1970 Buick GS 455 Stage 1 With One-Family Ownership Can Cure the HEMI out of a New Buyer

Before the edicts of the Clean Air Act (signed into law on the last day of 1970 by Richard Nixon) began muffling performance, insurance companies started corralling the horses under the hoods, prompting a quick answer so simple, devious, and mutually beneficial for carmakers and customers alike.

The insurers probably weren’t the most ecclesiastical adulators of quarter-mile mass sermons and taxed horsepower. Had they been a little more inclined to learn the habits of their preferred prey – muscle car enthusiasts – they would have learned that it was torque that won the races. Granted, horsepower sold cars, and that’s where car companies began their little mathematical relativity game.

A car’s insurance premium was based on its power output: the more, the pricier. Smart Alecs from Detroit found a workaround: stating the hp readings from lower RPMs than the absolute peak or a motor resulted in lower numbers, thus less money for the customer to bleed out to insurers. Since nobody had anything to object to regarding torque ratings, carmakers could wink at their prospects without fear of pecuniary consequences.

That’s why the Boss 429, for example, was officially quoted with 375 hp and 450 lb-ft (380 PS, 610 Nm) when, in reality, it probably had 375 horses at the wheels. Not for nothing, but in 1970, Detroit was taken aback by Buick and its newly-released 455 V8 piston-bomb.

To call it a powerplant would be a downright insult for the 7.5-liter dinosaur that could have just as well found a full-time job in naval applications, pushing barges upstream on the Mississippi. Torqueplant might be a more suitable term (but someone has to invent it first).

Buick played it safe – as almost everyone else did – and claimed the new king of performance from the clan of General Motors produced 350 hp at 4,600 RPM. Or 360, or even 370 – depending on its application in the GS, Wildcat, or Electra.

At the same time, Motor Trend Magazine took a Buick GS 455 Stage 1 for a full-send session and came to the following conclusions: 13.38 seconds at 105.5 mph - with a 1.8-ton Buick. Even the insurance-indifferent 426 Street HEMI (which hadn’t backed down one drop from its 425-hp claims made way back in 1966) didn’t want to cross crankshafts with the GS battleship.

The Stage 1 was a performance package available for the Buick GS 455, available for $199 on top of the regular price – not a tremendous amount (but on paper, it didn’t offer much either: the power gain from a standard 455-cubic-inch V8 to its Stage 1 variant was a meager ten hp, from 350 to 360. On paper, I must stress out).

2,465 GS hardtops came with the 455 Stage 1 treatment at its debut in 1970, and one was bought new as a daily grocery-getter. I kid you not; the mighty Buick with the go-very-fast option was also delegated to carry the lady of the house to and from the shops. The car was bought new by a firearms and law-enforcement equipment supplier and stayed with the woman for three years.

In 1973, the Titian Red GS 455 Stage 1 was retired into the original buyer’s collection. The paint is worth mentioning because of its SCO (Special Car Order in Buick-anese) color – it was a Riviera-exclusive shade. Aware that the performance years were but a nice chapter in history, the car's owner used it seldom after 1974 until one cold April day in 1993.

Since it had been rigorously cared for, the Buick was in impeccable condition when the driver – the original owner – climbed behind the wheel, lost control, and scraped a guardrail. The incident sent the car into repair, so it’s not original anymore. It is, however, correct to factory specifications.

Both front fenders had to be replaced, but finding the matching date-code parts wasn’t precisely a finger-snapping deal. However, with $33,922.84 invested in the project (according to the invoices) the car was put back into like-new-and-original condition after a 15-month restoration in the mid 90s. The amount is beyond a 2024 equivalent since parts and labor costs aren’t on par with those from thirty years ago.

I mentioned above that the owner was in a business that granted him access to equipment not available to civilians, like the Federal police siren and the unity spotlight (both are visible in the gallery, in a vintage photo from the car’s pre-crash years). Both items were removed for the restoration and weren’t installed back afterward.

As a note of rarity – apart from its non-GS color and its 54-year one-family ownership – this special Buick also has the Comfort Flo Forced Ventilation installation. In 1970, only 171 GS were ordered with this option. It was a $42.13 add-on, less than one-hundredth of the muscle car's sticker price of $4,878.86.

Although this car doesn’t have the expensive air conditioning system, it was armed with a $227 Turbo Hydra-Matic transmission (rightly linked to the mandatory 3.64 rear), $230 wheels and tires, power steering, and power windows ($105 each), and a $133 Custom Trim package.

After a long and TLC-filled single-family ownership, this appealing 42k-mile (67,991 kilometers) 1970 Buick 455 GS Stage 1 is looking for a new owner. The original buyer’s son is putting it for sale, and it’s not an easy decision to make, given that he’s known the luxo-muscle since he was ten years old.

The current high bid sits at $50,000, with six days left before the online auction closes. Buck for buck, it has already reached the purchasing power break-even mark – its original selling price would equal just under $40,000 in today’s coinage.