[Cyrus43]

Saw this beautiful Buick Eight. It used to be Metalic Green and black earlier. Havent Blanked out the number plate as i have taken permission before taking pictures!

[SirAlec]

Wow! thats a very long front end.! wats the specs of this beauty?

[karlosdeville]

I somehow find the new colour scheme quite ghastly. Here she is before painting in 2007.

[Cyrus43]

Originally Posted by karlosdeville

I somehow find the new colour scheme quite ghastly. Here she is before painting in 2007.

Here are some pictures of the car on a rainy day a few months ago!!

The engine doesnt sound very good!! Massive fan belt noise!!

[JayD]

Beautiful Car!! But i somehow prefer the older colour scheme.
P.S:How does this guy manage to drive it around town??

[Cyrus43]

Originally Posted by JayD

Beautiful Car!! But i somehow prefer the older colour scheme.
P.S:How does this guy manage to drive it around town??

He doesnt drive it. It just stays in one place and comes out during the rallies etc. It is as long as an S Class perhabs.

[President]

Originally Posted by GTA

Saw this beautiful Buick Eight. It used to be Metalic Green and black earlier. Havent Blanked out the number plate as i have taken permission before taking pictures!

The new colour combo of the BUICK EIGHT is indeed the same as my ex 1964 LHD FIAT, if you notice.

[Cyrus43]

Thats the first thing that i thought about when i saw this car.
Maybe the same person has painted this car too. And the paint finish is not good at all.

[Stanher]

Originally Posted by President

The new colour combo of the BUICK EIGHT is indeed the same as my ex 1964 LHD FIAT, if you notice.

True but although it may be because of the pics. the red on the buick looks darker than on your fiat?

[Cyrus43]

Originally Posted by Stanher

True but although it may be because of the pics. the red on the buick looks darker than on your fiat?

The pics are deceptive. Ronis car was clicked from a Digital Camera whereas The buick was clicked from my phone. Thats is why the color is different. The cars look identical shadewise.

[RohuRulz]

Originally Posted by Stanher

True but although it may be because of the pics. the red on the buick looks darker than on your fiat?

Cyrus is right. The difference in colour is because of the difference of camera used to click the photo!!

[girishpv]

Beautiful find mate, its very long, very nice

[netchef]

Originally Posted by Cyrus43

Saw this beautiful Buick Eight. It used to be Metalic Green and black earlier. Havent Blanked out the number plate as i have taken permission before taking pictures!

Cyrus43:
Lovely pics, thanks, Sir. It brings back a flood of memories as the fly Gonzy had one circa 1976 and we had a blast in it. Dad had popped in a Perkins P 6 truck engine. I can still recall the Regn.: MEO 2160- wonder what became of her after we sold in 1980?

Originally Posted by SirAlec

Wow! thats a very long front end.! wats the specs of this beauty?

SirAlec: A very rare straight 8 petrol engine, Sir. Another company famous for its straight 8s was Bugatti. I was too young to recall the sound of the engine before Dad replaced it with a P6 with a technician in Lonavla- I can, though, recall the long test drives with Deedar Singh- the mechanic- for FE, transmission etc (they had added an overdrive box).

I learned how to drive in this limo: 3 forward gears, and such a long hood I couldn't see over it for that heart-stopping fewseconds when poised to tip over the small bridge near our house. The suspension was so good she would merely float over bumps and ditches.

Built-in radio in the dash
Clock
Split front windscreen
Ashtray and lighter in the rear
Rear armrest
Boot that would take a Steinway grand
Hood tipped open either way depending on what you wanted to get at; weighed a tonne and once fell on a friend's head when he was bleeding air from the fuel line (the chrome adornments served as latches)

We drove from Bombay to Bangalore in it along with a heap of household goods; then the adventurous fly Gonzy would flit off to Bandipur for the most wild, memorable holidays ever invented. Ask me about 8 punctures en-route to Mysore and 16 odd hours eating, living & sleeping in a Buick. Or the weight of one Buick wheel. Or eating sugarcane from a Mandya farmer's field. Or adding night soil to it (both without his written permission, of course). Or the cousin that mistook an oil can for an empty oil can, filled it with water and washed his...anyway- Bloody mad times filled with fun.

[anjan_c2007]

Shammi Kapoor still treasures his Buick Super 8 and I got this write-up from his website:

Originally Posted by Shammi Kapoor

I started driving my father's car, an "Opel" when I used to go to school. Before that there was a period when a few of us friends at College road, where I stayed, used to help one Mr. Mani in pushing his small Austin car to start it. Then one day unknown to him we started to push it around with one of us at the steering to keep in practice, and ultimately when I jumped into the driver's seat, I fixed some ignition wires got it started. The rest jumped in and we took a short drive. We got away with this routine a couple of times till we were apprehended one day by Mani and got the firing of our lives. Once while going to school I started my brother's car, a Ford, and before my servant, Dwarka, could get in and close the door, I took off. The result was disasterous. The open door crashed against the lamp post and got wrenched off. The noise brought my brother and parents to the balcony and before anything could be said I was out of hearing range, heading for the nearest bus stop.

After signing my first film "Jeewan Jyoti", I went around like a sire for hire. Also, I wanted to buy a car. I got advice from various sources, including my producer Mr. A.R. Kardar who had a number of cars including a Cadillac. He strongly advised me to: Always buy a brand new car; not a second hand one; and buy a Chevy or a Pontiac, both beauties, which he could arrange for me on Hire purchase. I took no notice of his advise on either points.

I had seen the beauty I wanted.

It was a skyblue colored, convertible; Buick Super; second hand. It belonged to then film actress Nigar Sultana, who wanted to sell it and it was on display at the Car Mart, at Hughes road. My friend and first producer, Aspi Irani, who I was signed with but had no picture on the floor, knew the owner of Car Mart, Mr. Chunnawala and so off we went to meet and negotiate for the car. He agreed to a pricetag of Rs. 16,500/-, to be paid on a monthly basis Hire purchase for 24 months. The down payment of Rs. 5000/- was to be paid by Aspi. For the next 2 years I paid Rs. 650/- every month almost regularly. It was on the 12th of June, 1952 that I got my Buick. It's registration number was BMY 3009.

Subsequently in my life span as a Film Star, I had a number of different cars; a Desoto followed by a Chevy Belair, a Chevy Impala, a Chevy Intercontinental convertible, a Ford Thunderbird, a Sunbeam Alpine, a Triumph, a Malibu some foreign and Indian Fiats and a number of Jeeps for my Shikar. But to this day the one and only beauty which has always remained dear to me in both my memory and my heart is, the BUICK BMY 3009.

Text by Shammi Kapoor.

[anjan_c2007]

This is the Buick Super 8 that has had a very, very long innings with Shammi Kapoor!!