Buick Blackhawk Concept

The Blackhawk has classic styling combined with contemporary proportions.

Retractable convertible with styling from the '30s
The Blackhawk is basically a 2-plus-2 convertible with a retractable top, and a body that looks like it came out of the late 1930s or '40s - because it did. Its face is a classic 1939 Buick grille, which has a pattern of fine vertical bars, and its major sheet metal combines the sleek bodies of 1941 and 1948 Buick Roadmasters.

The grille has been modified, and the final appearance - featuring black cherry paint, doors without handles and hidden headlamps - is of a streamlined yet retro head-turner that looks like it was created specifically for the Woodward Dream Cruise.

Blackhawk power: 463-hp V-8; 0-60 in under 5 seconds
The Blackhawk's performance goal is 0-60 miles per hour in under 5 seconds. Its powertrain is a 1970-vintage 455-cubic-inch Buick GS Stage III V-8 engine, heavily detailed and mated to the latest electronically controlled four-speed automatic transmission. The naturally aspirated, overhead valve, fuel-injected engine generates 463 horsepower at 4600 rpm and 510 lb-ft of torque at 4200 rpm.

Hand-made components
Many of the Blackhawk's major components are hand made, such as the frame, the unique carbon-fiber top and the retractable system that lowers the top into the trunk (leaving a small luggage area).

Other features include a fully independent suspension, remote keyless entry (so you can open the doors, which don't have exterior handles) and dual exhaust with three-inch pipes. The Blackhawk is equipped with 18-inch five-spoke alloy wheels (a style similar to those on uplevel Rivieras, Wildcats and Skylarks of '65) with high speed, Z-rated tires -- P295/35R18 on the front and P295/45R18 on the rear.

As an accent complementing the exterior design, a slightly different shade of dark cherry is used to create a "sweepspear" along the sides of the body. The sweepspear is a decoration that first showed up on some '49 Roadmasters and later became a shape sculpted into the sides of '50s Buicks. It's basically a horizontal line that sweeps in a downward curve along the doors toward the base of the leading edge of the rear fender, then kicks up over the rear wheel openings.

Emphasizes industry first for Buick: Lighted turn signals

The Blackhawk looks to be from somewhere in time, it's hard to pin down where. Borrowed from the same 1939 Buick that donated the grille, a lighted logo device in the middle of the trunk exterior incorporates turn signals - a reminder that this particular '39 Buick feature was the industry's first production turn signal. Borrowed from contemporary technology, the Blackhawk is equipped with Global Positioning System navigation tied to a liquid crystal display screen.

Borrowed from a 1996 Buick Riviera - one of the most luxurious of all Buicks -- is the heavily modified Blackhawk interior. That includes buff color leather for the door trim and seats, plus design of the instrument panel and center console (though the wood-rimmed steering wheel is unique).
Even the name is borrowed. Buick introduced a subcompact Skyhawk for 1975 and the hawk symbol became an icon for the entire Buick line through the 1980s.