by Delmer Padgett

Created on: June 30, 2007

The Wildcat was Buick's first entry into the muscle car arena. Although not as revered as some other early General Motors muscle cars (such as the Pontiac GTO) the Wildcat was a very good performance car in its own right.

Prototypes of the Wildcat were developed as early as 1953, but for unknown reasons Buick didn't commercially produce the car until 1962. In its first year the Wildcat was part a part of the Invicta series, but gained model status of its own in 1963.

In 1963 the Wildcat had a 325 horsepower 401 cubic inch power plant. A convertible and a four door model were added to go along with the original two door coupe introduced in 1962.

For the 1964 model year the Wildcat was offered with the option of a 425 cubic inch engine that generated 360 horsepower, a 340 horse type of this engine was also offered along with the original 401. In 1966 a version of the 425 with dual four barrel carburetors was available as an option. Nearly 70,000 Wildcats were sold during this year.

In 1967 the 430 V-8 was made available to Wildcat buyers. In 1970 the powerhouse 455 was put into the Wildcat, this monster produced 370 horsepower.

This most powerful Wildcat was also the last, due to slumping sales 1970 was the last year of production and the Wildcat was replaced with the Centurion model the following year.

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