With strong chrome detailing the Buick Eight’s face, the car projects a powerful presence when American car manufacturing was equally strong. Known as the Buick Straight-8 engine (Fireball 8), the car was produced from 1931 to 1953.
Engine rebuilding was expensive on these cars due to the process and time of creating cast-in-place bearings that were later machined.
Richard Petty, NASCAR Hall of Fame recipient, has a large garage of restored cars covering several decades at his office in Level Cross, North Carolina. The Buick Eight is only one of the many.
In an interview with OutreachNC in June 2011, Petty shared that he also restored a 1933 Dodge, saying, “I probably had it 25 years. When the kids were growing up, we used to drive it all the time.
My oldest daughter learned to drive in this car, a straight gear on the floor. If you can drive this, you can drive anything.”