Buick Riviera

One of the most stylish and highly rated cars to be built in the USA during the 1960’s.

What is a Buick Riviera?

One of the most stylish and highly rated cars to be built in the USA during the 1960’s. The Riviera name was first used by Buick back in 1949, but this brand new designed top of the range Riviera with European styling influence was introduced in 1963 and proved an instant huge success. Available only as a two-door hardtop coupe the Riviera with its eggcrate style grille, low roof line and frameless side windows was an extremely imposing car, and a pretty large one too, measuring in at 17ft. 4-inlong and now less than 6ft plus wide! There was ample interior room for four adults and a good sized boot too. Powered by a 401ci V8 engine rated at 325bhp and a torque of 445lbft @ 2800rpm performance was exceptional fir its time, delivering a 0-60mph time of 6.9 seconds, and top speed of 125mph, though for braking you had to rely solely on drums all round! The wire wheel hubcap option served to increase the overall appeal of its razor edged lines.

History

The Riviera was masterminded by GM’s head of styling Bill Mitchell, which was originally intended to join the Cadillac range as a La Salle, but ended up at Buick, just at a time when their fortunes were rather inthe doldrums and as some competition to Ford’s Thunderbird which had been enjoying runaway success for years. Both models were marketed with a strong emphasis on personal-luxury car lifestyle. Featuring independent front suspension with wishbones and coil springs and a live axle and coil springs at the rear, with two or three-speed automatic transmission options, some 40,000 Rivieras sold in the first year and the clean design remained rightly mostly unchanged for 1963-1965. The more powerful 425ci V8 Wildcat engine was an option for 1964-1965 which for an additional $50 got you 360bhp along with a truly prodigious thirst for petrol as well! For 1965 the quad headlights became stacked in front of the wings and hidden away behind clamshell doors, while the tail lights became even further stretched horizontally and resided in the chrome bumper. The Gran Sport package for ’65 comprised of the 425ci engine TH400 automatic transmission, larger tyres and Posi- Traction rear axle with relatively tall 3.58:1 gearing. The Riviera was well received by the buying public and 112,244 were sold before the second generation arrived in 1966. Although now sporting a totally restyled body along similar lines of its prede-cessor, though incorporating a fastback, it inevitably got bigger and slightly heavier, the Riviera had lost none of its overall beauty and its popularity continued. At the front the headlights were back to being grille mounted, but still the ‘hide away’ variety behind electrically operated doors, a novel feature of the era, slightly predating the ‘pop up’ type. For 1967 the base engine for the Riviera was the 430ci V8 which was more refined than the 425ci. There were a few subtle changes to the model until 1970 when it underwent another major redesign, much to the detriment of everything that had gone before. With rear wheel arch skirts and a new front end with horizontal quad head lights again, it had grown in weight and looked gawky to say the least. Its 455ci V8 engine rated at 370bhp with the tree-pulling torque of 510lb could only muster around 12mpg on a good day. Yet despite this some 37,366 cars sold in 1970. What followed in 1973 could be deemed either stunning or simply awful, depending on your viewpoint. The Riviera appeared with boat-tailed styling to the rear that came to a point and a rear window something reminiscent of a midsixties Corvette Stingray. Love it or hate it, the boat-tailed Riviera made an exceptionally bold statement. Sales dropped to 33,810 and the Gran Sport model was powered by the 455ci V8 rated at 330bhp. This design continued up until 1974 when the Riviera underwent another restyle, but by now had long since lost the plot and sales dropped again to a lowly 20,129. While the model name continued for many more years, the concept and beauty of the first and second generation Rivieras had long gone, which was a shame as the car had initially been such a success.

Driving

The comfortable bucket style front seats are quite springy with the huge V shaped centre console being a dominant feature. The interior is definitely more European than American and conjours up images reminiscent of Jensen and Gordon Keeble. For what is ostensibly quite a large car that’s over 40 years old, the Riviera holds the road extremely well for a heavy two tonner Yank, and the power steering feels extremely light but not too lifeless. The Gran Sport package comprises of stiffened coil spring suspension which has lead to a much better handling car. However, go over a large bump in the road and there’s still the ‘bounce’ effect - it’s no sports car although. even in such a heavyweight, with a V8 engine, dual four-barrel carbs and 360bhp on tap, performance remains strong. The gearchanges from the TH400 automatic transmission are very smooth, it’s the same ‘box as used by Rolls-Royce. There’s no getting away from the fact that still fitted with fade-away drums all round, braking is definitely not one of the Rivieras most redeeming features, so don’t expect too much from them! Nowadays front disc conversion kits are available, so if you plan to drive your car on a regular basis and cover many, hard miles, they are worth considering

Prices

Entry level for a 1964/65 Riviera in running order, but requiring further work would be around £7000 - £8000. A car in fine condition and having undergone some restorative work and free from and significant faults, though may still require a little tidying and detailing would be £11,000 - £12,000. Concours cars will be in the £25,000 - £30,000 price range, some may fetch even more - so budget well.