The Buick Blackhawk is not just any customized car – it’s built to emphasize Buick’s heritage of distinctive design and outstanding power for the specialized audiences that attend custom/hot rod shows.
“This is a very special show car,” said Michael E. Doble, Buick’s special vehicles manager: “It has classic styling joined with contemporary proportions. If you’re speaking about customized cars, the Blackhawk may be the ultimate expression of Buick.”
Retractable convertible with styling through the ‘30s
The Blackhawk is simply a 2-plus-2 convertible that has a retractable top, plus a body that looks like it exited the late 1930s or ‘40s – because doing so did. Its face is really a classic 1939 Buick grille, that includes a pattern of fine vertical bars, and it is major sheet metal combines the sleek bodies of 1941 and 1948 Buick Roadmasters.
This except the grille have been modified, as well as the final appearance – featuring black cherry paint, doors without handles and hidden headlamps – is of your streamlined yet retro head-turner that looks as if it was made especially for the Woodward Dream Cruise.
In a sense that it was. Doble has been in control of creating Buick show and concept cars as well as some specialty production models for the last 15 years. Mostly, his Buick concepts are actually designed to headline major auto shows at Detroit, L . a ., Chicago and Nyc. Even so the Blackhawk was made to fill a different need – one he perceived when he attended custom and hot rod shows and caught the enthusiasm in their crowds.
“The folks that attend those shows are incredibly excited and experienced in cars,” he said. “We felt we needed a custom Buick to the audience, however, not a hotrod. Hot rods generally simple bodies, exposed engines, large rear wheels and a lot of chrome. But if you produce a custom, it’s like you’re redesigning a car.
“The Blackhawk is often a highly altered car, getting your hands on design cues from Buick’s heritage. It will be an excellent showpiece for many events even as head toward Buick’s centennial in 2003.”
To Buick General Manager Roger W. Adams, the Blackhawk creates “a fascinating statement for Buick to create approaching our centennial. Buicks have always were built with a strong part of power and distinctive style – and this also is a good time and energy to remind folks of these.”
He said Buick leaders have long promoted the marque’s upscale image and such key Buick attributes as comfort, convenience, security. In the past year or two there is new focus on more expressive Buicks.
One of them is the 1999 concept Cielo, a ” no-compromise” convertible with roof rails and retractable top. This band are brilliant the 2000 concept LaCrosse, called a “drop-dead gorgeous” flagship sedan, which packages styling cues from Buick’s past (such as vertical-bar grille, portholes and side sculpture from your ‘50s) in a refreshing way. LaCrosse, incidentally, can also reveal a pickup-type rear cargo area on a single voice command. Still another example is Rendezvous, a production Buick SUV for the 2002 model year that Adams says is a lot more versatile than some other vehicle in their class.
The Blackhawk, without meant for major auto shows, enhances that new trend using a more aggressive accept styling heritage and power. And, Doble said, the Blackhawk is “no trailer queen.” It’s intended as driven, maybe even from custom show to custom show throughout the country.
Blackhawk power: 463-hp V-8; 0-60 within 5 seconds
The Blackhawk’s performance goal is 0-60 mph in under 5 seconds. Its powertrain is usually a 1970-vintage 455-cubic-inch Buick GS Stage III V-8 engine, heavily detailed and mated for the latest electronically controlled four-speed automatic transmission. The naturally aspirated, overhead valve, fuel-injected engine generates 463 horsepower at 4600 rpm and 510 lb-ft of torque at 4200 rpm.
While Doble had the idea of making a great Buick custom car with heritage overtones, he failed to create the Blackhawk. He took his ideas to five companies and so they delivered using a quantity of creative concepts, that were received well by Doble. Finally he chose considered one of four concepts submitted by Steven D. Pasteiner, an ancient Buick designer online resources a design and prototype company, Advanced Automobile Technologies, in Rochester Hills, Mich.
Pasteiner had done major design focus on many Buick concepts throughout the years – like Questor, Sceptre, Park Avenue Essence, Signia and XP2000, all well-known names to students of industry dream cars. He’d also designed such production Buicks as GS styles of the late 1960s and Regals through the 1970s until he left General Motors Design to make his personal company in 1989.[robson.m3rlin.org]