I picked up another photo of the Sun Coupe show car on eBay. This looks to be a proof photo from maybe the '72 Detroit Auto Show? The original has photos that are only about 1.5" square. I scanned and cleaned up the top photo. Still kind of fuzzy, but hey, where else you gonna find this stuff? uzzled:
Could this be the car we see with the painted roof and the coush covers on the seats. It had matching wheel centers also. A dealer had it at BG opnce and claimed it was all done by Buick design. Very hard to look at.
Yes, it's the same car. Here's a thread on it -> http://v8buick.com/showthread.php?t=127678&highlight=gold+sun+coupe
The story I heard was Buick built 3 of these "show cars". Toth Buick in Akron OH has 1 and they brought it to the Buick race day last May. It is just as gaudy today as the pictures show. The seat material looks like my grandmothers drapes from 1970. Everything was sprayed gold, and I mean EVERYTHING.
I've heard that too about there being three of these cars, but have never seen any documentation one way or the other. Along those lines, it does look like the roofs are different between the two cars. One appears to be vinyl, while other looks like it's painted. o No:
In any case, the two pics I posted above appear to have two different color tops. It's hard to tell in the pics if the dark color top car is vinyl or painted. Does anyone have any documentation to prove that the car above is actually the car now belonging to Toth?
I do not have that but Its possible there is more than 1 Suncoupe show car. Maybe after the guys at Buicks design studio came down from that high they realized what an abomination they built and wanted to take another try. I throw up a little every time I see that car but, I would like to have it in my garage just to remember those days when you could buy a nickel bag for 5.00
No joke who said the old fuddy duddys at Buick were not on the wacky weed uzzled: Got to say though those Models :eek2: DL
Great pictures...and two good lookin "Buick" chicks from back in the day, the shorts (hot pants) match the seats in the car. The 70's :TU:
Wow, thanks for posting those! My dad has that car....and yes it is ugly as sin, but you gotta love the history behind it. My grandfather had a Buick store since 1936 and my dad bought his own store in 1972. My dad contacted Buick and asked if they would let him put that car on the showroom floor for the grand opening of his store in Akron, OH. Apparently these show cars could be purchased by dealers on a first come first serve basis. He was the first one to ask (imagine that) so they sold it to him after it was done on the auto show circuit. They charged him the invoice amount for the car in it's original form as a stock Sun Coupe, which was about $3,500. The original title and paperwork just showed it as a regular Sun Coupe so there is no proof that it is real. I guess Buick wasn't very thorough with documentation in those days as I'm sure you all know. These pictures are the only thing I've ever seen about it anywhere, and the only proof that was really built by Buick. If you have any other pictures or info about the car I would really appreciate you sharing it. I'll have to take some good pictures of the car and post them so you can get a sense of the unadulterated funk that this car oozes.
