MIKE MUSTO: All right, let's make some noise.
[LAUGH]
My name is Mike Musto.
Each week, I travel the country with the goal of
showcasing the best and baddest muscle cars and hot
rods around.
Every car has a past and every owner, a story.
Welcome to the world of "Big Muscle."
All right, I figured, if we're going to do a car review,
let's do a car review.
We're behind the wheel of a 1955 Buick Special with a 502
cubic inch big block.
We're pushing about 600 horsepower and about 650 pound
feet of torque.
And oh my god, does it feel like it.
When you think about the Buick Special, you don't really
think about a car that's, I don't know, super stylish.
You might think of, say, a 1955 Chevy, or
a 1957 Chevy Belair.
The Buick Special was kind of--
it was downplayed a little bit.
It wasn't the car that everybody wanted.
Now, you've got to remember that the
Special was a post car.
Now, what does post car mean?
Well, you've got, in the back window, you
actually have a post.
It's not an open window.
So when you roll the front window and the back window
down, it's not completely open.
There's that post there.
It was the cheapest line.
The next one up would have been a Buick Century.
And after that, you would have the Roadmaster.
The Roadmaster is the big money car.
However, the Special is the one that's really nice.
Because of this window post, you've got certain things like
silence, right?
You've got window channels where the windows actually go
up, lock into the channels, and you don't hear anything.
Thad and I are driving right now, and it is an unbelievably
windy day, and it's silent in this car, which is wonderful.
It's something that we don't experience that much.
And you guys out there, that are like, oh, it's got a
little wind noise or whatever.
That's fine--
you don't realize how much wind noise affects you until
you go on a three, to four, to five hour trip.
You get fatigued and it really does kind of beat you up.
Now, this car is huge on the inside.
You're looking at me.
I've got legroom.
I'm sitting back.
Thaddeus is next to me.
He's comfortable.
I feel like the front seat was designed by the same guy who
designed the Barcalounger, or the couch in your house.
It is so comfortable, and I love it because so many of the
cars that we drive are so uncomfortable.
And I'm wedged in there, or Thad's wedged in there.
And we do these shoots, and it's difficult.
This car is fantastic.
You know what I mean?
Comfort all day long.
When I approached Harry about filming this car, he
immediately said yes.
Thankfully for us, he was a fan of this
show, which was great.
And he said, you know what?
Take the car.
Enjoy it.
And he goes, but make sure you do one thing--
he goes, drive it like it was yours.
Now, a lot of the owners that we interview, and whose cars
we drive, let us drive the cars, obviously.
And we're very--
obviously, we're careful with everything that we use.
Harry just like, make sure you show the potential of the car.
Make sure you drive the car to the point where people get the
idea of what I've done and the fact that you can actually
build a car that's 65 years old that not only can you
drive it for 300, 400, 500 miles, but that you have full
reliability, that you have fuel economy,
that you have comfort.
And that's what he did with this car.
HARRY FISHER: You know Mike, I focus on driveability because
I think that's primary.
I mean, my cars look good.
But if you can't drive them, again,
they're not worth anything.
I mean, I concentrate on a car that will--
it'll stop, it'll accelerate, it'll corner, it'll be
comfortable, it'll be safe.
And that's first.
Anybody can make something pretty, but it can be the most
dangerous car out there on the road.
Not my cars.
Well, the modifications to the drive train and suspension,
first of all, was that this car was a 70% car.
And it needed some work when I got it.
So the engine needed to be all--
I mean, it's an amazing engine--
502 fuel injected ramjet.
The guy before me spent $10,000 trying to bring it up
to 600 horsepower.
Is it 600 horse?
I don't know.
It doesn't matter.
It runs really good.
But when I got it, the valve covers were leaking.
The intake was leaking.
The pan was smashed.
A couple hundred bucks, I fixed all of those things.
The 700 R4 was shifting a little ragged.
Took it out to Larry at Vintage Transmission.
Thing shifts good now.
It's reliable.
It works all the time.
Back end four link was falling off.
Took it off, rewelded
everything, put it back together.
And the car is sound.
It's fit.
It work.
And I probably didn't spend $3,000 to make it
what it is right now.
MIKE MUSTO: Harry Fisher, the owner of this car, has a
little different philosophy on buying cars than most people.
This car, he's only had for about a year.
And let me give you the reason why--
Harry is a true hot rodder.
He's been in cars his whole life.
Works on cars, does things like that.
Was in the industry for quite some time.
But his philosophy is, I'm not going to build a car.
OK, Harry, well why is that?
His whole thing was, well, why am I going to take the hit?
Why am I going to build a car that's $100,000, when I can
let somebody else spend $100,000 and then buy that
same car when it's not quite finished.
And then he takes them over.
And he finishes them.
And in the end, he makes a wonderful machine.
You know, he's got power steering in here.
And yes, the power steering is, as you could tell, very,
very light.
Thaddeus is bouncing around like a bowl of jello.
But the power steering is very light.
He's gone through a four wheel disk conversion.
So when you hit the brake pedal, it brings the car down.
There's not any drama where the car pulls to the right, or
pulls to the left, it just stops straight and true, which
is really, really nice.
And it's as you'd expect.
But as you'd expect is not something that a lot of people
can achieve.
That only comes with time, effort, and
really driving the car.
One of the nicest part about the cars from the late '40s
and the '50s are the interiors.
Harry, he kept the stock gauges, but he had the
internals redone.
So everything looks period correct.
It's beautiful.
All the bright work is wonderful.
He added a vintage AC system that cools the car down
wonderfully.
You have this beautifully painted
dash, dashboard, clock--
everything is just nice.
And it's kind of as you would expect this car to feel if you
were to go back into a dealership in 1955.
Obviously, like we said, this thing's got performance.
Now Harry, being Harry, was just great about letting us
drive the car and use the car.
The cool part is, I mean, you could drop this thing down.
And it's got so much torque that when you gas it, [LAUGH]
it's got so much power.
I'm not giving this car back.
This one might come home with me.
This thing is bitching, dude.
And it drives like a sofa.
It's like the world's fastest toaster oven.
HARRY FISHER: This thing caught my eye
because it was different.
It has style.
I loved the two tone.
It's just fun.
I don't like a huge car, and yet I've got a 20 foot
Cadillac El Dorado convertible.
And I love that car, but it's a 20 foot Cadillac El Dorado
convertible.
This is a 3,800 pound hot rod.
And I love it.
And I love it because it's different.
Kids tell me they can't afford a hot rod.
Well, sure you can.
Again, you don't have to have $100,000 hot rot.
Get a $2,000 Ford Galaxy.
There's a good start.
It's the beginning.
Start your passion.
Start your love.
And then make the car yours.
Do little things to make it your car--
not somebody else's car.
Make it your car.
MIKE MUSTO: So you guys might remember that the last car we
drove that was from, like, the late '40s, early '50s, was
that 1949 Dodge Wayfarer.
That was also just a wonderful, wonderful car.
And I'm liking these kind of '40s and '50s
cars more and more.
I mean, I'm really starting to appreciate the curvature of
the fenders, and the bright work, and the chrome, and the
interior work.
They come from a time period where the muscle cars that we
feature, like the Chargers, and the Camaros, and the
Mustangs still have a somewhat modern feel to them.
These cars from an era that is completely different, right?
Some eras of cars are just physically and stylistically
more in depth than others.
And the '50s cars and the '40s cars kind of
fit that bill, man.
Really, really nice rides.
Is that chick in the Solara?
Say hi.
What are you doing?
You want to be on video?
-What?
MIKE MUSTO: Want to be on video?
-That's what I thought you were doing
because I saw the camera.
I think we might have [INAUDIBLE] you back there.
MIKE MUSTO: You did [INAUDIBLE] us.
-We did.
MIKE MUSTO: Oh, we noticed.
-That's a sexy car.
MIKE MUSTO: It is a sexy car, isn't it?
-It's a sexy car.
MIKE MUSTO: Yeah, it's pretty slick.
All right, guy, see you later.
-OK.
HARRY FISHER: You know, I wish I knew.
I could never figure out why somebody would spend $150,000
on a car and sell it for $27,000.
But you'd probably have to ask them.
Thankfully, I'm at the receiving end.
Like I said earlier, let somebody else spend $50,000,
$60,000, $70,000, $100,000--
think with your head, not with your emotions.
It took me five months to get this car, five months of
negotiating.
And I wanted this car really, really bad from the
first time I saw it.
And I'd have probably spent $10,000 more
for it than I did.
But it was worth the wait.
Look at today, what this car made possible.
I wouldn't be here without this 55 Buick.
I'd probably be sitting at home eating oatmeal.
This is a lot more fun.
MIKE MUSTO: I spent 10 hours behind the wheel of this 1955
Buick Special today.
As you can tell, the sun's going down.
And we're all pretty tired.
The nice part about this car, though, is, it
played so many roles.
It played part couch.
It played part corner carver.
It was an insane burnout machine, thanks to the 502 big
block in this thing.
I was probably drive this car on a daily basis.
That's how easy it was.
The power steering, the fuel injection, the air
conditioning, the fact that when you roll the windows up,
they are tight.
And they seal.
And you can hear yourself not only talk but think about the
drive that you're on.
Look at this car, think about what we said on how it was
built, and you can use it as a model because this is what a
good hot rod should be.
Guys, thanks for tuning in to "Big Muscle." We'll
see you next week.
A car like this, you drive all day, and you
have power to use.
Look at all these boats.
That's cool.
I feel like there are squatters on these boats.
-I do too.
MIKE MUSTO: Right?
I feel like there are people like--
we're driving along this place where there's all these kind
of derelict boats.
And I'm thinking people are doing bad
things in those things.
Dude, this is the sketchiest--
-Dude you have not been to Florida.
MIKE MUSTO: This reminds me of Florida.
I feel like I'm driving down the Panhandle.
Where the [BLEEP]
are we?
-We're out along some river, dude.
It's like Redneck Riviera out here.
MIKE MUSTO: Dude--
[LAUGH]