The Replacements – Episode III

In my quest to perfect my T-jet fleet, I have scheduled a very few cars for replacement for various reasons, at which point the old ones will be retired-either scrapped for parts or offered for sale-or, in the case of this one, I am making a dramatic change of models. We’ll call this one a “trade-in,” and as such its less of a “replacement” than a “reassignment.”

Here is my third of a small handful of fleet changes…

Now how could I, as a bon-fide Buick nut, not buy this car? The hardest thing for me was deciding which of the 6 colors its been made in to get! My first choice was yellow, which appears to be the hardest one to find, because I couldn’t. I thought my second choice was going to be lime green, and I almost pulled the trigger on one of those before seeing it in white. That was when I hit “buy it now”, although as with so many of my cars, it didn’t come cheap.

Enthusiasts know that the original 1970 Buick GS-X came in only 2 colors: Saturn Yellow and Apollo White. For ’71 the color pallete was drastically increased, which is why this Auto World issue has been sold as both a ’70 and ’71, but this one is a ’70, and I’m glad I forewent the ’71 lime green version in its favor, because the 1970 GS-X Stage 1 is quite simply one of the bad assest muscle cars ever made!

There are few things that thrill me more than a loaded luxo-cruiser packing a set of gigantic balls that can blow off any manual-crank windowed muscle car bully that may try to challenge it, and you are looking at that car! The Buick 455 big block with the Stage 1 upgrade produced more torque than any other GM car at the time with the exception of the Cadillac 500, which anyone will tell you is not a muscle car engine. It was more powerful than the Pontiac 455. It was more powerful than the Oldsmobile 455. And, though my dearly departed mentor and die-hard Chevy man will turn in his grave when I say it-it may have been even more powerful than the Chevy 454 LS6.

Well, OK, maybe that’s not quite true; in terms of horsepower, the LS6 was more powerful, at least on paper, but muscle car shootouts in the real world have time and again called into question who really had the biggest set on the road in 1970, and we all the know the GM “official” factory horsepower rating of 360 for this car was stooopid low!

Regardless of which engine truly had more horsepower, few question that the Buick was the torque king, because it really can’t be questioned! Can you imagine the feeling of being in a car so big and heavy and likely equipped with air conditioning, power windows, seats and door locks-which most of these cars were-and launching 510 pound-feet of torque down the track when the tree turns green???

A pause for breath just from thinking about this to discuss the “replacement” aspect of this post, and here I get a bit of the sadz, because as much as I love Buicks, I’m also extremely fond of Pontiacs, and as the Buick rotates into the muscle car fleet, a Pontiac is rotating out.

Specfically, I am retiring one of my MEV bodies from the fleet. I’ve done a post on these in the past, and mentioned that MEV is an amazing small maker of custom order HO T-jet bodies that makes cars that absolutely no one else makes. They are expensive, and you’ll be waiting months for an order to be filled, but both are worth it if you want a body for your chassis that no one else makes. Where else was I going to find a model of one my all-time favorite Ponchos, the 1962 Catalina?

So, why am I retiring it? Well, as mentioned before, for the same reason that my entire T-jet fleet isn’t made up of MEV bodies; MEV makes their bodies in true HO 1:87 scale, and thus they are too small for my fleet; they are sized like the original Aurora “Vibrators”, and thus they do no look right in comparison to my 1:64 diecast cars or to the rest of the Auto World and Model Motoring bodies which, though ostensibly “HO scale”, are really closer to something like 1:75-with many approaching 1:64-than they are to true HO 1:87.

Due to its structure, this MEV body cannot accept the wider wheels and tires needed to keep up with the rest of the fleet, and though its true that I have a couple of cars that run on these narrower wheels and tires that are fierce performers, this one never has been; it does OK, but is always is the bottom quarter of performers in any tournament, and the tuning and tricks I’ve used on it have improved it, but only so much.

However, I have no intention of getting rid of this beautiful car; far from it, and in an upcoming post you’re going to see where its going; rest assured it will be in very good company.

But for now, I welcome in the newest member of the muscle fleet. Immediately after leaving the clamshell she got a motor magnet upgrade to OS3’s and a set of Road Race Replicas “Magnum” wheels with the extra-cost option black finish similar to the original Buick “Road Wheels” and was finished off with a set of meaty silicone Firestone Wide Oval RWL tires to get all that torque to the road. I’m now on the lookout for a good nickname for this car, because, as this episode of M.C.o.t.W. says, “we’re about to light Stage 1!” (Stay tuned to the end of this, where host Kevin Oeste tells you how he really feels about this car!)

If you think I’ve exaggerated anything I’ve said about how tough a customer this Bully Bu-ford really is, check out the reality…and then bow your head in respect!