1919 Buick 'Six' Speedster Style

Description

The eponymous company founded in 1899 by David Dunbar Buick is the oldest name still actively making passenger cars in America and as such has a unique heritage. The company relocated from Detroit to Flint, Michigan under the stewardship of James H Whiting in 1903, who appointed William C Durant to manage Buick the following year. Under Durant's leadership Buick soon became the most largest car maker in America and an integral part of the General Motors family once it was established in 1908. Thanks to a well founded reputation for quality Buick was still riding high in the years immediately following the First World War, the best selling car in the General Motors line-up and responsible for more than half of all profits made by the company in this period. The 1919 Model H Six was offered as a roadster, open tourer, coupe or sedan and a choice of two wheelbase lengths, either 118-inch or the longer 124-inch reserved for seven-passenger models. Styling for the 1919 Buick remained largely unchanged, with just a few cosmetic changes such as different bonnet louvres distinguishing the model from the previous year. The engine was a 242-cid six-cylinder unit rated at sixy horsepower with new valve, push rod and spark plug covers, a three-speed selective sliding gear-type transmission and brakes operating on the rear wheels only. Open models received hard wearing black leather while closed cars could be ordered with cloth upholstery. Standard equipment included full electric lighting (with a new Delco lever-action light switch to activate both ignition and lighting functions), a speedo and a horn. In addition to domestic production, Buick's records indicate a small number of roadsters and tourers were built for export, out of the total production of 65,997 units for the model year.