You think the supply of old cars and trucks parked on the streets of Alameda will dry up, now that we've hit the 300 point? I doubt it, not when you can still find Early Malaise Era landyachts like this Electra being used as daily transportation. Five-dollar gas be damned! I found this car parked near the former Alameda Naval Air Station, where thousands of nuclear weapons once sat it earthen bunkers and thousands of sailors once drove second-gen Camaros. Nowadays they shoot movies and make vodka at the old NAS, and the sound of A6s and P3s no longer competes with the roar of small-block Chevy engines.
Heraldic crests! Knights in armor! Seeing this hood ornament, I find it impossible to believe that Buick didn't offer an Electra Brougham for '73. Surely there must be some mistake!
Just in time for the Arab oil embargo of '73, this 4,682-pound dreamboat purred down the highway courtesy of a 210-horse 455 engine. That seems like a pretty poor power-to-weight ratio, but keep in mind that Tricky Dick lowered the speed limit the very next year. Just in time, too, because this car probably gets 9 MPG at 75 MPH and 11 MPG at 55 MPH.
This car is in very nice original condition, but you don't have to go to a car show to see this kind of thing on the Island That Rust Forgot!
We've had 18 cars from the first year of the Malaise Era in this series, and some- maybe even most- of them are pretty cool. That means we need a poll! Vote for your favorite 1973 DOTS machine, then check out the '73 Electra gallery.
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