Lost Muscle Cars. Wes Eisenschenk
15, 1967. Those dates are important because only a handful of cars had been built prior to this period.
Chassis 1?
Among the scarce information on this car was an article found on a French car forum. It is dated November 1967, just a couple of weeks after the Paris Auto Show. The English translation tells you everything you need to know about a car described as “chassis 1”:
“Arriving specially by plane, carrying the chassis number 1, this 1968 Shelby has an engine of 5 liters (302) developing 310 hp, weighing 1.325 kg (2,920 pounds), maximum speed 220 km/h (137 mph). The general features differentiate it even more from that of a Mustang; in fact, a car with prestige, that can be equipped like this one, has an automatic transmission and air conditioning (additional $639). The brakes are reinforced. It sells for ƒ46,500 [$8,485.00 in 1968] by Inter-Sport, which also announces marketing a convertible Shelby GT500. The U.S. base retail price for a GT350 fastback was $4,117.”
It’s interesting that the car was described as “chassis 1.” The 1968 Shelby with serial number 00001 has been located and it does not appear to be the same car. According to information recently uncovered, the car serialized as number 00001 was a 4-speed car without air conditioning. That car was built after September 1967. The car that appeared in Paris may have been the first Shelby in France, but it was not chassis number 00001.
Most likely, the Paris Auto Show car is in fact, serial number 8T02J110578-00339, which was the first 1968 GT350 hardtop built. This car meets all the physical characteristics of the Paris Auto Show car. It was also the only GT350 in Shelby’s inventory during the time. Interestingly, paperwork on this GT350 between Ford Motor Company and Ford of France indicates that this particular car was sold to the latter.
A New Home
As unreal as it may sound, this Shelby may have ended up in the Central African Republic (CAR). The country was going to be celebrating 10 years of independence and had ordered eight presidential limousines, and a diplomat in CAR requested a free Shelby Mustang from Inter-Sport. Interestingly, Inter-Sport handled marketing the Shelby in magazines for the 54th Salon de L’Automobile.
By Wes Eisenschenk with Denny Manner
We’ve all heard the old wives’ tales about one-of-one factory-built muscle cars. For years, people have chased these mythical machines in an effort to uncover history and possibly own the most rare of the rare. One truly is the loneliest number when dealing with factory prototypes and that’s why you rarely come across single factory-built specimens. That’s why rumors of a factory-built Buick GSX sporting the ultra-rare Stage 2 package were just that, rumors, for the longest time. That is, until Buick engineer Denny Manner set the record straight.
During the pinnacle of the muscle car era, Denny Manner and his other Buick Engineering cohorts designed what may have become the most wicked factory production car of all time. Much like the S/S AMX, WO23 Coronet, and Hurst Hemi Dart, Buick designed a power-plant exclusively for off-road use.
This formidable engine sported special heads with enlarged and raised exhaust ports designed for use exclusively with headers, 11:1 forged pistons with low-tension rings, an Edelbrock B4B intake adorned with an 850 Holley carburetor, and the most imposing hood scoop this side of the 1968 Hemi A-Bodies. The Buick Stage 2 engine was intended to dominate NHRA Super Stock, and only a scant few cars were ever so equipped.
This is the only known photograph of the mighty Buick Stage 2 GSX as constructed by Dennis Manner and Buick Engineering. Sadly, the car was dismantled a short time later. The hood survived and is currently on the Reynolds Buick GS, another car that received Stage 2 components. (Photo Courtesy Dennis Manner)
Factory-Built Stage 2
The prototype Stage 2 engine found itself residing between the fenders of an Apollo White Buick GSX at Buick Engineering. So was this technically a factory-built Stage 2 Buick GSX? The story goes, as told by Denny in the July/August 2013 GSX-TRA newsletter, “In early 1970, we factory-built a prototype 1970 GSX Stage 2, which the Buick sales and public relations departments used to promote Buick GS performance with both magazines and dealers through Bill Trevor at the GM training center in Burbank, California.”
Yes folks, the factory built a prototype Buick GSX Stage 2. This car wasn’t outsourced to Creative Industries of Detroit, Hurst, or any other of the performance builders in Detroit. It was built at Buick, by Buick engineers.
So what ever happened to this fabled Buick? For years rumors swirled that this factory-built Stage 2 caught on fire and was either destroyed or was residing somewhere ominous. Fortunately for automotive archeologists, Denny was able to put the rumors to bed in the December 2012 issue of Hemmings’ Muscle Machines: “I don’t know how the story ever got started about the prototype car ever catching on fire, which was not true, and I have been trying to correct that statement ever since.
“In addition to the Stage 2 development car I used as a workhorse at Buick Engineering, we built a prototype GSX car in Flint in Buick Engineering and sent it out to California for exposure and evaluation for the dealers, the racers, and the magazine writers.
“Upon its return to Michigan long after we had decided to not factory produce the package and we were about to retire the vehicle, one of our Buick engineers missed a shift driving it at our GM proving grounds and put a rod through the side of the block. It did not catch fire.
“We then disassembled the car and scrapped it out, but the special hood was donated to the Jones/Benesick Buick drag car they raced in California.”
So there it was, the hunt for the elusive factory-built Buick Stage 2 was over. A guy missed a shift and lunched the fabled prototype. Or did he?
Other Stage 2 Recipients
Well, yes, the story of the factory-built Buick Stage 2 had a not-so-happy ending, but what about the other cars supplied with Stage 2 components? Two confirmed cars that received these engines for testing purposes were the Pops Kennedy–Jim Bell car campaigned out of Reynolds Buick in West Covina, California, and the Dave Benisek–Dave Jones 4-speed car. Both have survived and have been accounted for.
Also in development at the time of the Stage 2 program were experimental four-bolt main bearing cap blocks and cylinder heads that featured the Stage 2 exhaust ports with an enlarged intake port that had a steep tube inserted in the port for the pushrod to go through. They became known as the “tunnel port” heads.
Tony Branson campaigned a 1969 Buick GS out of Burlington, North Carolina, and was selected by Denny to evaluate these heads and the four-bolt main block. Other Stage 2 parts were sent as well. With a specially fabricated high-rise intake manifold and dual quads, Tony was able to catapult the Buick to a best time of 9.17 in the quarter-mile. The Buick was very successful and the only competition that gave him trouble was the purpose-built Race Hemi A-Bodies.
Among the few Buick racers that received Stage 2 components was Tony Branson of North Carolina. Branson campaigned this 1969 Buick with the experimental four-bolt main bearing cap block. (Photo Courtesy Dennis Manner)
The undisputed king of Buick performance may well have been this experimental four-bolt main block with enlarged intake port heads and Stage 2 exhaust ports. Adorning this monster is a custom high-rise intake fabricated by Tony Branson. (Photo Courtesy Lance Marlette)
In 2006 at the Buick performance meet and race in Ohio, Tony’s heads and intake made an appearance, garnering much attention and confirming speculation. The speed parts were no longer with the car. A couple of years later,