When you were shopping for a mid-size muscle car in the late 1960s, and wanted it to be as luxurious as possible, the Buick Gran Sport was your ticket. It was the fanciest of GM’s muscle cars because Cadillac didn’t make one. This beauty from 1968 is as nice as they come and has collected several awards over the years. The seller is thinning the herd as they already have another Gran Sport. Located in Wolcott, Connecticut, this sweet ride is available here on Barn Finds Classifieds for $33,000.
The Gran Sport designation first appeared in 1965 and was most often associated with the Skylark, though you could also find a Riviera GS. With the Skylark redesign in 1968, the GS came with a 350 cubic inch V8 as standard equipment with a 400 optional (and a 455 from 1970-forward). Of all the GM intermediates the Buicks were perhaps the most stylish, especially with the inverted sheet metal of the front and rear clips. Buick built more than 26,000 GS coupes, hardtops, and convertibles in 1968, of which 7,000 HTs had the 400 with an automatic transmission.
As the story goes, this Buick’s third owner acquired it in the late 1980s and began a 15-year restoration process. The investment was large and lots of labor and love went into the automobile with just about everything new or restored along the way to reach Concours-quality status. It started making the car show circuit and even took first place once at the Buick Nationals in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Since all the work was done, just 12,000 miles have been added to the vehicle.
Gleaned from the MRSP sticker the seller provides, this was one well-equipment GS when it was first ordered. That includes bucket seats, power steering and brakes, the 300 2-speed Super Turbine transmission, plus dealer-installed ram air induction. With the sticker and dealer extras, this was upwards of a $5,000 automobile out the door. The condition of the Buick seems almost perfect, though the seller says there are a couple of minor blips in the Ivory Gold Mist paint. The V8 is numbers matching. This looks like one great ride that only needs a new home. BTW, all the photos are noted as “Property of AutoArcheologist.”
I remember the days when calling a hardcore Buick man’s GS a ‘Skylark’ would just about start a fight.
Luxury W/O air conditioning?
Sharp looking step-child Buick. I really like the exterior color and white walls on a Buick just “look right.” I probably would not have added the W8 rocker stripes but they do not look bad by any means. It definitely appears to have been loved and well cared for. 33k is big money for a 350 car but if it is as clean as it presents, maybe it is worth close to that. Personally, I like the clean non-cluttered look of no air cars but as I get older, the combo of black interior (add a black vinyl top too, ugh!) and no AC it gets rough on ninety degree summer days. I’m getting soft.
Strange to not see positraction on the sticker…..as every other HD option seems chosen. As well, this being a GS, one would expect to not have to shell out additional $ to obtain the proper suspension.
Sadly, I see two things that keep this car from being perfect. One is the X exhaust, and the other is the terrible aftermarket gauges mounted under the dash. My mother had one (convertible) when I was a kid. Loved that car.
Hi All,
I’m selling this for the owner. After 15 years of resto work,some of his ideas changed along the way. He added disc brakes up front which were not stock, the X pipe just simply adds a smoothness of power and sound and can technically be removed and replaced with two “straight” pipes to bring it back to “stock” appearing. With all the money he spent on the engine, he wanted to know the important aspects of what was happening under the hood, so these are mounted very carefully and are small as to not detract all that much, and easy to remove.
This car is a VERY nice car. Not that you would but you can eat off any surface of this car, it is that clean.
Any questions, please feel free to ask.
Thanks Russ!
It’s a GS 350, not a Skylark.