I had a '68 Electra 225 back in the early '80s. There was a 430 four-barrel under the hood and it made quite a chunk of power, especially torque. It also drank gas at an incredible rate - my daily commute ran about $100/wk in gas, not easy to do in those days. The trunk was so big I once got a love seat in it and closed the lid.Not to veer the thread off topic, because that never happens here, but that Buick was a damn fine car. I was too young to drive it, but it just ran forever. Aside from a not unusual TH-400 rebuild, that likely could have been eliminated with yearly transmission fluid changes, it ran over 140,000 basically trouble free miles. Finally the great rust reaper, as was common with 60s and 70s cars, caught up to it. The day the tow truck came to haul it away, it still started, idled and ran beautifully and didn't burn a drop of oil. If not for the rust, I could imagine that car doing twice the mileage.
1971 was still a good year for the auto industry and their product. Yes, the compression ratios dropped, but that big 455 was reasonably unencumbered by emissions controls and the great weight reduction craze brought on by the 1973 gas crunch, hadn't taken hold yet. My dad liked it so much, a used 1975 took its place. Sadly, that car was notably cheaper in build quality with a much more plastic interior. It never ran quite as well, and wasn't as trouble free. To me, however, that car will always be special, as it's the one I learned to drive in.
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