Meet the first small Buick since forever in this original promotional spot for the surprising new 1961 Special. 

There’s an obvious strategy to this original Buick film from the fall of 1960, just before the 1961 Special arrived in the showrooms on October 5 of that year. There are few real details and only modest bragging about specific features. Rather, the purpose here is mainly to acquaint the audience with the surprising news that Buick has a new car, and it’s considerably smaller than the Buicks they’ve come to know.

But this Buick is not a compact, they hasten to say. (The Special was based on GM’s Y-body aka Senior Compact platform shared with the Pontiac Tempest and Oldsmobile F-85.)  “It’s smaller than the big cars, but bigger than the small. The Buick Special gives you the best of both worlds,” the announcer declares. The camera fixes a long gaze on the three ventiports in each front fender, signifying that this is indeed a real Buick. Two feet shorter than a full-size LeSabre, mind you, but a real Buick.

There is a brief mention of the Special’s impressive new all-aluminum V8 (see our feature here) and a new aluminum automatic transmission, too. Nearly forgotten today, the Dual-Path Turbine Drive automatic was offered only in the ’61-’63 Special and included a number of innovative features, including a 45/55 split torque path, planetary gearset built into the torque converter, and a weight of just 95 lbs. A clever, compact design, the Dual-Path Turbine Drive is often taken for a Chevrolet aluminum Powerglide, but inside the two are nothing alike.

Buick opted to keep things simple for the October rollout, offering just two body styles, a four-door sedan and a four-door station wagon, in two trim levels, standard and deluxe. No convertible, no hardtop. At mid-season the Skylark Sport Coupe—a two-door with a fixed B pillar but incorporating a stylish, hardtop-like roofline—was added, and soon it was outselling the wagon. Meet the 1961 Buick Specials in the video below.