GM’s first concept car is headed to Ontario
Buick Y-Job at Owen Sound’s Cobble Beach
General Motors Canada is celebrating its 100th anniversary by bringing one of the most valuable cars in the automaker’s history, the 1938 Buick Y-Job concept car, to the Cobble Beach Concours d’Elegance near Owen Sound, Ont., on Sept.16, along with several other cars from its Heritage collection.
The Y-Job, spearheaded in design by one of the most influential automotive stylists of all time, Harley Earl, is largely regarded as the industry’s first concept car. Other automakers had built “experimental” or “X” show cars prior to 1938, but the “Y” took things further.
GM used the “dream car” to gauge public reaction to certain motifs and features, and then worked those into the designs of its vehicles for the next two decades.
Based on a stretched Buick Century chassis and powered by a 141-horsepower 320-cubic inch straight-eight, the Y-Job was enveloped in a streamlined body much smoother and better integrated than any of its contemporaries. It had bumpers hewn close to the wide, horizontal grille, flush seams along its flanks, and 13-inch wheels that lowered the two-seater to a mere 58 inches tall.
Earl ended up using the car as his daily driver for more than 10 years after it made its tours of the autoshow circuit. After bouncing between museums, the Buick Y-Job was restored and in 1993 became a permanent part of GM’s Heritage Center collection. The automaker estimates its worth at more than US$10 million.
The Y-Job is set to make its way north of the border to Owen Sound for the sixth annual Cobble Beach Concours d’Elegance, one of Canada’s most prestigious classic car shows. It will be joined there by roughly 100 other supremely elegant antique vehicles, all hand-selected by the event organizers.
The GM Heritage Center is trucking up a few other cars from its collection to park on the Cobble Beach golf course fairway, too: the Cadillac Evoq concept from 1999, the predecessor to the production XLR two-seat roadster, will be there, as will the 1958 Firebird III turbine-engined prototype, which was also recently spotlighted at the Toronto auto show.
Finally, a 1973 Chevrolet Corvette customized for Marian Mitchell, the wife of GM vice-president of styling Bill Mitchell, will also take leave of the private 600-car Heritage Center collection and get some turf under its tires.
While these cars do leave GM Heritage HQ in Sterling Heights, Mich., from time to time, it’s rare they make their way to Canada, making this centenary celebration particularly special, and one classic car fans won’t want to miss.