Weight, 4600-5100 lbs, depending on options load. I put a 74 LeSabre on an grain elevator scale and it came in at 5100. Quarter time? Dismal, and getting worse as the decade wore on. I think with a 74 I got 18 seconds, dead stock and probably half-dead. It had a 455 and was a 4 door hardtop with a full options load.
My 71 convertible was 4651 with me in it. As stock it ran 15.5 I managed a 14.99 with headers and a good tunez
Yes, my 71 Formal Coupe rand 13.58 best in crappy humid weather. It had a 12 in it, but never ran it in good weather. But that car was set up right. Engine dynoed at 450hp with a 3.23 posi.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVo9U89liic This doesn't give 1/4 mile Et but it covers about everything else and is pretty cool.
Motor Trend tested a 72 Electra 225 against a Olds 98 and Mercury marquis. The Duece weighed 4740 with a 2.73 gear, and ran a 16.62 @ 86 - the Olds ran 16.26, the Merc ran 17.64 Road and Track tested a 71 Centurion sedan, it weighed 4680 with a 2.93 gear, it ran 17.1 @ 80 Car and Driver tested a 73 Riviera with the big car Stage 1 - it weighed 5047 with a 3.23 gear and ran 15.65 @ 88
Yeah, they weren't all that blisteringly fast by then. Personally, as far as big Buicks are concerned, the 1969 offered about the best basis for a killer build. The body wasn't as big, (just under 4000 lbs) but it was just as roomy inside, and the big 430 could easily be swapped out for a Stage 1 455 along with a modified switch-pitch TH400. Then you had the tallest axle ever put in a GM product; the 2:45. It was blessed with a one-piece driveshaft and no CV joints like the earlier or the later ones. With all that Buick torque it was still respectable enough in the quarter to give a few cars a turn, as well as having an incredible top speed. Mine would run 14.76 on a good day, but hook up was iffy; there were a lot of times where it would fall flat on it's face. I think the tranny was half in the bag. But between 55 mph and 100 mph, the car couldn't be beat, top speed (calculated) at 4200 rpm was 145 mph. It was a good thing I got rid of that car, I would have probably killed myself in it.
I always liked the big Buicks made between 1971-76 for ride quality and comfort. They are an excellent long distance car. The 70 was closer to the 69, nice, but not as soft as the later ones. The 70 Wildcat was probably the second best after the modified 69, but out of the box it was better. The bigger post 71 cars had a whole new frame and suspension. Power wise, the motors were similar between 70 and 71, they started downtuning them more in 72, and by 76 they were a shadow of what they once were. But they were bullet proof,they ran until the oil pumps scored and failed. Generally one got about 120-150,000 miles out of them before overhaul, it's just that by the time a lot of those early seventies Buicks were nearing the end of their lives they were absolutely worthless. In 1980 one could still buy a Wildcat for $300 around here. By the mid eighties the 1976 model year cars had completely bottomed out and many good examples were scrapped, "just because". At one point I had one each year from the 1971-1976 LeSabres; I loved them all, too bad most of them rusted away and were not salvageable. I'd go out and get a 71 Centurion if it wasn't for the fact that my wife absolutely detests cars from that period. She actually permitted me to buy a clapped out 69 Wildcat in place of the 74 LeSabre I was driving when we were dating. She hated that car; (the 74 LeSabre) it was copper brown with a dark brown vinyl roof. It was a 4 door hardtop and it was fully loaded with a 455. I loved that car; to me it was the epitome of the early 70s LeSabres. She called it "the Turd"...needless to say, all the speed parts ended up going into the 69 project, along with a 1970 455 I had come across, and that's how my "bastard Wildcat" was born. Each car has a story to tell, too bad they can't talk.
