Buick nonetheless Retained its Fourth-place Position
It was directly inspired by the Lockheed P-38 Lightning airplane, and the key to its design was a high belt-line, but not quite up to the windowline, running in a straight line from the front of the vehicle to the very rear. The larger C-body ended up being an extremely controversial design with dealers, top management, and especially with the Buick Division, which adapted it for only one short year. Chevrolet and Pontiac developed their own much smaller A-bodies a year later, and the Olds 76 and 88 also used it. The P-38 was developed as a Cadillac, with Olds stylists executing their own distinctive version. The prevailing feeling seemed to be that it was just too radical a design for GM’s top-end cars.
His 0-60 time using Low and Drive came in at 17.1 seconds, top speed at 100 mph, while fuel economy at a steady 60 mph measured 12.6 mpg. His only real complaints about the car were a tendency to heel and break loose on curves when traveling at 70 to 75 mph, and the slow, slow Dynaflow. He found the car so comfortable to drive at high speeds on primarily straight roads that in one day he drove the entire 756 miles between Eiko, Nevada, and Los Angeles. He noted that the mediocre cornering was the result of the softly sprung four-coil suspension.
These two models got the Cadillac C-body, wherein the roof was stretched and the whole rear end was moved back four inches for more rear-passenger space as well as a noticeably longer look. Arguably, these svelte Buick sedans looked better than the Cadillac, which must have pleased Curtice greatly. With two different front ends and two different sedan lengths, Buick ended up with four very different-looking models out of essentially two bodies — one of the keys to Buick sales success in the early Fifties. Although the Roadmasters were a bit shorter than GM’s finest, they had the illusion of looking longer because of the chrome side treatment and the fact that the Buick’s wheels were nearer to the extremities of the car. To enhance the length, the distinctive bodyside sweepspear that first appeared in mid-1949 followed the contour of the rear roofline.
Priced at only $73 more than the Touring Sedan, it was twice as popular. This year, all Roadmasters sported the sweepspear, but the Riviera sedan and Estate Wagon didn’t get it until midyear. Roadmasters, on a 126.25-inch wheel-base, came as a four-door, four-window sedan; two-door Jetback; convertible; Riviera hardtop; DeLuxe Riviera hardtop; and Estate Wagon. Self-shift Dynaflow, first introduced in 1948, was standard on Roadmasters and optional elsewhere; 85 percent of all 1950 Buicks had it. All of these Roadmasters used the same basic body as the Specials and Supers, but with a longer wheelbase and hood. In addition, there was the Model 72: a Riviera C-body four-door sedan boasting a 130.25-inch wheelbase.
Thus was born the most complex and ingenious body interchangeability program in all GM history to date. Some have argued that all 1950 Buicks wore C-bodies, even the Special. The fact is, however, that all 1950 Buicks had B-bodies, except for the longer-wheelbase Super and Roadmaster Riviera four-door sedans — the ones with the rear-quarter windows. Two different straight-eight engines dictated two front-end lengths, the Roadmaster being 4.75 inches longer than the Super and Special. Furthermore, it could easily be argued that the 1950 GM upper-level cars were as much the products of body engineering as of new design. Consider how Buick used the new body. The 1950 Buick Super wore the new C-body.
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