1976 Buick Century "Free Spirit" Indy Pace Car

1976 Buick Century "Free Spirit" Indy Pace Car

Cool!  Finally the random program has picked a car I'm excited about (although I might be the only one).  For a time, I started actively collecting Indy Pace Cars. Every year the Indianapolis 500 selects a vehicle to serve as the pace car, and most years the manufacturer would release a "Pace Car Edition" to the public. In 1976, the Buick Century was selected for the 2nd year in a row (I also owned a 1975 Pace Car at the same time as this one).  

I bought this car from an individual up in East Texas and drove it home.  It almost made it, other than needing a new tire about half way down Highway 59. Other than that, it ran pretty good.  It wasn't a prefect car, but I paid next to nothing for it.

Once I had the car home I started fiddling with it from time to time.  A new set of tires - Firehawk Indy 500s of course - and a vanity plate reading "76 INDY" were the first couple of additions.  With a few adjustments, the car ran strong.  It had a built 455 that put out probably around 400 horsepower.  Unfortunately, there was no way this car could put all that power down.  It was still fun to drive and sounded meaner than it was.

This is what the car was supposed to look like, and what I always intended it to eventually look like.  Nobody was making the decal package at the time though, so I never got around to painting mine.  Buick produced 1290 of these in 1976. Most of them came with a non-turbo version of the actual pace car's V6, but two V-8 options were available.  Hurst Hatches were an option as well, but most of the ones I've ever seen have had them, although mine did not.  

The doors on this thing were at least a mile long and had to weigh two tons each.  

I actually really liked the interior on this car.  It was comfortable, and I loved that it had two buckets with a console shifter.  The maroon color was fine - it kind of worked on a mid-seventies ride.

George always liked this one as well.  When acting as my garage buddy he would head to the '76 (I assume because his white fur would show up best on the dark interior).

Nel, although amusing me here, didn't get this one really.  To be fair, we had just started dating and I hadn't yet had enough time to teach her what "cool" looked like.  I called this car "Thumper".  I had been calling my '75 Pace Car, which was white and had a rather weak motor, "Bambi", so Thumper made sense.  I eventually sold this one to a couple of guys from Utah who flew in and drove it home.  I told them I wasn't sure it would make the trip but they seemed unconcerned and headed out with big smiles on their faces.  They called me later to tell me they had made it without issue and had a fantastic time.

I miss this car.  It was a casualty of moving to a house with less storage.  I'd like to have another one someday if I could find one.  It's very rare to find survivors today.  Rust was the main culprit, but lack of collectibility and years of them being cheap meant not too many were really cared for or restored.