1 1937 Buick Coupe / 455 Turbo Street Rod |Muscle Car Journal f1

Monday, January 5, 2015

1937 Buick Coupe / 455 Turbo Street Rod

Featured in this article is a 1937 Buick Coupe Street Rod. This is the perfect street rod to take to the cruise-ins and car shows not to mention the strip.Many automobile models during the 1930's became popular street rods and hot rods such as the 32 Ford Deuce Coupe.


buick street rod
1937 Buick Coupe Street Rod
Great Bargains During the 1930's
to the local cruise-ins and car shows

The automobile model year of 1937 offered some terrific values for buyers. An old article from the Chicago Tribune in the fall of 1936 stated that car buyers will see some of the best bargains ever offered for new automobiles. Buick offered some of the lowest prices ever that year. DeSoto itself advertised that their 1937 new car prices would be less than the year before.

Success for Buick in the 1930's

Buick was doing well in 1937 and offered some classic designs. It was the time when Buick put out some elegant automobiles. General Motors had a reputation for putting a lot of emphasis in body design. ome say that the 37 Buick was the best designed Buick of the 30's.

Starting in 1934 Buick came out with designs with smoother flowing lines. In fact, Buick designs throughout the mid to late 30's were among the best in the market. By the 1930s, Buick's market had been comprised of mostly upper class and professional people who had moved up from a Chevrolet, Oakland or Oldsmobile.

37 buick coupe street rod
Customized 37 Buick Coupe
The 1937 Buick Street Rod

One vintage Buick that has had a lot of success and popularity as a street rod is the 37 Buick Coupe. The 1937 Buick 455 Turbo featured in this article is a street rod classic. Both the 1937 and 1938 model Buicks are very popular with restorers and rodders. Both the 37's and 38's were very similar in design with only minor changes. Some say that these designs with their classic lines represented some of the best put out by Buick.

A fine resource for street rods is the National Street Rod Association. The association lists many classified ads, a list of upcoming street rod events and much more. See their website at.....http://www.nsra-usa.com/

1937 buick V-8
1937 Buick Stock Specifications

The 1937 Buick came with a 248 cubic inch valve-in-head straight eight stock engine. Buick was proud of their engines in 1937 and advertised them as smooth, quiet and high powered. Buick said that the valve-in-head design allowed more power from every gallon of gasoline. The Buick straight eight, in several variations, was produced from 1931 to 1953.

Dimensions of the Buick Coupe included a wheelbase of 122.0 inches, an overall length of 199.756 inches, a width of 72.0 inches and a height of 39.20 inches. Curb weight was 3,445 lbs.

The 1937 Buick's debuted a new type of carburetor, “the Aerobat”.Buick advertised this all position carburetor as offering thrift and better efficiency.

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The 455 Turbo Street Rod Engine

The 37 Buick featured in this article comes with a Big Block 455 Turbo engine. A 455 Turbo engine is really meant for one thing, and that's speed and power. This Big Block Buick engine was built from 1970 to 1976. The regular Buick 455 was rated at 350 horsepower. A 455 Stage 1 delivered 360 horsepower. Because of new federal emission regulations, horsepower was reduced in 1971. Beginning in 1972 the horsepower was rated at 250 due to the new measurement of horsepower as  SAE  net horsepower as opposed to a gross horsepower rating.Obviously this had the same effect on every American automaker's engines.

interior dashboard 1937 buick coupe
Beautiful dashboard
1937 Buick's As Collector Cars

In general all automobiles from the 1930's make excellent collector car candidates.

Buick street rods of the 1930's that are for sale will have a wide price range depending on overall condition, modifications, customization, and the type of engine installed.

As of this writing we see a 37 Buick Coupe Street Rod with custom wheels and a large 468 cubic inch V-8 with an 8-71 supercharger with an asking price of $26,000. We see another 37 Buick Century,  restored and rebuilt with a 320 cubic inch straight eight engine with an asking price of  $18,500. Also listed is a 1938 Buick 4 Door Sedan Rat Rod with a 454 BBC, 400 transmission for $5,900.

(Article and photos copyright Muscle Car Journal)