What is the quintessential American GT-C?

Before you can answer the question, I suppose you need to know what those initials even mean, right? Grand Tourer (Grand Turismo), and in our case Customized, of course. So you may still be wondering what actually defines a GT in the first place, and that would be a performance-oriented luxury car capable of high speed for open road, long distance driving. Grand Tourers were typically a two-door coupe with bucket seats, a console, a long hood and a shorter deck. America took it’s lead from Europe on this model and we made a few great ones along the way. The combination is pretty simple- Beautiful looks, Big engine, Benign luxury. You’ll likely note that these cars have been discussed over and over and over on the HAMB (largely by me!), and that’s because they are perfect as mild customs, and so darn appealing. So the question is, if you could only have ONE of these listed below in your garage, but you had to drive it and keep it forever, which one would it be?

Here’s the top of the American GT food chain in my book, needing very little modifications (mainly lowering and trim removal) to be perfection:

Buick Riviera 63-65: Still the champ. One of Bill Mitchell and Buick’s finest by a long shot.

Chrysler 300 55-56: More of a muscle than touring car, but full leather and subtle styling win.

Continental Mark II (Lincoln), 56-57: Pure luxury and class.

Pontiac Grand Prix, 62-64: Understated, but nice styling and great engines.

Studebaker President Speedster, 55: One year only, engine-turned dash panel, Lowey design.