Buick constructed its first Electras as 1959 fashions, with Electra manufacturing persevering with unabated by way of 1990 (after which the Park Avenue trim degree took over because the mannequin identify, a lot because the Malibu trim degree designation had shoved apart the Chevelle mannequin identify in 1978). Among the handsomest Electras had been the second-generation fashions, constructed for the 1961-1964 mannequin years, and at the moment’s Junkyard Gem is a kind of vehicles.
I would all the time assumed that the Buick Electra took its identify from the daughter of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon in Greek mythology, as a result of the individuals who named vehicles again then had been pressured to learn Euripides and Sophocles as undergrads. Actually, the automotive was named after Electra Waggoner Bowman Biggs, a Texas heiress and sculptor who married the brother-in-law of Harlow Curtice, who ran the Buick Division earlier than being promoted to president of Normal Motors in 1953. How did she really feel when the final Electra rolled off the meeting line in 1990? The junkyard is filled with historical past, if you understand the place to look.
The 1959-1960 Electra had huge tailfins, angled one thing like those seen on the same-year Chevrolet Impalas. This Electra technology ditched the fins however saved a lot of the overall House Age spirit of its predecessor.
The Electra lived on the identical platform because the Cadillac DeVille and Oldsmobile 98 from begin to end, and it was the most costly Buick out there in 1962. The MSRP of this one was $4,051, or about $41,462 in 2023 {dollars}.
The engine on this one was current when it arrived at U-Pull-&-Pay, however a junkyard shopper grabbed it inside a few days of arrival. It might have been a 401-cubic-inch (6.5-liter) “Nailhead” V8, rated at 325 horsepower and a whopping 445 pound-feet of torque (take into account that these are gross, not internet, energy numbers). The Nailhead’s small valves meant that it wasn’t a lot good for high-rpm use, however its large torque was good for shifting two-ton land yachts. The ultimate Nailheads had been put in in 1966 Buicks.
Each manufacturing Electra ever constructed got here with an automated transmission, and the 1959-1963 fashions acquired the extraordinarily clean and alarmingly inefficient Dynaflow (often known as the Twin-Path Turbine Drive for 1962). Initially developed to be used within the 1943 M18 Hellcat tank destroyer, the Dynaflow was thought-about a two-speed automated however drove extra like a CVT with two selectable drive ranges. For 1964, the three-speed Tremendous Turbine 300 automated (often known as the Turbo-Hydramatic 400 when put in in autos made by different GM divisions) changed the Dynaflow within the Electra.
Automobile radios bought in the US from the 1953 by way of 1963 mannequin years had been required to have the CONELRAD nuclear-attack-warning frequencies of 640 and 1240 kHz marked with Civil Protection triangle symbols on their dials, and that is what’s within the sprint of this Buick.
This automotive’s physique seems to have been bent up and repaired with thick layers of physique filler on multiple event, although there is not a lot severe rust. Detroit submit sedans of this period aren’t value almost as a lot as their convertible, coupe and hardtop counterparts, so there wasn’t a lot probability of this one getting restored.
The early-Nineties baseball playing cards I discovered inside recommend that this automotive was parked for good a long time in the past.