making Buicks fast. That context doesn’t diminish the achievement, but it does explain why 13.38 seconds became such an outlier result relative to what typical owners could expect to run.
A Rare Buick That Still Turns Heads
Between the sub-700-unit production number, the Motor Trend record, and multiple owners with decades of personal history behind the wheel, this GSX represents everything that made 1970 the peak year of the muscle car era — a moment when even Buick, a brand built on comfort and prestige, decided it wanted to win at the drag strip too, and briefly succeeded better than almost anyone else.
Buick’s Forgotten Muscle Car Legacy
The GSX badge only existed for two model years, 1970 and 1971, before Buick folded the performance package back into the broader GS lineup — a short production window that adds to its scarcity relative to muscle cars from Pontiac, Chevrolet, and Dodge that ran their halo trims for years longer. Buick’s broader reputation as a comfort-focused, older-buyer brand has meant the GSX gets overlooked in most general muscle car conversations, despite a genuine claim to one of the fastest quarter-mile times recorded by any American car in 1970. Episodes like this one exist specifically to correct that record for anyone willing to give a Buick a fair look.
Why V8TV’s Research Depth Matters
V8TV’s Muscle Car Of The Week series has built its reputation on exactly this kind of deep-cut research, pairing well-documented cars from collections like the Brothers Collection with the kind of specific ownership history and tuning provenance that turns a simple walkaround video into something closer to a historical record. For a car like this GSX, where the difference between a good Stage 1 and a record-setting one comes down to a specific tuner’s involvement, that level of detail is exactly what separates a real muscle car documentary from a generic car show segment.
What a GSX Is Worth Today
Documented Stage 1 GSX cars with verified drivetrains and clean ownership records now regularly command six-figure prices at major auctions, putting them in the same conversation as more famous nameplates from Chevrolet and Pontiac despite Buick’s lower general-market profile. A car with the kind of specific tuner-linked history detailed in these comments — verifiable Jim Bell involvement, decades of single ownership, matching-numbers documentation — would sit near the top of that range, since provenance this well-documented is rare even within an already rare model.
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Dennis Swarthout
Yeah in 1965
My first car 1965 Buick Riviera gs dual carbs kicked ass 140-plus mile per hour
Justin Donovan
All freakin day:)
That’s the first thing I buy when I hit lotto
Im buying that and the 87 GNX
I see that and raise you a Riviera boat tail also
i see that and raise you this https://www.facebook.com/justin.donovan.52/posts/1711489058884138
Saw that. That’s a sexy af wagon
I had instahardon when I saw that gem
Indeed. So much class. Be totally awesome to nail a chick in the back of it
Soo much room for that
Probably room for few girls and flat screen. Netflix and chill in Buick.
Bahahaha
Christina Rey Barrett get me one stat!!!!!!
I’ll put it on the list master….
Such great cars
Awesome
These cars had some serious torque.
Have loved these GSX’s ever since the first time I saw one as a kid!
Jerry Sands
Always thought I would own one by now. Loved these cars when I was 18. This is my favorite muscle car.
In 1974 I had a 70 rag top 455 4-speed with air. It was Sherwood green with a white top and black and white interior. Sure do miss that car. This Nova I have owned for 34yrs.
The best of the 70’s.
One of the fastest cars I have ever been in.
Rich Burgi
Sweet
I wish they would do it again i hate all the 4 door Grandma cars they build today
Olds was another one with the 68 Hurst/Olds!
I luv muscle car
Bad ass.