1934 Buick Sedan - Model 47

The Buick line-up consisted of four series, all powered by straight-eight engines of various displacements. The Series 40 was introduced to offer Buick quality at a low price, and was a huge success. “Knee Action” front independent suspension and an improved transmission were the main technical improvement for 1934, but styling was very similar to the previous year.

This 1934 Buick Model 47 Four door Sedan was on display at the Chicago Century of Progress World’s Fair that year, when a family from Canton City, Colorado fell in love with the car, and purchased it right off the show floor. When the Fair closed, they drove the car all the way to home. The car was driven very sparingly until 1953, when it was put on heated and dry storage for another 50 years, still in the hands of the original owner’s family. It was sold to a Michigan collector who later sold the car to another collector, still with only 58,000 original miles. The Nicola Bulgari Car Collection purchasedthe completely original Buick from him in 2006. Paint, engine, chrome and everything else was in the same condition as when the car was shown at the Chicago World Fair, as the stickers on the front and rear glass attest.

Precision Motor Cars had to install a new interior, but everything else is an example of a never restored car. A noteworthy option is the radio, available for the first time from the factory.

Company
General Motors

Wheelbase
117in

Interior trim
Grey cloth

Brakes
front and rear drums

Make
Buick

Length
195in

Engine
inline 8 - 233cid

Tires
6.25x16

Model
Sedan series 40 - Model 47

Width
76in

Carburetor
1 Marvel BB1

Original Price
$895

Body style
4-door Sedan

Weight
3155lbs

Horsepower
93hp @ 3200rpm

Production
7,425

Model year
1934

Exterior paint
Black

Transmission
Synchro-shift 3-speed manual

The Buick brand had enjoyed great popularity during the prosperous period known as the “Roaring Twenties”. The Division’s powerful and reliable “Valve-in-head” straight-six engine had a good sales success, with almost a 9% share in the 1927 market. When the 1929 Buick cars went on the market, sales collapsed, even before the Wall Street crash. The U.S. industry was experiencing a record year, but Buick sales fell dramatically, by almost 25,000 units. Not only was the “pregnant” look the culprit for the decline, but the lack of an eight-cylinder engine was heavily affecting sales. By 1929, most of the cars in the same price range as Buick were eight-cylinder powered, and brands like Packard, Auburn, Hudson Nash and Studebaker could offer a bigger number of cylinders. Besides, in the same year, Chevrolet had introduced a six-cylinder engine, with the advertising slogan “a six for the price of a four”. Buick was in the uncomfortable position of selling a six for the price of an eight.

In the summer of 1929, Buick management decided to produce a new straight-eight engine, designed with the same guidelines of the smaller six-cylinder, with in-head valves and a good ability to reach high revolutions per minute. The task of developing the new engine was the responsibility of chief engineer Ferdinand Bower, who assigned the task to a young engineer, John Dolza. Dolza was a 27 years old Italian immigrant who graduated at the Turin Polytechnic Institute and was forced to emigrate for political reasons. He joined Buick in February 1927 as a draftsman, and was soon transferred to engineering. His first job was to fix some camshaft problems of the six-cylinder engine, and his brilliant solution led Bower to give him the task of evaluating the different eight-cylinder engines on the market. His evaluation was so impressive that Bower gave him the job of developing the new engine for Buick. There were a couple of stipulations that were of outmost importance, like the ability of sharing as many parts as possible between the different displacements planned for the new powerplant, and the length of the new engine should be just the same as the old engine. The interchangeability feature was soon put to rest by Bower, who insisted for some unknown reason that the engine should share as few components between them as possible. The size issue instead gave Dolza some unforeseen problems, as he had to find every possible way to reduce the length of the straight-eight engine. By using only five main bearings and reducing their surface size, he accomplished his task, but at the expense of abnormal oil temperatures during high speed testing. This caused engine failures due to bearing damage. To solve this problem, he added an external oil cooler, an idea stolen from aircraft engines. The new engines were a success, but the 1930 models that featured them were put on sale in the worse period of the recession, and sales did not take off.

Buick management had to wait until 1934 to see some better sales, thanks to the new general manager Harlow Curtice. His first moves were the reorganization of the sale force, and the introduction of a cheaper Buick, the Series 40, that sported the traditional Buick quality with a much cheaper price, thanks to the use of a Pontiac frame and a modified Chevrolet body. Finally the economic situation was rapidly improving, and people had more money in their pockets. The straight-eight engine now powered the whole Buick line-up, and would be used until 1953, when the new V8 was introduced.