Retroautos. Designing the 1963 Buick Riviera The style Endures. It s about the cars! Collectible & Classic

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1 Collectible & Classic It s about the cars! Designing the 1963 Buick Riviera The style Endures

2 Celebrating 50 years of Buick s Style Leader In the northern spring of 1960, work started on the car which would eventually become the 1963 Buick Rivera. We owe a special thanks to John Kyros at GM Heritage in Detroit for taking the time to find these rare photos for. RETROAUTOS February 2013 ISSN All images copyright GM Media 2013

3 . Can it really be fifty years since General Motors rolled out one of the most elegantly styled cars of all time, the fabulous Buick Riviera? When they pulled the curtains back on this little baby, there stood a confidently understated shape featuring razor sharp edges, a crisply-sculptured roofline and, unique and innovative for the time, frameless side glass. For Americans, it was the future arriving ahead of schedule. Even the Europeans thought it looked stunning. Pininfarina said the new Riviera was "one of the most beautiful American cars ever built. Conceived in the early months of 1960, the Riviera was the way Bill Mitchell, the new head of styling at GM, stamped his authority across a company whose car designs had been ruled by his predecessor, Harley Earl, since Earl liked the appearance of weight. He liked his cars to have curves, lots of curves, and high domed roof lines and chrome and chrome and chrome and chrome. Mitchell was the opposite. He liked minimal decoration, fine crisp lines and tautly drawn clearly defined panels. The sheer look he called it, and for 20 years it underpinned GM s global styling language. At first, Mitchell had no GM division funding the design of the Riviera. Yet he passionately believed GM needed a two door hardtop coupe to compete with the Ford Thunderbird which was selling a healthy 130,000 units a year, all at a price premium. So he simply commissioned the car to be designed. One of Mitchell s best stylist, Ned Nickles, had the task of shaping the new car. Ned had done Buicks before and he penned

4 GM s first two door hardtops, way back in the late 1940s. So Mitchell had confidence in Ned to translate his vision into reality. At first the car wore Cadillac La Salle badges, as Mitchell figured that GM s luxury division would want such a car. They did not. So he took it over to Chevrolet. They did not want it either. Too busy with the 1963 Corvette and the new Chevy Nova, they said. And so after some politicking and prodding, Mitchell lined up Oldsmobile, Pontiac and Buick managers, staging an internal contest to decide who got the car. Pontiac really did not see the value in a new design, as they were determined to fight the T-Bird with their Grand Prix idea. And it would be cheaper to build because Pontiac based it on the existing Catalina two door body with a squared roof line. Jack Humbert, who styled the GP followed Mitchell s sheer look and de-chromed the GP to almost minimalist standards. And being some $800 less than the Thunderbird (about 20% less) it found willing buyers everywhere. So, no, Pontiac did not want the La Salle. Buick won the competition with help from its adverting agency and by giving a promise not to fiddle with the styling. The La Salle badges were ripped off, and, initially, Centurion badges fixed to the car. Later, nearer it s release, the Riviera name plate appeared. Engineers had barely 18 months to take the car from a full size clay model to the showroom.

5 That meant little time for innovation, so they shorted a full size Buick frame, dropped in a standard V8 motor and automatic transmission, raided the suspension parts bin and threw the body over the top. One area that did focus engineering attention was the frameless side glass windows. This was quite an engineering feat and led the way for all hard tops and convertibles, even today, to adopt the technology. Buick craved exclusivity for the Riviera, so it intentionally limited production to exactly 40,000 units. They sold every one of them. The images you see here show the evolution of the Riviera, from an idea in clay, through its La Salle period and finally as the Riviera we know. RETROAUTOS February 2013 ISSN All images copyright GM Media 2013

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11 Compare this July 1960 image with the next, taken 12 months later

12 Gone is the La Salle badge from the grille. In its place is the Centurion emblem.

13 Two interior designs. The one on the bottom carries the Centurion badge on the glove box lid. A few months before it s release, Buick toyed with the idea of a Riviera convertible.

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17 style endures