Why the Portholes?

An interesting question came up at Dennis Striebel’s chili blast on October 4^th.  What was the first year that Buick started sporting portholes on the sides of their cars?  Also, was there any functionality to these?  After much discussion and bickering between a few of the members, no real answer had come up.  Being such an important trademark of Buick for the longest time, I thought it would be nice to get the answers to these questions and share them with others who may or may not know the history of the porthole.

After some digging, I came up with some very interesting stories associated with the first portholes.  According to The Buick, A Complete History, the portholes were inspired to Ned Nickles by WW2 fighter planes and he installed them on his 48 Roadmaster convertible.  He also connected amber lights attached to the distributor to suggest fire coming out of the portholes.  Harlow Curtice (Buick's general manager) liked them and he asked for them (without lights!) on 49 Supers and Roadmasters (there were no 49 Specials).  The only functional portholes were on the early 1949 cars and they are connected to fabric hoses, which go under the hood. The non-functional “cosmetic” type replaced them mid-year.  On a side note, Since Harlow Curtice requested the portholes be added only 7 months before production of the 49’s, there could have easily been some 49’s WITHOUT the portholes on them.  In a discussion on the BCA forum online, Glenn Williamson explained the functionality of the portholes like this:

“The portholes don't actually channel cool air into the engine bay, they extract hot air by venturi principle. As the car moves forward, air rushing past the porthole creates a low-pressure area at the mouth of the porthole and hot air is drawn out.

Olds used this gimmick on 64 Starfires and Pontiac used it on TransAMs- "front fender air extractor" they called them. Judging from how hot my Starfire's engine bay gets, it doesn’t work. This is probably why Buick ditched the functional end of it all those years ago.”

Now, the question of which cars received portholes and which ones did not.  This is a tricky one.  From 1949 to 1957, all production models except 53-54 Skylarks had them.  All Roadmasters counted four each side and 55-57 Centurys and Supers also had four.  49-54 Supers, 50-57 Specials and 54 Centurys had 3 portholes.  They were absent on 58-59 models but were reintroduced on 60 Buicks.  LeSabres had 3 from 60 to 79 (except the 78-79 Turbos).  60-63 Invictas, 62-63 Wildcats and 61-69 Specials and Sportwagons also had 3.  61-65, 75-79 Skylarks and 73-75 Apollos also had 3 portholes.  The 70 to 74? Estate Wagons had 4 and the 75-76 had 3.  The 60-80 Electras had 4 portholes and the 81-84 Park Avenue models only also had 4.  The 87 Regal GNX had 4 the 2003 Park Avenue Ultra has 3.  63 and on Rivieras, 64-70 Wildcats, Centurions, 73 and newer Centurys, Skyhawks, Reattas, 91-96 Roadmasters and Regals (save for the 87 GNX and a 97 or 98 prototype) did not have portholes.  I hope some of that made sense.

So the mystery of the porthole is solved!  Now we don’t have to tear our hair out trying to figure out who, what, when, why the portholes are there…