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 cruiser, an excellent choice for smuggling whatever you wanted, demolition derby fodder, and an excellent grass killer once you tired of driving it. “Sporty” driving isn’t something that should have ever been attempted in a full-size Buick without acres of asphalt for the car to understeer safely on, but back in 1972 the team at Car and Track had no issue in wrangling the big Buick around the track at full steam.

Without a doubt, a 1972 Buick is a land barge by just about any definition. Even folks within GM have said on occasion that the cars were a bit too much…no wonder the company was in a hurry to downsize them for the 1977 model year. But you have to give credit to the Car and Track test drivers…they did their best to scrub the sidewalls clean off of the tires, and punished the brakes severely during the panic stops, but they came away impressed. We came away with a great appreciation for the engineers who designed the suspension components to hold up like they did!