The 1953 Buick Wildcat

The 1953 Buick Wildcat

First, a note from Ryan: I’ve been on the road since Christmas and my head hasn’t been in the game. I accidentally posted the part 2 to this part 1 on Tuesday. So, forget that you read part 2 already and read this. Then, go back and read part 2. Make sense? I knew it would. And sorry I screwed that up Jay!

The Buick Wildcat was built for the 1953 General Motors Motorama and was the Buick division’s first attempt at a fiberglass bodied car (which was all the rage at GM at that time). What today looks a bit like a mild Barris Kustom, the two-seater convertible actually had many unique style features when it premiered, including the concave fine-tooth grill, over-sized Dagmars integrated in the front bumper, and side trim running into flush mounted rear bumper tips. Above the rear fender skirts were 15 vertical slots cut right into the body sides, and dual exhausts protruded through the rolled rear pan with integrated tail lamps above creating the shape of the rear fender tops. Another innovative feature was the ‘Roto-Static’ front hubcaps that were weighted to remain stationary while the wheels spun (When the car was found and restored, only one hub cap remained, the second one was made up from the top of a ‘mini’ Weber grill!). Like many Motorama cars, it was refreshed a few times with a new paint color, revised trim, and a removable hardtop.

The original Wildcat Motorama car was succeeded the next year by the smaller and sportier (Corvette-based) 1954 Wildcat II, thus this original example became known as the ‘Wildcat I.’ The Wildcat II was then succeeded by a more standard sized Wildcat III convertible concept, and the name eventually carried on with the performance-oriented production model Buick Wildcat for 1963.

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