Love the Riveria's The '65 is my favorite, followed closely by the 71-72 boattails. One day, Forrest, One day . . .
Although I've never really been attracted to the US OEM style trends of this period, I've always dug the '63-'65 Rivieras and agree with Repoguy. The '65 is King!
Thanks for the story, I wasn't aware of the Ferrari influence. Damn if those parking lights don't look LaSalle grilles though!
Truly an awesome design, but I think, and I'm in the minority here, the second generation is even more stunning.
Shit Ryan, keep it down a bit! I want to pick one of these up and all you're doing is driving up the prices. Shhhh!
A '63/4 is at the top of my "cars to buy next" list..... Yeah Nads.....I've been "eyeing" the later models.....under-appreciated, but they've got great lines.
Who DOESN'T like these cars?? This blue one was a late arrival at our Rumbler's car show. Wish I would have gotten a closer look see. Most of the attention has been to the "exterior" of this model. IMHO, the "interior" is just as stunning, with the beautiful console. Remember when GM built cool cars?? Good subject matter. JT
I saw a burgandy '66 on the freeway a few days ago, "rollin' deep on some twennie fo inch spinnaz". Even with the stupid DONK wheels, it was a sharp looking car.
Here is a 1965 Riviera that is owned by the Gred Dawson Collection in Indianapolis, Indiana. It was just completed by Hatfield Restorations in Canton, Texas and will make it debut at the Detroit Autorama next week. I just saw it yesterday as the crew at Hatfield was putting on the final details and it is absolutely spectacular!!!!
very interesting story ryan,,i enjoyed reading that. i've always kind of thought of the riveria as a factory kustom
Always one of my favorite cars. Smooth..exotic..clean. A little too heavy for a gearhead that needed to strip/street..so I never had one. Beautiful "factory custom". One of the all time best.. Nice to read the history..thanks Ryan..
Ryan Thanks for the history lesson. It just backs up my decision to acquire one recently although I liked them a lot longer. I had to talk dirty dan out of his.
A 65 Riv is definitly on my Lotto win garage list! All it needed from the factory was a bit of lowering and it was good to go!! I'll take mine black on black!
I have read the story about Bill Mitchell & his vision of a Rolls Royce in the fog. However I think he may have seen a Silver Cloud 1 or a Bentley Continental S1. These were both available in 1955. The Silver Cloud replaced the Silver Dawn in April 1955. It may have been that the rear quarter panel curve on these cars were an influence on the GM designers. Here's some pictures that possibly help to link the Riviera with Mitchell's foggy vision. Just my hypothetical ramblings.
I don't know if somene already mentioned it, but I would have mass produced the Ferrari! That Buick was a tank. If that Buick is the reason for the "traditional" cut-off date, then you might as well include the 73 Mustang
Tank? It's a luxury ride with balls. A Rivi is about 4300lbs, a new Accord is 3800lbs. I'll deal with an extra 500lbs. As for the Mustang quote, dude you really need to get out more... That's a big WTF right there...
I thought the EXACT same thing when I was researching... those rear quarters look Riviera to me... Even so, Mitchell was quoted as saying it was a Silver Dawn.
A fun read. I have had my 65 for almost 15 years now and never get tired of it or the comments from people at car shows or just at the gas station. Jerome
GM also used some of the styling cues from the Riviera on the Redesign of the Nova for 1966. There was even a concept Nova that looked like a shrunken Riv.
Tank? I think not...luxury muscle maybe but definitely not a tank...I had always wanted one and other than the carwash I worked at as a teenager had never ridden in one...from almost every angle they are pleasing to the eye and with a subtle tweak here and there you can even improve on that...when I finally was able to find one I was amazed at the mix of power, comfort and obviously style that these things have...almost a perfect package right from the factory
No shit, a Rustang doesn't even belong in the same sentance with a Rivi, even if the only one I'd own is a big ol' '73.
I have one of the last Rivs - a '98 with the supercharged V-6. At 152,000 miles, it's about ready to be retired from daily-driver duty. Strongly considering doing a customizing job on it, but frankly, I have a hell of a time figuring out how to improve the lines!
As I understood the story, Bill Mitchell was in London in 1959 for the annual Motor Show. He came out of his hotel in the evening to see the Rolls-Royce parked at the curb. He said to himself, "That's it!" "If you let the air out of the tires....and lower it a bit!" What influenced the future Riviera was the razor-edge styling of the roof line. As far as the the headlights behind grilles on the leading edges of the front fenders, that idea goes back to a rendering of a potential Cadillac/LaSalle that Bill Mitchell drew in 1937. In this sketch, you can clearly see the knife edge front fenders, with grilles at the leading edges. Because the Rivi was Bill Mitchell's pet project, he issued a dictum, in that the original design when moved to production engineering was to be "no compromise", in that there weren't to be any changes to the design to make it easier for production. This resulted in special tires for the Riviera, a re-packaged HVAC system, a first for GM frameless side glass, which meant engineering new window seals, and removable door skins to mount the glass. Additionally, both the windshield, and backlight were adhesive-mounted for the first time, resulting in new production techniques. It is a great timeless design, and hopefully one day, I can add one to my collection of automobiles!
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