Buick's a Beauty at the Casual Concours

There were lots of beautiful Buicks on display at the Casual Concours Car Show in Palm Springs last Sunday. They spanned the era from a 1938 Century to a 1990 Reatta, and included a bevy of Rivieras, an 1961 Electra 225, a 1965 Wildcat, a stunning 1955 Roadmaster coupe with factory air and wire wheels,  and even a rare 1962 Invicta Custom convertible with leather bucket seats. The Buick woody fans were treated to a lovely 1947 Estate Wagon, and even a limited production 1990 Reatta convertible took the field.

Held at the Desert Princess Resort, there were over 125 classic and special interest autos on display, and the level of quality was quite high. All in all a great day and a great show that benefitted the Friends of the Palm Springs Animal Shelter. Take a look at some of the beautiful Buicks at the Casual Concours:

Photos of the Week- Skylark In Blue and Invicta Texan

We've been pretty busy over at the Reynolds Buick GMC Facebook Page, showing cool images and videos and talking about Buicks and GMC Trucks. We've been growing like crazy and having a lot of fun interacting with you folks. To help integrate the blog and our online activites we've decided to start a Photo Of the Week and share the best liked photos from the prior week. 

This week, our most popular image was "Skylark In Blue", a portrait against white of a classic, limited production 1953 Skylark. Skylark was the most expensive car in the line up for '53, a virtually hand made convertible chariot with leather seats, chrome plated wire wheels and a hydraulic system for the power top and windows. It had a list price of nearly $5,000, which was a fortune. 

Our second most popular photo was "Invicta Texan", a shot of a beautifully restored 1960 Estate Wagon with the ultra-rare (less than 300 made) Texan bucket seat interior option. Texas was the rage in the fifties (all those Western movies) and Buick made a special "Texan" show wagon for the 1959 season. It was so well received that a limited production model was offered in 1960. The car in the photo is one of a handful of survivors and a wonderful reminder of the space age styling of the '59 and '60 Buick wagons.

Feel free to drop by our Reynolds Buick GMC Facebook Page for daily images and fun conversation. See you there!

Monday Memories- Unconquerable

 Perhaps the name was too inaccessible. Latin, of all things. Never mind that it meant unconquerable, many people didn't know how to pronounce it. Noble name, but for whatever reason it never caught on.

Invicta. In-VIC-ta. Introduced with the 1959 models as one of three new model names. Its sisters Electra and LeSabre would go on to become classic Buick names. But Invicta would soon disappear. 

By 1962, when this gorgeous convertible was produced, it was already obsolete. A sporty midyear coupe was already announced which was called Wildcat. By 1963, all of the Invicta models except one would be Wildcats.

Look at the sumptous leather interior- bucket seats, no less. Loaded including tilt wheel and factory air conditioning. The Invicta was advertised as being "The Most Spirited Buick", and this convertible seems to capture the sporty flavor pretty well. 

Many options- tilt wheel, bucket seats, leather trim, Sonomatic radio, Turbine Drive Automatic Transission, even Buick Carpet Savers over the loop pile carpeting. The clock was standard on Invicta.

Optional rear seat speaker behind a chrome grille with a tri-shield logo- sporty!

 The Most Spirited Buick- Invicta!

The Wildcat took the place of the Invicta for 1963 and was a sporty and popular offering, and the Invicta was all but forgotten, except that now and again a gorgeous Invicta like this Bimini Blue example rolls into a car show and makes our hearts go all a-flutter again. In that sense it truly is unconquerable.