In 1953, Buick produced 1,691 Skylark convertibles and a single hardtop coupe, and somehow the hardtop survived to this day.
In 1953, General Motors introduced three limited-edition, ultra-luxury sports convertibles: the Cadillac Eldorado, the Oldsmobile Fiesta, and Buick Skylark. Each one boasted exclusve styling to differentiate them from ordinary Cadillac, Olds, and Buick models, they were built in small numbers, and they carried hefty price tags, too. Adding a twist to GM’s corporate custom convertible theme, Buick built one Skylark hardtop coupe—just one.
Reportedly built to test the market for a production Skylark coupe, the one-off was constructed by starting with a Roadmaster Riviera (model 76R) two-door hardtop. From there, the doors, rear quarter panels, rear wheel houses, and associated pieces from a Skylark convertible (model 76X) were adapted to the Roadmaster hardtop body shell. The interior is in 1954 Skylark trim, and just like the convertibles, the Skylark hardtop has no ventiports in the front fenders.
Fully optioned out with a trunk-mounted air conditioning unit (note the intake ducts in the quarter panels) and a signal-seeking radio with foot-button control, the Skylark hardtop was not merely a Motorama show car. It also served as daily transportation for Buick general manager Ivan Wiles and Mrs. Wiles for a year. The prototype then passed on to a succession of private owners, eventually landing on the back row of a used car lot in Oklahoma, where it sold for $700.
Following an extensive search, in 1980 Buick collector Jim Ashworth finally tracked down the Skylark hardtop to a private garage in San Jose, California. (For the whole complicated story, see the 2016 Old Cars article by Angelo Von Bogart here.) After a complete restoration—there were multiple repaints in various shades of blue over the original robin’s egg color— the hardtop crossed the auction block at the Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale sale in 2011. (Photos courtesy of Barrett-Jackon.) While the new owner’s name was never formally announced, reportedly the buyer was dealership tycoon, NASCAR team owner, and car collector Rick Hendrick.
Wow, that is stunning. I never knew about this one off model. Thanks again,MacsMotorcityGarage for providing a wealth of interesting articles.
I read an article on this (I think it was in Collectible Automobile). I’m not familiar with the Skylark in general but this article said that the circular badges on the rear quarter and the steering wheel center contained the initials of Mr. Wiles’ (Buick General Manager) wife instead of whatever was put on the production car. This was because it was experimental and didn’t want to be officially associated with it. In fact Buick denied its continued existence every time they were asked, until it was found and they couldn’t deny any longer. Concepts are supposed to be destroyed but we all know that some have avoided the crusher.
It’s a shame they didn’t make it but production costs probably would have driven the retail to where it overlapped with Cadillac.
I much prefer the convertible, top up or down. For some reason, to me the hardtop looks perched on top of the body & not integrated smoothly.
Interesting relationship between hardtop and convertible GM bodies from that era. I restored a ’49 Coupe DeVille decades ago and learned that the body from the beltline down (including side glass) was all convertible parts while everything above (except for windshield glass) was exclusive to the hardtop. It was a limited production run (2150 units) -roof panel was hand brazed/welded to the lower body. In other words, they didn’t waste a lot of unnecessary resources on details and embellishments that cost money and could be avoided.