In 1970 a drag strip, or at least a large organized street racing scene, could be found in every Anywhere, USA, town. Drag racing was an important part of American culture in those days and it was no secret that in 1970, American men had a fascination with speed.
The Big 3 capitalized on this testosterone and gasoline fueled culture by building the greatest class of Automobile the world has ever seen: musclecars. One of the fastest among these musclecars was the 1970 Buick GSX Stage 1. For the GSX’s construction, the engineers at Buick took the standard Skylark and injected it with steroids. The outcome: a high octane burning, tire screeching, redlining, street legal drag car.
The crew of V8TV spotted one of these Saturn Yellow street dragsters at the 2014 Muscle Car & Corvette Nationals. Owned and piloted by Richard Johns of Canada, this GSX Stage 1 is extra special because only 20 Stage 1s were ever sold in Canada. Despite her high collectability she isn’t a garage queen, no John drives her as nature intended, as a Pure Stock drag car.
With a deep 3.64 rear posi, a burly Buick 455 big block with 12:1 compression this car screams down the strip. Believe it or not the Buick 455 is not a true big block mill. Its an extended length, Buick 350 block that was bored and stroked all the way out to 455. According to ads the Stage 1’s 455 produced 360 horsepower and 510 lbs ft of torque but experts believe the horsepower rating is closer to 390 to 400 horses.
Johns’ GSX runs on Old style G60 polyglass tires, shoot the glass all over rear quarters (which his car wears like a badge of honor). “Who can deny the beauty of a Goodyear raised letter polyglass” Due to polyglass not having the grip of modern radials, a different science is applied your passes. Launches have to be softer, since the tires won’t stick right away compared to modern tires. Despite having a car using 1970 technology, the Johns’ Stage 1 turns a 12.45 Quarter Mile @ 109.85 MPH.
The Buick GSX was the ultimate engineering model of 1970, it was the Super Car of the musclecar world. It was designed a street legal dragster on the road that is capable of out running everything Mopar or Ford threw at it. Not only that the GSX could fit four people comfortably and could by purchased by your average middle class Joe.