The 1961 Buick Flamingo and The Case For Pink

While I hope I cemented my masculine bona fides earlier with my celebration of the Ultimate Man's Cars, the El Camino and Ranchero, I fear I may be treading on soft ground here by highlighting a car that, well, tickles me pink. Yeah, I had to get that one out of the way. 

But I love this. I really do. I would be seen in it. I would flaunt its garishness and apparent femininity in public. And then I would mash the accelerator and let the Wildcat 445 under the hood do its business. And then I would cruise around with Bobby Darin playing on the radio and pull in to the local drive-in and have a Coke and a sundae and let all gaze in wonder at the over-the-top pinkness of it. 

And I would get a vanity license plate with 'PANTHER' on it. Oh yeah. . . . .

Sadly, none of that is going to happen; this car never made it to production; it was a one-off concept car and was probably crushed and/or shredded shortly after it was shown. But, oh the possibilities. . . .

One may well wonder what a seething volcano of virile manliness, such as myself, would be doing with a big pink car. Well, that's something of a long story. In reality, the color pink wasn't always associated with girls and things feminine. Up until the early 20th century, infants were more or less dressed the same, boy or girl, in practical neutral-colored clothing, albeit usually white because it could be bleached. The color red tended to be associated with men because it was the color of war, i.e., blood. The Roman god of war, Mars (derived from the Greek Ares), was linked to the well-known planet because even with the naked eye Mars gives off something of a pinkish color. I've heard, though I can't really verify this (but it makes some intuitive sense), that pink was more associated with boys because it was a lesser shade of red. 

It wasn't until around World War I that different colors began to be associated with different sexes. Even  then the issue wasn't settled as to who got which color, as this quote from a trade publication, Earnshaw's Infants' Department, noted that,

“The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.” (source)

Either way, by the late 1920s pink had been established as the color for girls and has pretty much stayed that way ever since. 

Entre the Buick Flamingo as part of the 1961 GM Motorama series. It was actually an Electra 225, which
I've rather meant to write about for some time now but never got around to it. Thus, I shall not say much about it here in order to save something for the future. In thumbnail, however, the Electra and Electra 225 -- the number referred to the length, in inches -- were derived from the earlier Roadmaster and Limited and became Buick's high-level models, above the entry level LeSabre (also ripe for a post) and the mid-level Invicta. The 1959 and 1960 models were both of the garish fin-happy 1950s era, but were redesigned in 1961 to be much smoother and sleeker and, as regular readers may know, is darn near my favorite era of automotive design. The fins disappeared but they still retained the Ventiports (another feature ripe for Car Lust examination) and lots of chrome. It was powered by Buick's 401 "Nailhead' Wildcat 445 V8 which, unmodified, put out up to 325 bhp although with a weight of around two tons it wasn't going to burn up the street racing scene too much (without some modifications anyway, which were soon to come). 

The Flamingo was a convertible Electra 225 decked out in a pearlescent pink exterior paint along with pink throughout the interior and darker paisley (yes, you read that right) seats. As the photo here demonstrates, its most notable feature was a swiveling passenger seat that allowed said passenger to turn it all the way around in order to. . . .well, who knows. The somewhat limited leg room in the rear would have caused some uncomfortable conversations if anyone was sitting directly behind, but I'm guessing no one was really thinking that far ahead. In fact, given the lack of facility for any sort of seat belts it's difficult to see this as anything more than a novelty or, more likely, a chance to highlight the car by showing off a nice set of legs. 

There are, of course, other potential uses for such a seat which are decidedly outside the bounds of this here blog. 

Either way, the Flamingo concept went pretty much nowhere and remains something of an Internet automotive curiosity. I first learned of this through the ever-wonderful Vintage Everyday that featured this as one of "10 Weird Features of Old Cars", most of which are one-offs like the Flamingo's swiveling seat. But it does feature the record player that Chrysler offered for a while. The idea of a pink car wasn't limited to the Flamingo, however. Ford made a couple of Mustangs in pink or at least "Dusky Rose" as they called it at one point, and was also part of the original Thunderbird lineup, along with other soft pastels. 

So there you go. Call me crazy, call me bipolar, call me a latent Mary Kay Cosmetic salesperson, I don't car (just call me! Or better yet, just link to this like crazy). Slap some mag wheels on one, supercharge the engine, and let me loose on the highways and byways of America in my wild pink Buick Flamingo and I would be a happy man. 

And not a single Pink Cadillac joke in sight. 

Full shot from here. Swivel seat from here. Both are found all over the Interwebs. The Electra is from Wikipedia. 

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