1960 Invicta Custom Factory Four-Speed?

[Centurion]

I'm highly skeptical of the claims made about this car, but thought that I would post the item here for 70Electra and 60Buick to talk about.

A friend of mine in Tacoma owns a '60 Chrysler ambulance conversion, and he is a regular on the "Forward Look" forums for fans of Chrysler's fin cars. He e-mailed a link to me today that included some posts on that forum. Of chief interest are the claims by "Doctor DeSoto" that his first finned car was a '60 Buick Invicta Custom convertible. Now, Doctor DeSoto appears to have a few of his facts wrong about Invicta Custom convertibles, but he asserts that this car was a factory four-speed car -- and comments elsewhere that he knows this was not recorded in any factory literature. Could this possibly be?

Here's his claim:

"My first finned car was a 60 Invicta Custom convertible. Tahoe Turquoise with a white top. It was the only factory 4-speed car I ever saw. That Torque Tube driveline made for a very special transmission. A dealer I knew ordered a cinnamon colored 2HT with this trans, but sold it around 1965 and it went to oblivion. It was the only other one I ever knew of, and had I not had this contact, I would have never known what I had. The only things I am aware of that set a IC apart from a regular Invicta was the leather bucket seats and the 225 lower trim behind the rear wheels. It was a flashy car. Had the fancy hubcaps on it too, but those could have easily been slapped on later. I got it in 1977. It was derelict and forgotten under a hedge. The top had shrunk and would no longer go all the way up, so the interior was as deep in water as the floor wells would hold. This was good, as the floor had not rusted out, but it was on its way to being a rustbucket had I not stumbled on to it. I guess my point here is that it was really a remarkable, unmolested original car, and one that I had not near enough appreciation for just how rare and unique it was. According to Buick, less than 50 IC convertibles were built. They had no records of how many got the 4-speed."

My recollection is that the first 4-speeds for Buicks were in the '62 Skylark and the '63 LeSabre/Wildcat/Invicta Estate Wagon models.

[palbuick]

I once saw a 63 Riv with a factory 4 speed??????????????. Owner did a lot of cutting and modifying to do this. As stated earlier that 62 Larks and 63 LeS, and Wildcats were first year for factory 4 speeds. There are a few lated 50's and early 60's 3 speeds around but no 4 speeds.

JIm Schilf

palbuick

[Guest 70 Electra]

Centurion,

Thanks for posting this provocative topic. Although I cannot claim this car never existed, I will state that without question, there was no FACTORY 4-speed setup for a 1960 Buick.... Not for any model or engine combo.

There are plenty of facts wrong in this "recollection" relative to production content, so perhaps this could possibly have been a Buick engineering-built car, or an owner-modified car. Item by item....

1. Invicta Customs were not built in Turquoise. I have every version of the order form from Sept 59 to the end of the model year (5 or 6 editions)and never was turquoise available. Presumably, this was because the Custom interior was available only in fawn, blue, and maroon. Could a car have been built with a non-recommended paint scheme or a non-standard color? Possibly, but I would be skeptical without seeing the trim tag on the car.

2. Invicta Customs did NOT use "225 trim" behind the rear wheels. The only exterior differences from a regular Invicta are the "Invicta Custom" badges on the front fender. Having "225 trim" behind the rear wheels smells like an owner added accessory (perhaps to cover the usual rust problems?) Furthermore, the C-body 225 coupe had longer quarters than a B-body Invicta, so any 225 trim would require modifications to fit.

3. I am not aware of any records from Buick that state the number of 1960 Invicta Customs that were built as convertibles, coupes, and wagons (yes, wagons!). I have personally contacted Buick, and thoroughly searched the Sloan Research Center archives for this data, with no success. Although the car is scarce, I would be skeptical that Buick built only 50 of the convertibles. I speak for myself and several other IC fans I know, when I say I would heartily welcome any legitimate documentation on build quantities.

Having worked at GM for 25 years and been in the car hobby even longer, I am very hesitant to say a certain combination could "never" happen---I've seen too many intentional and unintentional deviations. But that doesn't mean they were built at the factory. In the fifties and sixties, it was not uncommon for General Managers and other high-ranking officials to receive cars that were modified in color, trim, driveline, or some combination of these areas. Mods would typically be done by the engineering or styling departments. For example, I once came across documentation of specially modified 1959 Buick wagon built for Mrs. Tony DeLorenzo, wife of Buick's PR director.

However, because I own an original copy of the factory assembly manual for 1960, showing the installation procedures and part numbers for all the various build combinations, I can say with certainty that a 4-speed 1960 Buick was not something that was built on the assembly line as a production vehicle. The only manual trans was a column shifted 3-speed (LeSabre only; 364 only). There were no production parts for the installation of a floor shift, nor was there a production steering column that had NO shift lever. I am confident that any such parts (unless fabricated by engineering or an owner) would have been documented with a part number in the assembly manual---even if only a handful were to be built.

[Centurion]

70Electra, thanks -- as always -- for your well-researched and authoritative reply. I am confident that your conclusion about this car is correct. I realized that Doctor DeSoto's comments about the lower body trim were incorrect, but I had not previously thought about the limitation on exterior paint colors dictated by the bucket seat interior.

Clearly, someone along the way undertook an ambitious project to convert this torque-tube Buick to a four-speed set-up.

By the way, Greg, if you can recollect any details regarding that specially-modified 1959 Estate Wagon built for Mrs. DeLorenzo, I would enjoy hearing them.