1956 Buick Special Has Nice Treats Under the Hood, Shows How Great America Used To Be

It would be another two decades before the automaker corrected its all-time record, with a stunning production of over 821,000 cars in 1973. Following that exceptionally productive year of 1955, the company kept sliding down for the rest of the decade, hitting a low point of just over one quarter-million automobiles manufactured in 1960.

The market saturation and the Eisenhower recession hit hard, and that steep slope was foretold by the 1956 model year and its 572,000 end-of-year assembly figures. Still, despite the hardships, Buick – and every other maker in Detroit – kept its focus on the product, putting every ounce, inch, and drop of effort into making some truly jaw-dropping automobiles.

The 50s were probably the greatest era in the history of the American car industry – at least as far as design goes. Pick one car from that era, put it next to any car from today, and be the judge of how much it takes to make America THAT great again. Agreed, mechanically speaking, vehicles of today are far superior – then again, so is everything else that’s technologically bound to industrial evolution.

But look at a 1956 Buick Special – the cheapest model money could buy that year from the GM division – and rate it one to ten on a ‘Cool’ scale. I agree – ‘Ten’ should be spelled with at least four zeroes to do the car justice. And if you want to be really picky – which you should be – then play the video below. But please, put on a pair of welding goggles first so you won’t go bankrupt upon visiting your optometrist afterward.

Lou Costabile (who else?) found an absolutely blinding-bright-and-shiny example of a ’56 Special at the West Allis, Wisconsin, World of Wheels car show in February. The car is restored – and slightly modified – but the chrome is original. All of it – and boy, was it a lot of chrome! Buick didn’t spare any expense in cladding its automobiles with bright ornamentation top to bottom, front to back, and side to side. Even the interior is sparkling bright from all the mirror-polished metal.

The current owner bought this two-door Buick Special in 1995 from the car’s original owner. This man drove his cherished automobile scarcely, putting some 718 miles (1,155 kilometers) a year, on average, on the clock. The car was in its original state when Ken Becker, the man telling the Special’s story in the video, bought it at an estate sale.

The car got a new life – in more ways than one – and began harvesting miles on end with its new proprietor behind the wheel. In the 29 years since the change of hands, the Buick garnered around fifty thousand miles (almost 80,500 metric clicks). That’s nearly double the 28,000 miles (45,000 km) it had when the first owner let the car go after 39 years of taking care of it/

Ken Becker restored and mildly upgraded his 1956 Buick Special with a new coat of two-tone red-and-black paint (the respray was done in 1996, mind you) and some mechanical improvements. These included power steering, power brakes, and an electric motor for the wipers (much more reliable than the vacuum system Buick – and many others—used back then).

And yes, that Oh-so-Cadillac air cleaner is from a ’59 Caddy, but it doesn’t look out of place under that massive hood sporting a fake air intake behind that jetliner ornament. Oh, and the wheels might not be original or period-correct. Still, they are perfectly in line with the glamorous chrome extravaganza spread literally everywhere on the car.

The hood scoop was functional on early-production Specials from 1956 – later on, it was simply a painted grille over a black background, but no air got through it. This example is most probably from the late-model year production, as the duct is simulated, not the real-deal fresh air inlet. Nonetheless, the 322 cubic-inch V8 (5.3-liter) was still a stout plant, with 220 hp and 319 lb-ft (223 PS, 433 Nm).

The current owner of this way-too-gleaming Special installed a four-barrel carburetor atop the eight-cylinder block, so the horsepower is above the factory ratings from 1956. To compensate for the alterations to the originality, the man kept the original interior (he actually removed the protective plastic covers that the original buyer left on to preserve the upholstery).

This car has an automatic transmission – the famous Buick Dynaflow with its variable pitch torque converter – and it’s one of the nearly 37,000 examples of the two-door sedan Special series built for the model year. Surprisingly, the cheapest Buick of the day was not among the most asked-for; in fact, it was third from the bottom up, ahead of the convertible (9,700 drop tops sold) and the Estate Wagon (13,770 units).

The sales champion for 1956 was the Riviera pillarless hardtop, which claimed the top spot for all the Buick series (Special, Super, Century, and Roadmaster). After all, the Special wasn’t that special – compare its sales figures of 38,672 units (the two-door body style) to the 113,861 two-door hardtops from the Riviera subseries.

The four-doors weren’t much different, either: the Special Sedan sold 66,977 copies, while the Special Riviera moved 91,025 units. Given its relatively low numbers, this particular Special is even more special today, when not too many are around to tell the story of a great time in American motoring before the Far East nameplates invaded and long before Buick became a predominantly China-oriented marque.