Buick
In 1984, Buick was the official car of the XXIII Olympiad. A reorganization split manufacturing & engineering from sales and marketing. The first pilot Buick is produced at "Buick City", a state-of-the art assembly center built inside the walls of Buick's home plant at Flint. Buick had its best model year sales to date with 906,626 vehicles sold plus Buick worldwide sales topped one million for the first time. To close out 1984, Lloyd Reuss ended his tenure as general manager of the Buick Motor Division.
Rover V8 engine
The Rover V8 began life as the Buick 215, an all-aluminium OHV pushrod engine introduced in 1960 for the 1961 US model year (it was on their drawing boards in the late 1950s). The compact, all aluminium alloy engine was light, at just 144 kg (318 lb), and capable of high power outputs: the most powerful Buick version of this engine rated , and the very similar Oldsmobile "Jetfire" turbocharged version made 215 hp (both numbers SAE gross). Based on sales volume and press reports, the engine was a success. Buick produced 376,799 cars with this engine in just three years. A comparable number of Oldsmobile 215 engines were produced. In addition, some Pontiac models were fitted with the Buick 215, leading to the nickname "BOP 215" for the engine (BOP standing for Buick/Oldsmobile/Pontiac). The aluminium engine was relatively expensive to produce, however, and it suffered problems with oil and coolant sealing, as well as with radiator clogging from use of antifreeze incompatible with aluminium. As a result, GM ceased production of the all-aluminium engine after 1963, although Buick retained a similar 5000cc/300cid engine (iron block and alloy heads) (1964–1980), as well as a V6 derivative (1962–2008) which proved to have a very long and successful life.