Buick Wildcat II

The Buick Wildcat II Concept is a sports concept car from the American maker Buick, part of General Motors, built as a single example and shown at the 1954 General Motors Motorama. Buick designed a series of three V8 concept cars, the Wildcat I of 1953, II of 1954 and III of 1955. The Wildcat II is a neo retro sports car designed by Buick chief designer Ned Nichols at the request of General Motors design vice president Harley J. Earl, who also commissioned its variant the LaSalle II Concept of 1955, to promote the brand and the Motorama. Its fibreglass and chrome body was inspired by the 1953 Chevrolet Corvette concept, from which it takes the rear, with very wide front wheel arches, a chrome dashboard, four floating headlights on the chrome front bumper and chrome wire wheels. It is powered by a 5.2 litre Buick Fireball V8 of 220 hp with four carburettors and is now part of the Sloan Museum collection in Flint, Michigan.