1955 Buick Special 4-door Sedan

"Buick SPECIAL prices start just a few dollars over America's lowest. There the similarity ends."

Massive and elegant, the 1955 Buicks were undeniably masterpieces of Harley Earls GM styling studios. The Special as the entry-level model of the lineup was no exception with its 122 inch wheelbase and 188 hp of thrust. Based on GM's B-body, the 1955 models were a further refinement of the new-for-1954 design. Customers liked it and propelled Buick to the 3rd place in the annual production statistics.

Technically, a new "Variable Pitch Dynaflow" automatic transmission guaranteed an even smoother ride. Buick's catalog stated: "While brand new to motoring, the principle of Variable Pitch is a familiar one to pilots. In their airplanes, they 'switch the pitch' to get extra power when needed. At other times, they use easy-on-the-gas cruising range. You do the same thing in a new Buick. The accelerator pushed to the floor gives you an instant burst of safe passing power . . . ease up the accelerator and you are back to economical cruising range." Well, 'economical' is a relative term, and knowing that most Buicks in Cuba today have manual transmissions implanted, we surely doubt Buicks "Dynaflow" to be so efficient at all.