1970 Buick GS Stage 1 (Orig. Show Car?)

I recall when I first saw your white car Brad, although it likely wasn't your's yet. We were taking my mother to the airport to fly to Florida to visit her mother who had become ill. I can't remember the exact year, but would say 1974-75. The GSX was parked in the old long-term lot at Port Columbus, very near the entrance road. I remember my jaw dropping, as it was only the second GSX I had ever seen, but was somehow different than the first, it was that interior. The only X I had seen prior to this was Warren (Kelly) Hartman's Apollo White Stage 1 4-speed. I grew up in the same neighborhood where Kelly lived. These posts are bringing back some old memories.

 

You never know...I'd offer $69k & see what they say. Might take a while for them to see it your way, but if it sits long enough & they need to free up the cash.

 

Timing is everything. Thanks for the story! Can you imagine street racing the GSX prototype...

 

Brad,

Are there Buick records for your show car (Sloan docs)? If so, do they show it as a standard GS being sold to the dealer? Same question about the Red show car.

 

with a sale of under 100K and aprasel at 1.8 MIL its no wonder REG has not been to BG or any thing else south of de border for many years,,I do miss seeing him at the nats he is a hoot... handing out free cans of molsons brewsky to all

 

Wow, that was really bad timing Jim...I would think @ the time that really stung, and then I assume years later to find out what the car really was, being 1 of 1, must've stung all over again. As you said, at least it went to a good home and was properly cared for and restored.

Back around '86-87 (ish) there was a really nice black '71 GSX that was running around our area. We had a lot of young (20 ish y/o) Buick guys around the north side of Baltimore then and we hadn't all met yet, but we had heard there was only one real black '71 GSX and until we wound up meeting the guy who owned it, we were wondering if that was it. Of course it wasn't...

 

This thread is great!

 

God yes!.......I'm like you, what good is owning a real deal Muscle Car if you don't put it to the wood and let those ponies run? All my cars get wrung out every time they leave the garage.

 

Morse Road was the place to be on the North side. Hanging out at the Patio Shops, and later the Children's Palace lot, but I eventually tired of all the street racer banter. "Ya gotta gimme 3 and the go". Frankly I had more fun just pulling up to a light and racing heads up without all the negotiation. Morse Road is like little Somalia now. Times sure have changed. Sometimes we would spin down to Central Point, but the racer's banter was worse yet there. The Point is where I first saw the red show car, and met owner Fast Eddie Balling. He was always a character. Oh my misspent youth.

Brad, do you remember a red Stage 1 car that used to tool around Worthington? It was owned by Mark Taggert who graduated from Worthington high in 1976, a year ahead of me. I was driving the '71 Monte Carlo in high school, and his red GS was the car that convinced me I would own a Stage 1. The Monte was no slouch at that time, and I eventually had it running mid-13s (13.40" best) on street tires, but EVERY time I would race Mark he would beat me by a fender, no matter what modifications I had made the previous week. I ran into Mark a few years after graduation and he was driving a mundane 4-door Olds. When I asked him about the Stage 1, he said "I don't want to talk about it". I left it at that, but that GS was a fast car. I assume it suffered a similar fate to my Monte Carlo.

 

At the time of sale, I just considered that used car dealer to be a real (expletive deleted) jerk, selling a car out from under a deposit. I mumbled to myself all the way home what retribution he deserved. But as Brad said, at that time it was little more than a 10 year-old used car, and I forgot about it quickly. Later, after learning it's provenance, the memories returned, but they were of that (expletive deleted) used car dealer. Frankly I was glad to see the car end up in the capable hands of Brad and his father. I sure would like to drive it again though.

On a side note, two summers back I ran into one of the local Buick faithful, Tom Ulery. I went up to his place and talked Buicks and old times, not to mention picked up a rather rare NOS part. Anyway, he showed me an old photograph he had posted on the bulletin board in his shop, showing his car parked next to Brads white GSX, and the Black GSX , which at the time of the photo was still owned by Marty. The photo was taken prior to the restoration of the cars, and it was great to see them as I remembered them from way back.

 

Great thread!

 

Not Dodge, '71 Plymouth 440+6 IIRC...