GRAN TURISMO GAME STAR CAR, A 1962 BUICK SPECIAL CALLED “BU’WICKED”, HEADS TO AUCTION.
The 1962 Buick Special was part of the third generation of the Buick Special line, produced from 1961 to 1963, and being a 2-door sedan it proved to be one of the most popular cars to acquire. The 1962 Buick Special featured a sleek design with clean lines and a streamlined appearance with a distinctive front grille and quad headlights. The rear featured classic tail fins, always a cool feature. While the car was around for the start of the Muscle Car era, the biggest V8 available was a baby 215 cubic-inch V8 engine that produced just on 100 kW, or 135 hp. Shame. Inside there was a comfortable and spacious cabin with a simple and elegant design but with great attention to detail and quality materials. With the styling and lines, the Buick Special made a great base for a project car, and that’s what you see here. This car, now known as Bu’Wicked, is arguably the coolest on the planet, built in the early 2000s by Bill McGlaughlin’s Hot Rod Fabrication in Auburn, Washington. The build was good enough to compete for the 2003 Goodguys Street Machine of the Year, a competition with the highest standards attended by the best car builders in the US. The car made the cover of Custom Rodder Magazine and was featured in Popular Hot Rodding magazine, and it was chosen by Polyphony Digital CEO Kazunori Yamauchi for the GT award at the 2003 SEMA Show. The coolest claim to fame is the car was available to use in the Gran Turismo game series, and featured in Gran Turismo 4, 5 and 6. Many gamers around the world weren’t aware that the 1962 Buik Special was based on an actual real-life car.
We’re not sure why, but this special car has recently been listed on Bring-a-Trailer, a massively popular auction site. At the time of writing, the bids are just over $40 000, which is a bargain for a car like this, but that price may start moving upwards as the auction nears its end. The car not only looks great but has some serious specs too. The car features a 455ci V8 built by Bullet Custom Engines and has forged JE pistons, a hydraulic roller camshaft, TA Performance Stage 2 Street Eliminator aluminium heads, a ProCharger F-1 supercharger, a 1,000cfm throttle body, 55lb/hr fuel injectors, and it’s all controlled by an Accel DFI engine management system. The intake plumbing, tubular headers, and exhaust system were fabricated by Ryan Butler Fabrication. The package is good for 700 hp, a far bump up from 135 hp. There’s a Richmond 6-speed manual transmission, a Scribner-fabricated axle, an aluminium Ford 9″ pumpkin, an Eaton Trac-Lok differential and the coated custom exhaust system runs through the cross members to maximize ground clearance. The car is painted in Lexus Jade Mica and Silver Jade Pearl with Lamborghini orange pinstriping, it has custom triple VentiPorts and Special badges, a front valance with sculpted air intakes, dual exhaust outlets that exit through the custom rear valance and the bumpers have been smoothed and tucked. The Buick rolls on an Art Morrison chassis with polished stainless-steel tubular control arms up front, a chrome-plated four-link rear end with a triangulated wishbone, and QA1 height-adjustable coilovers at all four corners, as too are 17-inch Budnik Arrowhead wheels. These also cover the Baer/Alcon 4-pot calipers and the drilled and slotted 13.5-inch discs. The interior is fully reworked and includes a brilliant Alpine sound system. The build was based on a rendered colour illustration by Justin Milburn, and it’s included in the sale.
Take a look at the YouTube video showing this absolutely stunning 1962 Buick Special in action on track in Gran Turismo 5, and then after seeing that, click through to the videos that follow showing a recent walkaround of the car as well as a cold start. This ain't no regular restored car, this was a car built with winning a hotly contested car build competition, and so there are no shortcuts and only the best of the best parts and processes went into it - and this explains why the car was featured everywhere it was: Gran Turismo 5: Buick Special '62 [PS3] [HD720p] | DOPPELgameplayVIDEOS
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