It's been a long time since Buicks were actually credibly sporty; sure, maybe they weren't bought by young men even back in the early 70s, but at least they were bought by old guys with itchy gas-pedal feet and a sense of style. You can see that in these unapologetically swoopy portholes.
Here's another old Detroit warhorse still doing the daily-driver thing and parking on a busy Alameda street in between commutes.
According to the owner (who wanted to know why the hell I was photographing his car), the engine is a 350 and the car runs great. He says it was rented to be a "background car" for the filming of Patch Adams. Well, this Buick has had its 0.47 seconds of fame!
The LeSabre for '71 was built using the GM B-Body platform, which means it's a sibling to such fine machines as the Chevy Impala, Pontiac Bonneville, and Olds 88. I think the Buick was the best-looking B-Body for '71. Of course, if you really knew the score back then you got the torque-beast 455 in your LeSabre.
New for '71 was "Full-Flo" ventilation, which was apparently an attempt to dry out the trunk after the standard leaky GM rear window weatherstripping failed when the car reached three years old. Hey, those vents look cool!
Look at those lines. All the golf pros in the world can't make us think Buicks still look half this good. But there's still hope- drag the designers of this car out of retirement and put 'em back to work!
Related:
A Very Special Buick: GM's Oldster Division Looks to Yesteryear for a Modern Spark [internal]