'68 Electra Custom

[electra225]

Nice car, but kind of a blah color for an Electra. I had a triple black four door Limited that was the best car I ever owned. This example is missing its fender skirts and has those awful go-fast exhaust tips sticking out past the bumper. This is the low trim level. This thing would be a killer if it was black with Mark IV road wheels.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UteO_42cnWQ

[William]

I kind of like it, and, it appears to be in good shape. The contrast color of the top adds a nice touch. It's too bad the skirts are missing.

Bill

[electra225]

The '68 Buicks were good cars. I never knew anyone who owned one that didn't like it. Even the little Buicks were good cars in '68. IMHO, the Buick 430 was the stoutest powerplant Buick ever built. It took a GOOD 455 to run with one.

[William]

My parents had a 1968 Buick Wildcat. It was kind of a poor mans Electra. Same wheel base, same 430-4 engine, 400 tranny, but, not nearly has fancy. My second car was a used 1968 Buick Skylark. It was a 4 door 350-2 and I had A/C. It was the same color as my first car which was beige. My first car was a 1964 Buick Special. V6, 2 speed auto, no P/S, no P/B, no carpeting, it had a rubber mat, and AM radio. That was it. Probably the cheapest Buick ever built. I thought I went to heaven when I got the 1968 Skylark.

Bill

[19&41]

My folks had a '69 Riviera about the same color. Their next car was a black '70 Electra. They switched to Cadillacs after that.

[electra225]

I always heard you have to give $100 and a perfectly good Buick to upgrade to a Cadillac.....

[19&41]

[walyfd]

That's news to me but I finally went to Buick for my daily drivers... Cadillac hasn't built a car I have any interest in since the last Brougham of '96 and I'm not too crazy about them.

[19&41]

I think most of us are discussing what they were and not what they are.

[Firedome]

I remember walking into Brooks Buick outside Baltimore and being blown away by the curvaceous new gold Electra and blue Wildcat in their showroom in Oct '66, my junior year of HS. Picked up the brochure, still have it. The next year's '68s still looked great. Those 2 years may be Peak Electra. No one on our street had one, but the across the street folks did have a '63 Electra, and 3 doors up the street had beautiful new '68 Sedan deVille in charcoal. Be hard to choose between that and the '68 Electra - I'll take one of each!

My first US car bought in 1977 after a period in the early-mid '70s of driving German cars (BMW 2800 and Benz 220SE) and a '73 Saab, was a '72 Skylark 350/2v that I bought from an old lady with 38k miles. Only pic I could find now was one with it's nose in a background pic of my Uncle's '39 Olds (below) it was in the rare (on a 4 dr sedan) Flame Orange color. Great car that we drove for 4 years. I bought it because wife wanted a mid-size, I wanted a V8 to pull a boat, and I'd always liked a '68 Skylark that my Dad's friend had from new, a very nice looking and driving car.

One of my good friends is a major Buick fan, he currently has a '65 Wildcat, '67 Riviera GS, and '75 Electra /w airbags.
His first very Buick was a '68 Wildcat coupe with 430, it was one of his favorite cars ever but finally died of Candadian rust-itis.

The '39 Olds L-39 (the big one with straight 8) is now for sale from my late Uncle's estate.
The Skylark was the first of a number of great full-size Buicks & Olds that we had as drivers in the '80s & '90s.
I sure wish I could still go out and buy a decent under 100k Olds or Buick for $600-1000 like I used to do,I did
so a number of times and they made great daily drivers. I didn't give a hoot about gas mileage, and still don't...
I want comfort and reliability.

[William]

I've always wanted a 1972 Buick Skylark Grand Sport Stage 1 convertible. I'm afraid in todays world of classic cars they have now exceeded what I could afford, hence, I will never own one. But, I can still dream. Another car I have always wanted was a 1967 Pontiac Firebird convertible. Nothing fancy, small V8, PS, PB, auto trans, and nice wheels. Again, in todays market they are now priced out of my range.

Bill

[electra225]

My wife came within a hair of owning a '71 Skylark Gran Sport Stage 1 hardtop one time. I mean, she was THIS close. Triple black, loaded with power accessories, windows, seats, antenna the whole shot. Lots of the '71's had bench seats, but this one had buckets and console with the hood tach, everything.

[Firedome]

Bill around 1985-6 I had a '68 Firebird 400 convert with Hurst 4 spd and Tic Toc Tach in that olive green color a lot of Pontiacs had around them. Bought it from a guy who was head mechanic at an Exxon station (remember when those actually did car repair?) and everything about that car was RIGHT, he'd lavished all his skill, attention and major improvements on it as it was his baby: built engine /w headers, cam, suspension, you name it. That car was so fast I realized after a while I'd lose my license or kill myself, it was just too tempting, so after a lot of fun and insanity I sold it. It was faster than the Jag E-Type I briefly owned, just nuts, so it's fun to still be alive to recall those crazy times now, 40 years later.

[electra225]

Refresh my memory on the Jag E-type, if you would. What kind of power did they run? Were those the cars with the overheating V-12?

[William]

I was a bad boy. The few times, when I got the privilege of driving my parents 1968 Wildcat I went fast. Like pegging the speedo and it was still climbing. Which for us oldies was 120mph plus. If they had ever found out I would still be grounded. I justified it by telling myself that it needed the cobwebs blown out.

Bill

[Firedome]

The E Jag was the road version of the C and D types that won LeMans and many other races in the mid to late 50s. The XK engine was a 4.2 liter dohc that put out 265 real hp in a very light car. They could easily smoke a Porsche 911 and 327 'Vette, but not a 427! It would top out at around 150 with the right rear end, not that I tried! lol

One of the sexiest bodes ever put on a car, it was the original chick magnet and amazingly futuristic for 1961. I loved it but it was just the wrong car when kid #3 came in 1987, plus I was obviously married, so the chick thing was sort of irrelevant! One of only 2 cars I really regret selling, the other one was my '57 Chrylser 300C convert (392 hemi 2 x 4 carb).

The sohc aluminum V-12 (326 cu in) came out in '71, I rode in a new one in '72 that my friend who was interning as a Doc borrowed from his Doctor preceptor (now there's a very trusting guy) in Med school, I think it had 3k miles. Super smooth and quiet like a turbine, super fast too, but no faster that the big XK 6 due to emissions and weight. Very complicated engine, I'd hate to rebuild one. And great as they are any Jag will drive you broke. He (my friend Hugh) had a '53 XK 120 that he paid $400 for in '69, he & I rebuilt the engine in his dorm room while we were in college together, he took it up in the dorm elevator at 3 AM . Crazy days. I haven seen him since his wedding in '82. This is a pic of mine :

[William]

I always thought those were cool looking cars. Roger, you have had a lot of classy cars in your life. I'm jealous!

Bill

[Firedome]

4.2 liter (256 cu in) hemi head dohc XK engine, a work of art and in 1948 4 years before Chryslers ohc hemi and much more powerful!

[electra225]

That is about the same engine Jag used in the XJ sedans of the 1980's isn't it? I still have the tool you need to adjust the Bosch K-Jetronic fuel injection so it will pass emissions. The V-12 Jags used Harrison refrigeration and GM transmissions for a time, as I recall. I worked with a guy who was the Jaguar mechanic in our shop. He repowered the V-12 models with 366 cid GM truck V-8's and Turbo 400 transmissions. Optional was a 472/500 Cadillac or 455 Oldsmobile V-8. John would stop the persistent power steering rack leak by wiring a peach can under the rack to contain the leak. He would empty the peach can each time the car came in for service. This kept customers from complaining about their car making spots on the garage floor. John, the Jaguar mechanic I worked with also put Jaguar front and rear suspension under a '55 Buick Special four door hardtop one time. That big old wallowy Buick would corner like a Jaguar with the suspension under it. I always liked the inboard rear brakes on Jags.

The vehicles I regret selling are my '68, and '71 Electras and my old black V-8 Mack.

Who ever detailed the engine compartment on the red Jag you posted would pass the Art Wright nose-turned-up test. Not only is that an amazingly gorgeous engine with all the "aluminium" brightwork, but the porceleined exhaust manifold is a nice touch. British construction at it's finest.

[Firedome]

Yes that engine was used in the sedans for a long time in a slightly lower state of tune, until replaced by a new dohc 6.
I think the V12s came standard with a THM400, I'm pretty sure at least the v12 sedans did.
A friend had one of the XJ-12 coupes (sedan style body 2 dr), beautiful but high maintenance for sure.

Bill in the old days I'd have been a horse trader, but have had lots of cars mainly because I was a "curbside"
vintage car dealer for 40 years.
I stopped counting at 200 cars. Mostly bought so I could play with them for a bit then sell them to buy another.
I tend to not get attached to them and didn't have the budget or storage to have more than 2 or 3 at a time, so
a constant turnover. It did allow me to have fun with a lot of different cars but now I'm at a point it isn't possible,
so I stick to and am happy with my '69 Cutlass and the wife's '07 Mustang convert. It probably won't be long before
those have to go also, due to age and health. At least I can look back and say I had fun with the cool ones, but those
days are over. The toy cars tended to be convertibles or British sports cars, had at least 25 of the latter. Also had a
lot of motorcycles, still have a '71 Kawa 350 2 stroke and '73 125 Honda but don't ride them really. Easy to store!

Another contributor to the high number was that for drivers we bought a lot of used full size cars, Olds, Buick and
Mopars, fairly cheap used ones with 60-100k and drove them for a yr or 2 then sold them at 200k and bought another.
I drove 80 mi a day and the wife drove 100 since we lived way out in the country and had to drive into Baltimore City
area, so we put on a lot of miles. I found big US cars tended to need usually only tires, batteries, exhaust, and routine
maintenance stuff so despite the poorer gas mileage were still cheapest to run overall and I liked the size, ride, and safety.
We have 2 Xterras today but I really miss driving the big old tanks.