Post by billhammond on Feb 17, 2023 17:05:38 GMT -5
Well, kind of. This excerpt from Motor Trend:
With Buick enjoying a surprising renaissance in the American market, it's a good time to take a look at the brand's most iconic design cue. Officially called "ventiports," but better known as portholes, Buick uses them to signify the number of cylinders under the given model's hood. The Lucerne Super has four ventiports on top of each front quarter-panel to signify its V-8 engine, while the V-6 Lacrosse, Enclave, and Lucerne have three on each side. Four-cylinder models Regal and base Lacrosse have two on each side.
So how do you explain the three- and four-porthole models from 1949 to 1958, when all Buicks had either inline-eight or V-8 engines? Here's how:
1948: Claiming fighter-plane inspiration, Buick designer Ned Nickles cuts holes in the sides of his personal 1948 Roadmaster convertible and installs amber lights attached to the distributor. The lights flash on and off to suggest an unusually powerful engine with exhaust flames. GM executive vice president Harlow Curtice orders ventiports (sans lights) on 1949 Buicks just seven months before production.
1949 model year: Four ventiports identify the Roadmaster with its 320-cubic-inch inline-eight. Three ventiports mean it's the Super with a 263-cube I-8. Production of the Special model doesn't revive until summer 1949. It has the same wheelbase as the Super, a shorter body, a 248 I-8, and three ventiports.
1953 model year: Four ventiports for the Roadmaster with its 188-horse, 322-cubic-inch V-8. Three on the 170-horse (Dynaflow), 322 V-8 Super and on the I-8-holdover Special. The Skylark has no ventiports, 1953 or '54.
1954 model year:
Four on the roadmaster with its 200-horse 320 V-8. Three on Super, which now shares the Roadmaster's body, but with a 188-horse (Dynaflow) 320. Three, also, on the new B-body Century with the Roadmaster's 200-horsepower engine (the "banker's hot rod") and three for the 264-cubic-inch V-8 Special.
1955-'57: Four ventiports, Roadmaster, Super, and Century, which all get 236-horse 320- cubic-inch V-8s. Three on the Special, with its 264-cube V-8.
1958-'59: Buick scrubs ventiports
1960: Ventiports return, with four on the Electra 225 and Electra, three on the Invicta and LeSabre. Until the modern era, the ventiports would come and go, tied into model hierarchy rather than engine size or power.
