By Casey Williams
MyCarData

(August 3, 2017) I remember walking into the local IGA supermarket when I was about 11 years old, and there on the magazine rack, was Car and Driver with the Buick Wildcat Concept on the cover.  I think I drooled, went weak in the knees, and started babbling something intelligible to my mother, who quickly revived me by buying the magazine.  I love my mom!
   
Of course, I’m still pretty fond of the Wildcat too.  It was painted deep red and with a tinted canopy that raised and lowered for entry/exit to the two-passenger cabin.  The body was constructed of fiberglass and carbon fiber — incredibly exotic for the mid-1980s. 



Driving all four wheels was a 3.8-liter V6 with 24 valves and dual-overhead camshafts that delivered 360 horsepower and 245 lb.-ft. of torque.  The exposed mid-mounted engine connected to a four-speed automatic transmission that could be manually-shifted.
   
Inside, drivers were treated to a futuristic environment that would still feel comfortable in today’s hyper-electronic cockpits.  A screen in the console, right where the nav screen would be today, displayed a compass, g-force, and oil pressure.  Electronic instruments were displayed behind the spoke-less (and airbag-less) steering wheel.  Keeping eyes forward was a head-up display.  It was all a glorious display of 1980s glitz, a welcome mat to the computer age. 


   
The Wildcat came in an era that also brought us the mid-engine Corvette Indy and Oldsmobile Aerotech — all cars that would never make it to production.  That’s a pity, because each belonged on the walls of teenage boys and their gadget-wielding parents. 

Fortunately for me, the Wildcat was not just a dream.  Years later, when I encountered it at the General Motors Heritage Center in Detroit, I nearly dropped my drink.  I turned for my mother, but was alone with my dreams.