Why was A1/L-75 Stage 1 not part of the GSX package?

Anyone think it strange that one of the perceived competitors in the market was the Torino Cobra?

It's a different breed than a Charger R/T or GTO Judge.

As for why the Stage 1 wasn't standard, chalk another guy up for thinking it was to keep costs down. And if you think about when the GSX concept was being developed and when it was locked in, the 1970 model year was several months old and market trends were pointing to a disappointing year in sales. In fact, some of Buick's projected sales are head-scratchers considering the market was in decline since 1968. Add a recession to the equation and it's kinda interesting that Buick even bothered with the GSX.

 

Yes Diego, I did think it odd regarding the Cobra. Actually, I thought any of the comparisons were a bit odd because what Buick was creating was more along the lines of a H/O. A car with unique items beyond normal optional equipment.

Even with W-30, Buick already had an equal in Stage 1. Which brings me back to my point, if you're a Buick Motor Division, and you're creating the GSX as a promotional vehicle, why wouldn't you find a way to get your all new for 1970, 455 Stage 1 performance package (in its entirety) into A9?

As a poster just mentioned, most GSXs were ordered by dealers to plop onto the showroom floor. Now is your chance to raise public awareness. Joe Blow sees the car and there is interaction with the salesman and the customer. The GSX, in essence, becomes a 4000 lb. sales tool.

Stage 1, if it is on the window sticker, becomes part of that conversation. You may not sell the GSX Stage 1 to Joe, but you've got a Bamboo Cream Stage 1 on the lot for less than $3,800. He test drives that car and comes back with the biggest smile he's had in years. A deal is struck for $3,650. Joe drives off the lot. He takes his cousin John for a ride 2 weeks later. Now John has to have a Stage 1. John trades his SS396 on a pointed lens, Diplomat Blue, Stage 1 with headers that was already on a used car lot for $2,888. Twenty minutes later, John's sitting at a light next to his neighbor who is driving his 442. The Diplomat beauty smokes the neighbor in a friendly contest. They both pull into the Esso station. Now the neighbor, who just received an inheritance, goes down to the dealer and buys the $5,296.45 GSX with cash.

GSX Stage 1 is off the leash and creating more conversation on the street. The dealer orders GSX #1657.

This is exactly how most of us got to know about the GS Stage 1 in the first place. That's how you break the sales projections, even when most sales stats are down.

To not include Stage 1 because of cost would have been horribly short sighted. I hope that wasn't the reason.

 

It was also a time that you could order cars the way you wanted by checking or not checking boxes to make it your own. Freedom!
Case in point the 71 X I got from original owner who wanted manual steering, air conditioning, 4 speed, no posi and std 455. May have not made alot of sense but he created a one of a kind that was HIS....

 

There is another point to all of this that I don't think has been talked about, so I'll tell you a story.

Years ago, sometime, between 1999 & 2001, I took my X-Camino to a BCA meet in Richmond Va. I was one of only 3 "modified" cars at the meet because that was taboo back then. Anyway, while I was walking around the show my wife Beth was sitting with the car and a group of well dressed men came over to look at it. One of them said "I don't remember building one of these.", and the other guys laughed. It turned out they were a group of Upper-echelon Buick Management guys that came to the meet. While talking with Beth they said they all liked the car but would have never thought of building something like that at the time. They said they were in the market to build higher dollar luxury vehicles then and would never have thought of building a "Truck".


The point to the above story is this, Buick was in the market to build luxury vehicles. My gut feeling is there was a very strong contingent, as in probably most of the management, that wanted to do exactly that, keep building luxury cars. They didn't care what the "younger" generation wanted, as that was not their clientele. Even after the "go ahead" was given to develop a flashy powerful vehicle, I don't believe Buick management ever intended or wanted them to be very numerous.


I believe this type of thinking created a lot of the "delay" we see with when the GSX model was finally introduced, and, if they had waited any longer the model would never have even made it to production.

To further prove my point, just look at how hard it was to order a 71 GSX. You needed to know exactly how to write up the order form, and even then the procedures to order one were not developed until later in the model year, thus killing the possibility of a bunch of cars getting produced.

Then to add even more to the mix, for 72 nothing was published as far as how to order one. The only guys that could figure out how to order a 72 GSX were dealerships that had ordered the 71 cars. There was at least one 72 GSX that was ordered by a dealership in Virginia for a dealership in Canada.
Duane

 

PS.
I just opened up the 1st PDF that was posted in this thread, and it has photo's of some of the pre-production models in it. That makes perfect sense, as it must have been developed while Ron was working on finalizing the production cars appearance.

On page 4 of the document, one of the pics shows the rear spoiler stripe as being continuous across the back (No GSX decal)

On page 17 that "GSX" was Saturn Yellow with no Rocker Panel Moldings and has the double pin stripe, Red & Orange, like Brad's Show Car. It also has the mirror gaskets painted yellow to match the car, and even had a Burnished Saddle interior. I have a few color pics of the car. Just as a further bit of info, other pics of this car show they were taken behind Buick Engineering.
Enjoy.
Duane

 

Makes perfect sense Duane. I typed this in my last post but deleted it.

With regard to Stage 1, and even more so with GSX, perhaps they were afraid of their own Frankenstein.

 

I think the GSX is a prime example of the age old battle between engineers, designers, marketers and the higher ups. The higher ups probably would have been ok with it dying on the vine as long as they could blame someone else (‘styling can’t decide on the paint’ or ‘the engineers won’t budge on it being Stage 1’ or ‘marketing can’t decide who we’re targeting with it’).
If there’s no balance among the factions you get things like early ‘60s Super Stock Dodges (fugly and nearly undriveable but brutally quick), loaded with stickers but slow (Mustang II), completely off target and a letdown (‘88 Regal) or myopically bad from all sides (Chrysler TC by Maserati). Sometimes you get oddball stuff that isn’t part of the brand’s mold but works. In the case of the GSX it probably wasn’t considered a success compared to Trans Am’s stickers or Cadillac’s little Seville.
Engineers can be near sighted, too. I think quite a few were revolted when Porshe decided to build SUVs, but their profits saved the brand and fund a lot of R&D for the 911 and other ‘real’ Porsches.
Patrick

 

That's corporate America Patrck. You must be part of one to have that insight

 

I don't really see an issue of delay with the GSX. If anything, how much quicker could Buick have been? Think about it this way:

The 1968 Hurst Olds was perhaps the first of the "everything but the kitchen sink" cars. In 1969, it got outrageous, and it was in these wee hours of the 1969 model year that Pontiac was developing a Road Runner-fighter that John DeLorean said, "Nope, the GTO won't move downmarket--not in this 400cid world!" He pushed them in the other direction because he was wise to the market trends of the time. That's how we ended up with the Judge, which hit the showrooms in January 1969.

Other manufacturers were wise to the trend too, as evidenced by the 1969 Mercury Cyclone Spoiler and Cougar Eliminator.

So Buick is noticing this trend and decided to join. Think of the time it takes to have the idea, pass it through superiors to get approval, create a custom-built show car to gauge reaction, and then have to get approval again for production? To me, the timeline when Buick debuted the production car makes total sense after witnessing the market trends.

A tangent--let's back up to the Cobra for a moment. The Torino Cobra was Ford's Road Runner-fighter, which was a completely different class of car. But the Cobra also was Ford's main image car, along with the Mustang Mach I. That's where Buick came up with the benchmark. But for this tangent, I'd like to really look at the 442 W30 and Charger R/T, because they're still not in the same league as the H/O, Judge, and GSX because none of them were packaged to be a vehicle that was over-the-top. Both cars required selecting the right options (stripes, spoilers, mags, tires) but were still poseurs in comparison to the H/O/Judge/GSX. And why focus on the W30 when the standard 442 (with W25 hood and spoiler) is almost visually the same? Thicker side stripes really made a difference to them?

 

Diego,
The delay I was thinking about was why Buick waited until the 70 model year to start. I think upper echelon “push back” moved the date back an entire production year before a “Striped” GS version was introduced.

The painting scheme of my 69 Motion equipped car, with the bold white stripe on the raised section of the hood, would have really helped sell a bunch more cars.

Also, how many other brands were out there making 350 version striped cars during the 71-72 model years, and making extra money off them?

Buick, with their ordering “paper work” problems almost missed the boat entirely on that one.

With everything we know now, it makes it hard to believe that Buick corporate wanted these cars produced, as it appears they did their best to kill them off. Especially for the 71-72 model years.
Duane

 

By 1970-71, the cusp that defined the peak and beginning of the decline, there were a lot of cars that delivered the looks without the suds. To wit:

- 1970 Pontiac GT-37
- 1971 Plymouth Duster Twister
- 1971 Dodge Demon Sizzler
- 1971 Chevelle SS
- 1971 Heavy Chevy

This was to give people a sporty car without the insurance issues.

Likewise, there were several cars that downgraded their engine options to offer performance without the insurance premiums:

- 1971 Torino Cobra
- 1971 Cyclone and Cyclone Spoiler
- 1971 Buick GS

The fact that there was a "350 version striped cars" is kinda irrelevant IMHO. Buick merely reconfigured the GSX package to be an ornamental package than a performance package. This was just a combination of being the sign of the times and a smart marketing move (with a poor marketing effort behind it, so we've learned).

I think every manufacturer was trying to figure out how to cater to the performance buyer in this Brave New World. Chrysler introduced the 340 in the Road Runner and Charger Rallye mid-year 1971. Pontiac discontinued the Judge and GTO convertible mid-year. AMC cancelled the SC/360 mid-year.....etc. Maybe Buick's forecast for so many 1970 GSXs resulted in trying to get rid of parts inventory for 1971-72? We don't know. It's all speculation in a time when lots of funny things going on.

 

I talked to Ron Frakes at the GS Nationals this year and he indicated Buick marketing did not want to push the GSX and that is why there was little marketing in 1971 and none in 1972. As Duane indicate Buick was interested in selling luxury cars and it was obvious from the number of GSX's that sat on the lots for months. My father bought his new in Oct 1970 and I have heard that story many times about GSX being sold late in 1970 or dealers having troubles selling the cars.

 

I got my GSX from the original owner. He did not order it. He happened to see it in the dealers lot and fell in love. Apparently it was ordered by the dealer as part of their stock.

 

Something interesting I've always found about GSX's is that the stripes were painted and not decals. Maybe it goes along with Buick being an upscale Make or maybe there's a more practical reason, but it also seemingly added significantly to the cost. I haven't read all the docs posted (yet) so maybe this was discussed.

 

Remember Lettermans top ten?

Buick decided Stage 1 would not be part of A9 package because (in no particular order):

1) They were following the Pontiac Judge precedent of the top horsepower engine still being optional
2) Internal disagreement on whether the X and Stage 1 should even exist because they went against the brand's luxury image and therefore lacked proper corporate interest and support
3) GSX was already too expensive, and as such Stage 1 needed to be optional
4) Some buyers don't want or need a high performance engine
5) The base 455 was potent enough to beat the competition, so the X still had all the muscle required, and Stage 1 simply wasn't necessary
6) Stage 1, with only a rated 10 horsepower difference, may not have been worth it to some buyers
7) Buyers, for the most part, would be purchasing the car because of how it looked. What was under the hood was irrelevant. GSX was all about appearance
8) Didn't matter much because the musclecar was doomed and X was late to the party anyway
9) No real shot with the youth market so S1 was of little consequence
10) Supply chain. See note below...

Did I miss any?

There are some good ideas being thrown out there, all with some merit, some with skirting documentation, and some with second hand knowledge.

*I can't help but think perhaps it was a supply issue of some sort. Maybe Stage 1 sales predictions only had 3,000 units forecast for 1970, and they had hardware to support that. X, with Stage 1 included, could have potentially caused a supply chain problem if they sold as many as we now know were projected.

 

March of 1971 newsprint ad. Further proof the cars languished on the lots...

 

Very cool ad - What a deal on any of them! Wouldn’t it be something if someone on here owned one of these. I guess supposed to be "convenience group" on the 4-sp GSX not "convertible group."

 

This ad is from the same area in 1974, and maybe the car on the right. I'm surprised a buyer from that era was aware of what he had:

 

Nice & yes, surprising someone knew even that much. The original owner of my old one in MD looked for another one for his wife (his & hers GSX'S) & finally found one in Boston around the mid-70's. His was yellow/std 455/auto. Her's was a white Stage 1/auto and unfortunately was parked on the street and rear ended by a drunk driver & totaled (surely today would've been saved).

 

I'm confused by this. It's being advertised as a GSX. What is there to know? That it's "special production"?