1970 Buick GS 455 Stage 1

This car, Lot 162, sold for $50,400, including buyer’s premium, at the RM Sotheby’s Phoenix, AZ, auction on January 17, 2020.

It’s a cliché to describe a Buick as a banker’s hot rod. The reality was a Skylark could be made as plain or as fancy as you wanted it.

With the GS option, the Skylark went from a “howitzer with windshield wipers” mid-size coupe with a 401 in 1965 to a 400-ci brute in 1967. By 1970, GM dropped the 400-ci displacement limit for intermediate cars. The Skylark Stage 1 455 lived up to Buick’s buzz phrase for 1970: “Vehicles to light your fire.”

Fast minus the flash

The 455 Stage 1 used a hotter cam and different heads than the standard 455. Paired with special Quadrajet carburetor, distributor, cold-air-induction system, low-restriction dual exhaust and a choice between 3.45 or 3.64 rear-axle ratios, a GS 455 Stage 1 could really move. Motor Trend magazine bagged a 13.38 ET at 105.5 mph in their January 1970 issue. But the styling of the 1970 Skylark was clean and subtle — you’d be forgiven for doubting it was a rocket.

Only 664 hard-top Stage 1 4-speeds were made. Not many got to do battle before the era shut down amid sky-high insurance rates and vanishing factory support.

A reminder from the past

By the 1980s, muscle cars started to be restored in large numbers by Baby Boomers.

A March 1985 drag test done by Muscle Car Review magazine between a 1970 455 Stage 1 hard top and a Hemi GTX caused a huge upset in the muscle-car world, as the Buick took the win. A rematch confirmed what tri-shield fans knew all along: The Stage 1 could shut down a Hemi. This put the GS on the map and made it a player on the resto and auction scene.

Skylarks became a great choice for guys wanting A-body muscle without shelling out long green for a GTO or Chevelle SS.

While prices on fine examples have risen steadily, they rival the best of the intermediate muscle-car competition. It takes a heavyweight to tackle a Stage 1 — think Chevelle LS6, Plymouth Hemi ’Cuda or Mustang 428 SCJ. The rise of F.A.S.T. (Factory Appearing Stock Tire) has helped, too. Buick owners have won a lot of races, and they did it with less money than a Hemi or L88 owner.

The picture’s changing, however, and it looks like Buick’s best is closing in on the competition at the traps and on the auction block.

A great example

This all leads us to our subject car: a fine-looking coupe finished in Burnished Brown with Saddle vinyl roof. It’s a 4-speed with console and factory air conditioning, so you’re cool and dry while the competition’s sweating to keep up.

This one has power steering, power disc brakes, road wheels, tilt steering, tinted glass, custom sport wheel, floor mats and body side moldings.

It was restored to a very high standard, with good detail work and superb panel gaps. The fiddly bits such as battery cables seem to be excellent reproductions, and doorsills are factory original, complete with Schutz gun overspray mist. These kinds of flaws aren’t seen on a lot of restored cars.

A look at recent auctions shows there’s demand for good examples and very steep prices. You have to spend over $50k to get a nice Stage 1 car today, which may not be numbers matching.

A gorgeous red hard top was high-bid to $120,000 at Mecum Indy (Lot F177) in May 2018. A stripper Stage 1 hard top finished in white with only a console, buckets, sports wheel and radio commanded a staggering $135,000 before bidding closed. That car was numbers matching, restored and had enough paperwork to justify the national debt.

A stunning blue Stage 1 hard top with just a bench seat, stick shift and dog dishes sold for an aggressive $70,200 at Mecum Indy Classic a few years ago. A nicely restored 4-speed, double green hard top made $47,080 in 2013. At Barrett-Jackson’s Scottsdale venue this year, a nice Stage 1 (Lot 770.1) with matching numbers, factory a/c and an automatic finished in similar colors sold for $88,000.

New trends, great opportunities

Major trends have altered the muscle-car market over the past few years. Even more-obscure models like the GS are reflecting those changes.

Ten years ago you could buy a solid, numbers-matching driver GS for $25,000 to $30,000. That changed by late 2016, when the same money could only get a base-trim A-body hard top. Real numbers-matching cars started to sell for upwards of $50k, depending on options and body style.

The catalog description doesn’t say whether this car is numbers matching. If it is, the price was a steal. If it’s a replacement engine, it’s still a good deal because the car’s really sharp and a 4-gear to boot. You can’t take a driver car to this level for the price paid here, so the buyer can’t lose with this one.

The new owner either got a restored numbers-matching jewel and wore a mask doing it or owns an excellent no-worries driver ready to hit the road at a fair price. This was well bought either way.

(Introductory description courtesy of RM Sotheby’s.)