This '70s Buick With a Tandem Axle Is a Wacky Prototype With a Mysterious Past

Tandem axles are pretty much only good when you need to tow a whole lot. Otherwise, they just add weight. That might be why this 1971 Buick Electra 225 has one, as some rumors indicate it was a failed, escaped General Motors prototype. But that third axle might actually owe its existence to a completely different purpose: an experiment by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to reduce road maintenance.

This bizarre Buick recently popped up for sale on Facebook Marketplace in Fleetwood, Pennsylvania. It would've been the top spec in its time, with the 455 cubic-inch (7.5-liter) big-block V8 and the stout three-speed TH400 automatic transmission. What's of real interest though is its peculiar tandem-axle setup out back, which is said to hydraulically lift and lower. Typically, tag axles like this are used on heavy trucks, where they help shoulder extreme towing loads across larger numbers of tires.

For years, that's what this Buick's origin was accepted to be, as some sort of tandem-axle towing prototype that avoided GM's crusher. So indicated a comment on a September 2013 Bring a Trailer blog post, which chronicled a Craigslist listing for the car for sale in Pennsylvania.

User Kevin Preston said he'd called the seller, who apparently claimed to be a former Cadillac dealer that bought the car in California back in 1986. Supposedly, the seller had paperwork that suggested the car was engineered by GM, then assembled by a body shop that was supplied a complete conversion kit. They also claimed to know of a second example owned by a woman back in California.