might be too new for the hamb, but anybody own or have any history on the buick special deluxe cars? I remember my grandma of all people had one when i was a kid,had a 455 in it, don't know if it was stock or not. but dam i loved that car. it sadly ended up getting junked because a lot of Ohio winters had turned the frame and underbody of the car to swiss cheese, last thing I heard some guy who was at the yard when they drove it in,opened the hood, and bought it from the yard on the spot. I would just like to see some pictures of these cars and maby find some history of them and experiences of owners. Will always be one of my favorite cars, nothing else sounded like that motor, never has since. I believe the one she had was a 68. I need to get ahold of my mom in ohio and see if she remembers where that car came from . Kathey Mattea hit the nail on the head with her song 455 rocket, when i first heard that brought back a lot of memories about that old buick. and yes it did sound like an airplane. little more on my association with this car, my mom bought it from my grandma and we drove that thing until I was about ten, I was born in 72. So i got a lot of miles in that car. MY cousins used to borrow that car to do "errands" my mom never could figure out why, I remember a few times going with them to do "errands" which involved doing donuts in the parking lots at the hills department store. I know a few times they borrowed it to take it to the local drag strip,SHHH she doesn't know that to this day.
The Special Deluxe was available in '50-'54 and '61-'69. The V8 cars never came with anything larger than a 350. In '68 the Special Deluxe was the base series car. The 455 was introduced in 1970 (455 Rocket refers only to the Oldsmobile 455 and not the Buick 455). A '68 Special Deluxe was available with the 250 inline 6 (standard engine) or an optional 350 V8 with either 2 or 4 bbl carb. If it really had a Buick 455 in it someone installed it later. Since the Special Deluxe and the Skylark/GS are essentially the same it wouldn't have been that hard to do because you could get a 400 BBB in the '68 GS and the 400/430/455 are the same. Here is one good book on Buicks, the Standard Catalog of Buick 1903-2004: http://www.amazon.com/Standard-Catalog-Buick-1903-2004/dp/0873497600 Also check out www.v8buick.com
it was installed after it left the factory then. I know for a fact it had the 455 in it,i just didn't remember if it was original or not. now it had the rocket air cleaner,so it's possible it was the olds engine.
I called one of my relatives and he confirmed it had an olds 455 in it. who did it i don't know and he didn't know that means one of the first cars I ever remember had been made into a hot rod.
The Oldmobile 455 was built from 1968 through 1976, the Buick 455 was built from 1970 through 1976, and the Pontiac 455 was also built from 1970 through 1976. The Rocket name was used last in 1974, so the motor was probably a '68-'74.
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