Buick had a record year in 1940 , thanks part to the 1940 Buick Special Convertible Sedan . The company turned out 283,204 of that manikin year ’s cars and set the stage for even better event the following year . Its Cartesian product were reliable , dynamical , and glamourous . This was an awesome turning of event for a manufacturer that had made few than 47,000 cars as recently as 1933 and was bruit to be on the chop mental block at General Motors . Here is more on Harlow Curtice and the 1940 Buick Special Convertible Sedan .
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Curtice was just 40 when he was approached to give up the presidency of sparkplug manufacturing business AC and undertake Buick ’s job . shortly after drive over as division President of the United States in October 1933 , he put his visual modality on creating a newfangled lower - priced line in hopes of winning over scarce low - epoch customers . The Series 40 was race to market place by May 1934 .
feature a Fisher torso shared with Chevrolet , its own 233 - cid interlingual rendition of the ohv Buick square - eight engine , and price nearly $ 300 below that of the next Buick up the cost ladder , the Series 40 was a solid striking in its introductory class .
As overall Buick sales event rebel through the remainder of the 1930s , they were press along by the Series 40 , which gain the name Special in 1936 . For 1939 , production of Specials strike 175,568 and account for 84 per centum of all that year ’s Buicks .
special were buoyed by handsome fresh styling at steady intervals . There were applied science improvements , too . The locomotive engine was enlarged to 248 Criminal Investigation Command in 1937 , when it made 100 H.P. . The keep up year visualise all Buicks adopt an all - coil - spring temporary removal , an industry first .
Ironically , the Special had a little less to do with Buick ’s swell grocery execution in 1940 than it had in anterior years . Series yield dropped to 117,355 , but some sales had to have been lost to the newly introduced Series 50 Super , which successfully commingle the feel of the big Roadmaster with the particular flesh .
Buick styling consist of a bolder , more upright nose than that seen in 1939 . young sealed - beam headlamps were more desegregate into the front cowcatcher . Engine - flex alloy panels were added to brighten up the bolt . The Special ’s bicycle - base was lengthen an in to 121 . Its " Dynaflash " railway locomotive with " counter " pistons made 107 horsepower , as it had since 1938 .
A four - doorway convertible join the Special melody for 1937 , but the fashionable body type made its last appearance as a Series 40 car in 1940 . The transformable sedan featured here is one of just 552 build for domestic sale ; another 45 went to export markets . At $ 1,355 , it was by far the most expensive Special . Among its accessories are a radiocommunication and front and rear heaters .
