The Outstanding 1962 Buick Skylark Sport Coupe

I suspect that most readers of this blog have warm places in their hearts for some of the cars their families had when they were young.  That's certainly true for me.  One of those cars was the 1962 Buick Skylark Sport Coupe with the body painted black and the top painted white.  Plus having a red interior.

Some background on Skylarks is here.  I'll continue the narrative in the captions below.  As usual, unless otherwise noted, photos are of cars listed for sale.

Gallery

For the 1961 model year General Motors introduced a new body for Pontiacs, Oldsmobiles and Pontiacs in addition to its standard size bodies.  These were smaller, and popularly given the label "compact" (though they were large cars in the European context of the times).  Shown here is a factory photo of a four-door Buick Special sedan.  Buick had abandoned its long-running Special name in 1959, but brought it back for this model.

Buick marketed Special coupes in addition to sedans: this is a 1961 car.  Note the very thin B-pillar.

That coupe was the basis for a mid-1961 fancied-up version named "Skylark," another name from Buick's past (the mid-1950s).  The metal window framing suggests that this is a hardtop convertible, but it isn't: there's that thin B-pillar lurking behind the chrome.

Two factory photos of a 1961 Skylark.  I find the styling very pleasing despite a whiff of fussiness at the front.

Here is a 1962 Skylark Sports Coupe, a true "pillarless" hardtop.  It's exactly like the one my family had.

Rear quarter view.

And a high side view.  Its red interior can be glimpsed.

The red interior in all its glory.

1963 was the final year for this design.  What had been very attractive styling was degraded by an attempt to mimic the facelift on full-size 1962 Buicks.  The worst elements are the blunt front end and the micro-fins atop the aft fender.

Putting '63 Skylark styling in context, this is a 1963 Buick LeSabre 4-door sedan.  It has those micro-fins, and the front also is blunt.  The grilles have the same general format but differ in detail, the Skylark getting traditional Buick vertical bars.  Front fender creases and faux-air vents are similar.