1973 Buick Century Gran Sport Stage 1: Last of the Luxury Muscle Cars!

By the time the early 1970s rolled around, the muscle car era was really on life support and almost all but dead. But there were a few vehicles that would come out during this time frame that would give one last gasp of air to the muscle car craze that really began in the 1960s, although some could even date it back to the late 50s. Regardless, the 1973 Buick Century Grand Sport that we're going to talk about here was one of just a very few number of vehicles that were offered in 1973 that you could still really get some good performance out of the engines and have fun from stoplight to stoplight. Other vehicles from the General Motors stable that still had performance of course included the Corvette, which you could still outfit with a big block engine for 1973, and Pontiac's Super Duty V8 that could be had in vehicles like the Firebird. But of course, the Firebirds and the Corvettes were not really luxury muscle cars, so to speak, cars that you really could cruise in and enjoy and then drive really, really fast. That was really the domain of this particular vehicle. Now for 1973, the A-body intermediates from General Motors were all new, whether that was the Buick Century that we're going to talk about here today, or that was the Pontiac Grand Am as an example, the Oldsmobile Cutlass, the Chevrolet Malibu. They were all new and they loved this single headlamp look up front, allegedly because GM's Inland Fisher guide division was trying to push the performance of this new type of sealed beam, and so this really showed it off. But aside from the headlamps, I think the 1973 Century and Regal are really my favorite of the A-bodies. I love how they have the single headlamp up front, flanked by the circular turn signal indicator and parking lamp that's just inboard of it. And then you have this beautiful kind of diving feature line or fender line that goes into the door, formed by the top of the fender, and then it just gradually blends into a surface as it goes rearward on the car and starts diving downward. Now some Buicks in prior years, like the 1967 Buicks, had this beautiful swage line or S-line on the body side, and you really got that diving line up front, and then it kind of had that dual inflection point and kink on it as it went rearward on the car. By this point, there's no more swage line, but there is, as I mentioned, that beautiful form that I think is just artistic mastery, and that's rare to say on a GM car, any car from the 70s, but this one really is. Now of course it was 1973, so you had the five mile an hour impact bumper up front. I think Buick did a nice job overall. It's a pretty hefty bumper, big bumper guards, although they placed them in the middle of the bumper, so on the outer edges, the bumper doesn't look horrible, although you can see that it sits quite proud of the body. Big grille opening that is above the bumper and a grille opening below. Gotta cool that big 455 cubic inch Stage 1 V8 under hood, but aside from the fender form that really goes back into the door, the body side, as you can see here, is quite straightforward. Tucks in at the lower, like many cars did of the era. You have the toothpick A-pillars, the wide windshield that kind of curves, and then you have significant tumble home where the roof panel is much narrower than the mid section of the body. So very typical 70s GM style, but done in a different way. You didn't often see the headlamps kind of sitting proud like this of the overall header panel. Notice how far the headlamps stick out from the header panel on this car, and you also have an interesting interpretation of the shoulders that come from around the A-pillars up front into that header panel and then gradually fade out as it goes in kind of toward that grille area. From this particular pose, the car really looks like a sketch, and notice that the upper portion of the surrounding around the headlamp just sticks out a little bit more than the lower portion. You can see that on the driver's side headlight if you look here, giving the overall car the sense of motion as it stands still. So you have not only the fender form that helps give it some motion, but also the fact that you have that kind of posture, if you will, of the front end. And I think that's why I also like those turn signals kind of tucked in behind the headlamp. It looks like they're kind of crouching back there and waiting to pounce. And as we rotate around to the kind of front three-quarter view, you can see that fender form and how it goes into the door even a little bit better here. Now one thing I will mention is this was the era at General Motors Design where Styling Vice President Bill Mitchell was enamored with so-called four-fendered cars, and you see a number of them that made it through to production like the 1971 Eldorado that has kind of these distinct four-fendered shapes. There was even a four-fendered Farkel Oldsmobile that did not make it through to production but clearly had very distinct fender forms. Now here you just have, I guess, a two-fendered Farkel, if you will. The rear doesn't have that distinct fender form like the front does, but you can imagine if this car were able to be wider, and I'm sure that the designers wanted something like that, that that fender form going into the door would have even been wider yet, but couldn't have that with the touchdown of the A-pillars being so wide. Now this is a Century Grand Sport. There were various versions of the Century. The Grand Sport was an option package on the base Century, and you could get the Century in the Colonnade Coupe you see here, the Colonnade Sedan. Then there was one up from that, there was the Century Luxus. Ooh, the Luxus. And then there was the Regal. The Grand Sport was just an option package on the base Century. You also have, kind of typical for the time frame, some styling elements like that thick B-pillar. During this time, it was thought that there were going to be pretty strict rollover standards, and so General Motors started putting thicker B-pillars in a number of its vehicles. And then you have the toothpicky A-pillars up front. You also have the hidden wipers on this car, which were something that was still a passing fad at this point, but was still in vogue, and you can see it obviously on this car. And out back, we have the pre-1974 bumper rear end with these inset tail lamps with the crosshatch design, very similar to the grille up front. And those bumper guards, those that are flanking the license plate, are very similar to those that were up front as well, helping tie the theme together. Now the Grand Sport package couldn't really be much more subdued. It's pretty minimalist overall. You can see Grand Sport from the rear. It's most prominent actually on the quarter panels and the lettering. Notice it's the Grand Sport, not the Grand Sport. GM was probably fortunate to save a few pennies by not printing a D and calling it the Grand Sport instead. Notice also, thankfully, this car doesn't have a vinyl roof, but that big rear quarter glass at least helps the aesthetic, given that you have that chunky B-pillar and a relatively thick C-pillar as well. But that quarter glass kind of helps the side view and the rear view look a little bit more open and airy, and certainly from inside the cabin you're not kind of back there behind some, let's say, chunky C-pillar. It's a relatively thin one. Nice big backlight. This car, somebody put a sunroof in it. An aftermarket sunroof. Why somebody would cut the top on an original Grand Sport Stage 1 Century? I don't know, but you know, people do different things unfortunately. It's like some people have to have their stereo system in their very rare classic car and then cut the door panels and put speakers in there. That's another pet peeve of mine, but oh well, what are you going to do? And from the rear three-quarter view, you can see that beautiful line that kind of comes down from the roof, down the C-pillar, and then forms a surface or a little crease there, I should say, as it goes. Yeah, kind of intersects with the decklid as it goes rearward. So just a handsome profile of vehicle. Very athletic stance on this car too. The quarter panels kind of bulge out around the wheel. That fender form up front bulges out around the front wheel. You want, I would say, it'd be nice if that front wheel in particular were a little bit more outboard. But hey, this is what the cars looked like during this time frame. There were relatively small wheels and tires and then the wheels were pretty far inboard. Overall, you know what? This one looks great. I definitely would have been a Now, as we rotate toward the interior of the vehicle, we see something that you don't often see in cars this era, and that's bucket seats. Of course, they're not individually reclinable. You notice that there's no reclining adjustment here that you can move and there's also no center console. This car does have a four-speed manual transmission, as you'll see in a minute. But still, they are kind of cloaked in heavy grade vinyl that is very comfortable. You can tell that these seats were quite comfortable. Of course, no lateral support whatsoever. Your butt is going to slide all over the place if you try to maneuver this car with any sense of alacrity or pace. Although, you know, who really cares? You're not trying to throw around your 1973 Buick Century Grand Sport. You're probably just trying to have a little bit of fun, particularly in a straight line. Here we can see the four-speed manual transmission shifter. Like I said, no center console here. And somebody has added an aftermarket tach, because amazingly, even if you got the stage one package, there was no tachometer available on this car. You get that little clock that you see to the left of the speedometer. To the right of the speedometer, I'll show the gauges, but it's like a temperature gauge, an oil pressure gauge, a fuel gauge. There is no tachometer, so you have to add one. Otherwise, you just kind of shift by sound, which is fine. I mean, most people can figure out where you should shift on these vehicles. You don't want to over-rev them either, and there's no sense with this big 455. Now, notice this car does have air conditioning. When we transition under hood, you're going to see that somebody's removed the air conditioning compressor and the setup there. But you could get the stage ones by this point with air conditioning. So not only could you have a really peppy car, but you could have one that you could drive in cool comfort on a hot summer's day. And here, by the way, is that so-called gauge package to the right of the speedometer that does not have a tachometer. As I mentioned, oil pressure, coolant temperature, fuel, but really that's about it. So you're out of luck if you want more gauges than that, and you got to add your aftermarket tach. Now, as we transition under hood, most of these Sentries and Regals were equipped with a standard 352 barrel that made 150 horsepower. If you got the optional 354 barrel that made 175 horsepower, both of those would have single exhaust. Then one up from that was a 225 horsepower, 455 cubic inch V8 that did have dual exhaust. But the stage one was really the ultimate. It made 270 net horsepower and had dual exhausts and dual snorkels. And while 270 net horsepower doesn't sound like a heck of a lot for today, in 1973 it was. Remember the Super Duty Pontiac engine was only 290 horsepower. So it's about 20 off of what was really a racy Pontiac engine for the time. And I believe the Corvette that was powered by the 454 in 1973 only made about 275 horsepower. So you're five off of the Corvette, 15 off of the Super Duty Pontiac, more or less, let's say the equivalent horsepower of those vehicles. And a lot of get up and go. Now, there's a couple of things that are not correct about this engine bay. I did mention that somebody's removed the factory air conditioning. You notice there's no compressor here, there's no evaporator, et cetera. So I'm going to show you what the correct engine bay looks like. Now, notice this one also has all of the air conditioning style goodies and something that was missing from the other one is that Buick, unique to Buick, I don't think any other, certainly no other General Motors division, and can't think of another domestic auto company that had this combined fan shroud with the coolant overflow bottle with the washer fill bottle. It was an early modular assembly. I'm guessing it was done for ease of assembly that probably came in as one piece. And then on the assembly line, they just kind of slapped it together as opposed to having to assemble a fan shroud, a coolant overflow bottle, and a windshield washer bottle separately. So great idea, something they do very frequently on the assembly line today. Perhaps this was an early variant of that. And it's also white. That is the factory color, or in this case, yellow, I guess. It's kind of yellowed over time. I don't know if it was ever white. It was probably off white to begin with, but I think a great idea and very functional. Regardless, you can see the dual snorkel stage one air cleaner. Again, 270 net horsepower, just a real powerhouse, but a smooth one in a Buick like this. So what do you think of this gentleman's muscle car for 1973? Would you have been a buyer for something like this? Or is it just not your cup of tea? I think it's a gorgeous vehicle. This is a great picture of it, under the lights. Put a comment in the comment section. Let me know. Thanks again for watching.