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Measuring 225 inches bumper to bumper and powered by a 401-cubic-inch V8 nicknamed the Wildcat 445, this 1960 Buick Electra convertible represented the brand’s new flagship just one year after Buick retired the Roadmaster name. Only 6,746 of these convertibles were built for the entire model year. Read on to find out what made this cream-painted example such a rare survivor.
Debbie Powless’s love of Buicks started with her grandfather’s Electra 225, a gift that planted a seed years before she ever owned a Buick herself. After spotting a Riviera at a car show, she searched until she found this exact 1971 Buick Riviera GS Gran Sport in Vintage Red, then restored it from the ground up. Under the hood sits the 455 cubic inch V8 that gives the car its signature sound. Watch to hear it, and to hear how a family hand-me-down turned into a decade-long search.
Buick’s Electra 225 earned its deuce and a quarter nickname honestly, this was a 225 inch land yacht, one of the largest cars in GM’s 1970 lineup. Under the hood, Buick had just retired its long-running 430 V8 in favor of a bigger, more powerful big-block, offered in three different states of tune depending on how serious a buyer wanted to get. This was also the final year for the Electra convertible, making 1970 a genuine turning point for Buick’s full-size flagship.
Barrett-Jackson’s 46th Annual Scottsdale Auction rolled a deep run of rare Mopars across the block in January 2017, and one lot in particular had the rest of the docket looking over its shoulder: a 1970 Plymouth Hemi ‘Cuda listed as one of only fourteen built, carrying documented race history and national records. Here is what made that car, and the Mopar run around it, worth paying attention to.