A classic, beautiful and powerful two-door in white with a red interior, very low miles, and a 401 V8? Yes, please. I know that there isn’t one universal car that everyone loves, but I can’t see anything not to love about this 1964 Buick Wildcat two-door hardtop. It can be found here on eBay in Milford, Massachusetts with just under two days left on the auction and a $9,600 bid price.
I’m not someone who is against four-door cars at all, but I do have to admit that a two-door hardtop body style is hard to beat. The Wildcat was part of the Buick Invicta family in 1962 but by the next year, it was its own model in the Buick family, other than the station wagon which was still an Invicta for 1963, according to Hemmings. That’s a fact that I have to admit that I didn’t know. I thought that the 1963 Wildcat models were all Wildcats, but apparently the ’63 Wildcat wagon held onto its Invicta moniker until the following year.
This car is just gorgeous, isn’t it? The seller says that this Wildcat has just under 36,000 miles on it and check out the photos, I think that most of you will agree that those could be the actual miles. It looks almost like new both inside and outside but they do mention that there is one small rust spot on the front lower edge and there’s one on the rear that has been touched up. It has had one repaint at some point, a quality repaint in which the trim and chrome was removed, and it sure looks fantastic to me from the photos.
That tri-color seat! The interior looks about as close to being like-new as I could imagine. The seats both front and rear are a fantastic colorful complement to the plain white exterior and they also look perfect. The seller says that everything about this first-generation, two-owner car is original other than the one repaint so this interior is one amazingly-preserved piece of art and design.
The clean engine is Buick’s 401 Nailhead V8 which would have had 325 hp. It runs, drives, and shifts 100%. This is one very, very nice looking car. Hagerty is at $12,600 for a #3 good condition car which this car has to be all day long. Have any of you owned a first-generation Wildcat or any Buick Wildcat?
I wonder which demographic Buick was trying to sell this car to…..I mean, the cool, sporty, successful guy would buy the Riviera; the conservative businessman type with a few kids (my uncle fits that description perfectly) would go with the Electra 225 4-door; the downmarket demographic would opt for the Skylark.
It just seems to me that this car (in two-door livery) was competing directly with the Riviera, only it wasn’t as cool. Same engine, same dash, same number of doors, just not as sexy. I wonder what the Wildcat sales numbers were as compared to Riviera, which were limited in production to 40K units each year for the ’63-’65 run.
I have no answers, only questions.
Back then the Wildcat was Buick’s competitor in the full-size performance car market. Within GM, it competed with the Impala SS, Pontiac Grand Prix and Oldsmobile Starfire. Like them (except the Grand Prix), it also offered more than one body style (for the Wildcat, 2 door and 4 door hardtops, a convertible and, as I learned from the write-up today, a station wagon) and also was, style-wise, an obvious variant of the other full size cars in their respective lineups. The Wildcat was aimed at the buyer who wanted a performance car, but really needed a full size car. The Riviera was marketed as a “personal luxury car”. It had only one body style that was very different from the full-size Buicks, could only seat 4, and was smaller in every dimension. The Riviera was arguably the lone GM entrant in the “personal luxury car” segment in 1964, joined by Oldsmobile with the Toronado in 1966 and Cadillac with the redesigned Eldorado in 1967. Chevrolet joined in in 1970 with the Monte Carlo and, of course, Pontiac still had the Grand Prix.
One can actually see the engine…oh the simplicity.
One very cool cat! At least it would be if it was a factory A/C car. Damn.
These things drive beautifully btw.
Nice Buick Wildcat, 325 HP should make this car a nice sleeper. With 325 HP I wonder if these cars came with a posi differential?
This is exactly the kind of find I’m on the lookout for when browsing ads and considering GM fullsize car production it’s almost shocking how few are offered in usable shape.
IMO ’64 was a very good year design-wise for GM, sort of a last hurrah for the razor sharp early 60s GM cars before more curvy fullsizers were introduced for ’65. A well-preserved BOP fullsize is just as interesting (if not even more!) at a lower initial cost than a similar year Impala. And just like the Bowtie they not only look at their absolute best when properly dropped to the ground, they’re simply SCREAMING for a suspension drop! 😁
Not everyone wants a low rider ya know. This is no Chebbie.
I hear you – I’m not necessarily suggesting to make a bad ass windshield-cracking hopper with hydraulics and associated crappy handling. I’m thinking of giving it the stance it deserves and designers intended to, either with the help of quality drop springs, spindles or air bags.All reversible mods that will also reduce point of gravity and improve cornering.
If one look at GM’s beautiful renderings in late 50s/early 60s advertisement material (Pontiac’s Kaufmann/Fitzpatrick artwork in particular) one could believe every fullsize of the day were bagged riding on their bump stops. But upon seeing them IRL sitting on their skinny bias-ply tires they look like equipped with Skyjacker suspension lifts!
American quality at its finest. Give me this any day over an overpriced heap of plastic that needs tires that cost $1,500 every 30,000 miles and an engine that does not look like an engine. Love the 64 GM line.
My Dad almost bought a maroon one like this in 1967.He brought it home one night and I remember it had an automatic on the floor, which I thought was cool as a child. For some reason, he opted for a 64 Impala, which was also a beautiful car.
Need to ask Mona Lisa Vito!
More beautiful that a dozen ‘64 Chev’s put together!
Beautiful looking car. I regret that I’ve never seen either a 1963 or 64 Wildcat. I’ve seen pics of them, but I’ve never seen any in person. Given its condition, its relatively low mileage, and its rarity today, $9600 looks like a reasonable asking price.
Sorry, but although very nice, I don’t see this car as a “Barn Find”.. A nice low mileage well preserved car, but not a Barn Find.
True, but real “barn finds” are not exactly plentiful. So what you are more likely to see is cars like this (that look like they never saw the inside of a barn), or cars that were “barn finds”, but only before some flipper got hold of them to resell for 3x-4x what they paid.😟
So, “legally” does it have to be stored in a barn to actually come under the definition of barn find. I’m wondering who really cares ?
1964 was the first year for non-Dynaflow Buicks. My Uncle Steve traded his ’60 Electra for a ’64 Electra and I remember my Aunt Helen saying that she didn’t like the new car as much because you could feel it shift.
I had a friend in high school that had a blue one just like this that belonged to his father!! He would drive it to school in the spring a couple times a year and when we all piled in after school and drove around it was like riding on a cloud!! The car had tons of power and would break the tires loose whenever he wanted to! This is a beautiful full size car and for the price I don’t really think you can go wrong!!!
A friends Dad bought one of these new in 1964, light metallic blue, white painted roof, blue interior, 4 speed manual trans, nice car, quick for a big car. He didn’t let my friend use it too much.
My grandpa had a ’65 4 door HT. Bought
it new at Wiley Pontiac Buick in Bloomington, Ill in early ’65. His was Ice
Blue outside with a darker blue leather
and brocade interior. It was nicely equipped for what he paid for it. It had
power windows, seats, locks, brakes, and
factory air. Didn’t think Grandpa would
pony up the extra cash for the 401 V-8,
but he did. I remember going with him
and my Grandma to the Logan County
Fair in Lincoln and not, that car rode great. Almost as good as my ’66 Caddy
Calais. And the seats? It felt as though
GM put two full size couches in the car.
Must’ve felt like you were riding around in your living room. If you got tired driving this car, pull over.
I’m sure the car came with the exact stance that the designers intended. Being that it’s so long, it appears exactly as low as it needs to, and no amateur fiddling with the suspension is gonna improve on Bill Mitchell’s very astute vision.
I took my driver’s test in a 65 wildcat. It was my dad’s. White with blue insides. The old bias ply tires were no match for the power. When I got my license in it I got a job at a local truck stop where they would change oil and small repairs on cars. Many many times I would work the grave yard shift and would be swapping rear tires (out of the used rack). Awesome car. Still wish it was around.
Goes back to the original Supers of the 50’s. The ‘smaller’ body of the Century, but the larger engine of the Roadmaster/later Electra, considered a bit of a stealth model. Dad had a 55, 57, then 67, all 4 Dr hardtops. Drove the 67 in high school, the 430 cid. Had so much torque they had a factory recall because it could break the right side motor mount. Mercury copied the long s-curve body line on their 69 model Cougar, but it worked best on the much longer Buick body. The absolute height of the Bill Mitchell designs, Buick was the sexier sophisticated style of the full size GM models.
The Super in the ’50’s had the larger full-sized body, with the same wheelbase as the Roadmaster. The Century had the smaller body of the Special with the larger, higher horsepower engine of the Roadmaster and Super.
’64 was a great year for GM. I should know, I’m driving s ’64 Olds Dynamic convertible.
I absolutely agree. The first half of that decade I think are the high point from the styling perspective. ’60 was the last throes of the styling excesses of the ’50’s (the ’58 hyperchrome/’59-’60 “who can make the biggest fins” cars). ’61’s were a revolution stylewise, with a much cleaner look that carried all the way through at least ’65-’66. GM cars seem to grow some visually, with fuller curves, toward the end of the decade. Just my opinion of course.
Brian W; your Dynamic is yet another FANTASTIC LOOKING ’64 GM B-body version – there are years since I last saw one IRL. I’m so fascinated by its brushed dash trim with the ‘inverted’ ends.
Kinda sad and strange also, that we don’t see more of these early 60s GM fullsizers considering the large quantities they were made in. Still running the original tranny in your Olds?
My dad had a ‘65 4-door Wildcat with a 454 engine. It was probably the favorite car he ever owned…and mine as well! At 15 y/o I would sneak it out while my parents were out with friends…it was a beast! Had it up to 130 mph more than once.
No, I’m not dead yet!
https://barnfinds.com/36k-miles-1964-buick-wildcat/?utm_medium
Oh my goodness! You have brought back such beautiful memories of a sweet, sweet magical time in my youth. I was not quite 17 and in love for the first time and the love was returned in full measure. He was nearly 19 and in his first year of college. I was a Junior still in high school. Neither of us had a car of our own at that time but his mother needed a new one and bought a white Buick Wildcat with the red/maroon upholstery. I recognized the upholstery at the first glance of your picture though it has been decades since it even crossed my mind. I can close my eyes and it seems to me I can still smell the fresh, elegant aroma of that classic upholstery mingled with his Brut shaving lotion. That car could make any young girl with just the right young man feel like a princess.
It was in that front seat that I received my first real kiss, my first “I love you”, my first “Will you marry me?”, and my first engagement ring. Two and a half years later, still in the front seat, I kissed him goodbye, removed the ring and placed it on the seat between us, both of us weeping. There were happy marriages for both of us much later on so there are no regrets.
Oh, you poor fellow! You’re trying to sell a car and I just wrote you a soliloquy of a precious memory in which you could not have any possible interest at all. I excuse myself with the fact that I am 72. I’ve gotten away with a lot of nonsense with that excuse. Is it working for you?
Anyway, I’ll bookmark this and keep up with your progress. I do so hope the Grande Dame goes to someone worthy of her and I wish you all the best. Linda
Nice story Linda, and well told. I could picture the story in my mind’s eye.
Visit any time!
Dear Rex, I’m sorry to say I acted on impulse when I saw the pic of the car and the shot of the interior. Memories just flooded back and I started writing. AFTER I posted I started looking into your website and reading other comments, I felt like a perfect fool and hoped someone had seen what I’d written and immediately deleted it.
Your response is very kind and gracious. But my little teenage love story was entirely inappropriate for your serious and informative website. Mea culpa! I will indeed visit the site again but I’ll leave the posting to people who know what they’re talking about. The best to you all, Linda
Linda, this site is about cars, people, lives and contains all aspects of all three. The stories about cars include life situations, history, and the magic, dreams, and aspirations we all derive from them. Don’t change. Your story and commentary was welcomed by many I’m sure.
Linda, Your response to that Buick Wildcat was like a breath of fresh air compared to the usual extremely overplayed criticism of a few regular respondents . To me this site is, firstly about the physical car and secondly about the memories that we have connected to these cars, & thirdly,,,,, us. So dont stop, your views and thoughts, to me, they are more than welcome.
Linda. Relax, you made some awesome memories come alive with me also. My dad had a 65 2dr wildcat. (White, blue inside) I got my driver’s license in it. I received my first —- in it. When we all get a little older I believe that our memories are what we need to hold on to.
Dear Mark, et al, Thank you all for the kind remarks. It warms my heart to think of you and so many others having joyful memories of that long ago magical time and connecting us all together thru pictures of a Buick Wildcat. Ah yes! I remember it well! Linda