Early postwar Buicks were known as much for their unmistakable toothy grilles as for anything else and like most of their competitors, they were slightly updated 1942 models that had been returned to production as 1946 models. When completely new Buicks appeared for 1949, they included the first Riviera – a pillarless two-door hardtop in the Roadmaster line – and something that would become a defining Buick feature, Ventiports.
For Decades After the 1949 Buick, Ventiports Would Symbolize Buicks
The public generally called them portholes and by either name, Ventiports initially allowed air and heat to escape from the engine compartment, but soon served no purpose other than decoration. Mounted on the front fenders at first, they moved to the hood sides for 1950 and back to the fenders for 1951. Either way, four per side identified Roadmasters and three the lesser models.
Ventiports would vanish and reappear several times over the following decades with probably the oddest example being their two-year absence that began with the 1958 Buick. The model represented a major change from the 1957 Buick in nearly every way, but nowhere as much as in its trim; a 1958 Buick Limited fairly exemplified the flash and size of the era’s high-end cars, but even the entry-level Special was astonishing in its use of chrome. Ventiports would have fit well on either car.
The 1959 Buick was again all new and while it still didn’t have Ventiports, it did have straight-line fins. At front, the fins flowed from atop angled headlight pairs and trailed slightly downward to end level with the taillights’ centers. At rear, they angled upward and outward from between the taillights’ midpoints and gradually dropped to the beltline as they reached the passenger compartment.
Buick Tailfins Don’t Need to be Sharp, Buick Portholes Don’t Need to be Rounded
Few would describe a 1960 Buick as conservative unless they first had seen the 1959 model; although many viewed the two cars as almost identical, they were very different from each other. The 1960 Buick’s fins were still there, but they were lower and with less of the crisp definition that characterized those of the 1959 model. In fact, that was true of nearly every aspect of the new car’s styling.
What in 1959 had been an essentially flat side below the line running from headlight to taillight was now relieved by a bulge beginning at the headlight and continuing to the door, a change made possible by 1960’s switch to horizontally mounted headlight pairs. The fin that had followed 1959’s angled units returned in revised form, but the new headlight layout helped to give the 1960 Buick a look far less out of the mainstream. A fine concave grille in place of the previous rows of chrome squares helped, as did a simplified bumper.
And then there were the Ventiports. Back on the fenders for the first time since 1957, they looked more like small chrome emblems than they did like portholes, but that didn’t matter. To complete the tradition’s return, Buick again used four Ventiports on the most expensive models and three on the others.
Tradition Aside, Buick Continues LeSabre, Invicta and Electra
Buick had given up its old series names – Special, Century, Super, Roadmaster and Limited – for 1959 and although they would gradually reappear beginning with the 1961 Special, the new names were used on the 1960 Buick. As in 1959, the LeSabre was now at the bottom and the Electra 225 at the top, with the Invicta and Electra between them.
As Buick’s flagship, the Electra 225 rode the longest wheelbase at 126 inches and was named for its overall length. In addition to its four-Ventiport fenders, it could be easily recognized by the wide brightwork along the lower body side between the rear bumper and the front wheelwell; if the thin band surrounding the wheelwell is accepted as a continuation, then the brightwork extends from bumper to bumper.
Anyone who still couldn’t distinguish an Electra 225 from one of the less-expensive Buick models had only to look at the fenders’ badges or the large emblem that was circled and mounted on the trunklid.
Like its two immediate ancestors, a 1960 Buick was virtually incapable of blending into traffic. Several years would pass before Buick would build a similarly noticeable car, but at a time when most automakers were just beginning to rediscover the low-key approach, the last finned Buick – and especially the Electra 225 – could easily hold its own.
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