Classic YouTube: Road-Testing A 1972 Buick Centurion – Thar She Rolls!

[admin]

The 1971-73 Buick Centurion was the “sporty” version of their big-body LeSabre, which isn’t saying a whole lot. The reality of the situation was that the Centurion had a different badge, some chrome removed and that’s…pretty much it. It is still a 4400-plus pound boat from Buick, which meant that it was a great Interstate […]

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[stage1scott]

I have owned 3 of these-one convertible, two hardtops. While they are USUALLY seen with a 455, one of my hardtops had a 350 and I had a friend with a 350 in one as well. GREAT cars for their time-put a 3:36 gear with posi and a stage1 cam, some jetting and timing work in the convertible and was rewarded with a bunch of 14.80 time slips as well as a best of 14.71. NEVER did better than 14 mpg regardless of gear or tuning-but-got the same 14 on the hwy after the changes. My convertible was this exact color combo seen in this video. Notice how the drivers door paint appears to not match in certain light in the video? Mine was like that too, you would think it was damaged and painted but I got mine in 74 as the 2nd owner with only 14000 miles and no evidence of damage. Unfortunately, these were built with that horrible sheet metal of the era and mine was rusted up to the door handles by 1982 (Ohio), although I used it till 1988 then swapped the engine into my 72 Skylark where it lived on for another 10 years before I blew it up bad and lost the block and crank.

[TheSilverBuick]

My '72 Centurion scaled at 5,012lbs right after taking it to the 1/4 mile track. Best run with a pegleg 2.93 gear was 15.58.

As for road handling...

https://youtu.be/YJ6kL1fbAwY

https://youtu.be/rSPE6T75dfQ

[stage1scott]

My '72 Centurion scaled at 5,012lbs right after taking it to the 1/4 mile track. Best run with a pegleg 2.93 gear was 15.58.

As for road handling...

https://youtu.be/YJ6kL1fbAwY

https://youtu.be/rSPE6T75dfQ

those times fall right in line with my experience after working on mine-never ran it in true as it was built stock form, so yours should be indicative of how well these cars performed! 15.58 at 5000 lbs is pretty amazing!

[BangShift McT]

350 should be in a 1973 if it was factory...first year offered, it was the base engine.

[TheSilverBuick]

April or May of 2005.

[Stewzer55]

Still have yours TSB?

[TheSilverBuick]

Sure do! Unfortunately the rust is starting to win on the body and the 2001 $400 paint job is cracking and flaking off in large pieces :'( But I still drive it around town during the summer with the top down. I essentially leave the top down all year long now and just have a car cover over it in the barn when I'm not driving it.