As Buick tells it, the portholes happened almost by accident during the design of a legendary "hardtop convertible."
Nickles had cut holes in the sides of the hood of his own 1948 Roadmaster convertible and attached amber lights to the distributor. The flashing lights apparently evoked an unusually powerful engine with flaming exhaust.
General Manager Harlow Curtice liked the portholes so much that he ordered them on the 1949 models, sans lights, just a few months before production was to start.
The portholes, known officially as VentiPorts, appeared on a variety of Buicks through 1957 before they were briefly phased out. In 1960, portholes were reduced to small, round decorations that represented different models, with four for Electra and three for LeSabre and Invicta. Small decorative portholes appeared on some Buicks into the early 1980s, ending with the Electra in 1983. Portholes became mere historical oddities until resurfacing on the concept 2000 LaCrosse and the 2001 concept Bengal.
