While sporty and exciting, Camaros and Mustangs could never have cluttered the driveways of the incurably posh. Buick lovers waited until 1965 for their muscle car, the Gran Sport to arrive. Now they too could rumble nonchalantly through drive-ins to the chagrin of their grimacing dollar-challenged compatriots.
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| The 1965 Gran Sport was Buick's answer to its customers request for a rumbling muscle car. (Photo: General Motors) |
Back to 1920, Buick's reliability was respected worldwide. Not all cars are quite so reliable - take my Ford Taurus please! Today's cars are more reliable, fuel efficient and safe than they ever have been before, thanks to technological advances, modern materials and techniques, plus computerization. While "techno-geeks" swear by such on board computers and electronic gizmos, backyard mechanics just swear at them.
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| Some of Buick's technology innovations of the past include the first overhead valve engine in 1908, followed later by the first American mass-produced V6 and all aluminum V8. (Photo: General Motors) |
While not considered to be the technology leader by today's standards, Buick has led the way in many instances in technology and innovation in the past. Ever since 1908 when they developed the first valve-in-head engine, more familiarly known as an overhead valve, and beat Ford out by almost fifty years. Other Buick successes were the first American mass-produced V6 and all aluminum V8. When are we going to see the roller bearing engine crank, the sparking gasket or the solenoid actuated engine valves that would eliminate parasitic power drain of the camshafts?
Perhaps the fuel cell will put all these internal combustion engine dreams in the same museum as the hourglass and the hand starter, or on the other hand maybe it'll go the same way as the superconductor. My vote is with the fuel cell. Once again, I've been wrong before.