(By Greg Rourke) – One never knows what might be lurking in an average suburban garage. Case in point: One ultra rare Buick GS Stage 2.
Most of us are aware of the Stage 1 Gran Sports. Some reports claim they are third fastest of the first muscle car era, running 13.4’s in the quarter. The first two were the 427 Cobra and 1966 427 Corvette, but some might feel they are sports cars, not muscle cars. In any case, Buick engineers decided this wasn’t enough. They developed Stage 2 parts in 1969, initially consisting of a cam, high compression pistons, Kustom brand headers, intake and carburetor, and rear gears but no cylinder heads. The cam was matched to the more restrictive exhaust ports of the standard heads. Keep in mind GM brass still imposed a 400 cubic inch limit on their midsize cars. This just wouldn’t do, so the Stage 2 heads were made available for the 455 in 1970. For some reason they kept the cam designed for the 400 with the old heads, strange but true. They didn’t bother to make exhaust manifolds to fit these heads, you had to buy the Kustom brand 2 1/8″ headers. Early testing showed with just a set of slicks 10.70s at 123 were possible.
Stage 2 equipped 455’s reportedly put down 540 horses on the dyno and could send the Skylark down the track in the high 10’s. It was decided that was just too much and the option was scrapped before any were produced. End of story? Nope, you could waltz into your local Buick dealer and have them order the good stuff and install it on your Stage 1 car. It’s unknown how many Stage 2 conversions were performed, as no records were kept. Only three are known to exist, our feature car being one of them. Reportedly less than 100 sets of the heads were ever produced.
The 12 bolt rear was noted, the owner gave me the lowdown. All these car were produced in Buicks Flint, Michigan plant and received the 10 bolt, 8.2 inch rear. These didn’t live long behind the torque monster Stage 1 cars, so a service writer who knew a few tricks could get a 12 bolt Chevelle rear installed under warranty. A somewhat obscure service bulletin covered this trick.
Our feature car is owned by Pat Sweeney. He’s a Buick guy of the highest order, but even he was surprised when the true pedagree of his car was discovered. It received a body off restoration, it was later decided to return it to it’s as raced livery. Yes, Road Runners nemesis was “Wile E. Coyote”, but the car was originally lettered “Wilie Coyote” so that’s what it wears. The skinny white walls on Cragar SS are also consistant with back in the day.
Many thanks to Pat, who gave me a thorough schooling on the Stage 2 goodies, and to his understanding neighbors when Pat cranked up the 455 to turn it around in his driveway.
I hope that gets exercised, not just locked away.
I’m 63. I was THERE. NOBODY ran whitewalls!
photos from the archives state otherwise….
He raced it with the NMCA for a few years. He still has the cage for it, if he decides to race some more.
Interesting one of the most visually known bits of the Stage 2 program is not on the car. The Stage 2 hood scoop.
https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2013/02/05/buick-stage-2-prototype-saga-clarified/
Might just be associated with the program vs. part of the package. Anyway, cool to see one in the wild. TA reproduces the heads as well as stuff well beyond for the various Buick engines.
Common misconception . The Scoop was NEVER sold as part of the Stage 2 package from Buick . The scoop was not class legal in NHRA either .
This beauty should be returned to stock condition as it is now to rare to be raced – and those decals spoil its good looks!
Yeah, just so it can be like all the other Gran Sports out there.
What kind of oil dipstick does this use as I have stage two heads and ta stage 2 headers and the factory 1970 dipstick tube and dipstick will not go into location as header blocks part of it