Back before the dirt track racing shut down here they had a factory stock class. A young gal was cleaning house on all of the males. She drove a land yacht 71 Chrysler Newport 2 DR HT with a 440. They would catch her in the corners but after that she would wax them down the straights with that grunt motor.
Had a 60 Chrysler New Yorker a long time ago with a 413 and it would flat haul on the open road.
As for the OP I would say go for it. I’ve always loved the Rivieras and thought they were the most underappreciated muscle car on the road. I guess the Buick Stigma carried over…
True… I cant quite explain the Buick stigma as there seems to be. Buick made a couple serious machines over the years. The 65’ Riviera with those clam shell headlights is still on my “wish to own someday” list. The 70’ Buick GS Stage 1 imho was never topped in the muscle wars of that decade…not even by the LS6 Chevelle. The Grand National is still a fav of mine as well. My brother restored and owns a beautiful 69’ GS400 Convertible… Its Banana Creme yellow with black top and white interior… what a beautiful and unique vehicle that is. I guess the “wow vehicle” list for Buick is short…but I think it is still significant. Sometimes its about quality rather than quantity.
There’s a guy in a small city near where I live who has a Riviera with the clamshell headlights. It’s lime green and appears to be an untouched original. No sign of rust at all. He keeps it parked under an awning across the street from a Sonic drive-in. Every time I hit the Sonic I drool over that car which has a Not For Sale sign in the back window. Guess he got tired of door knockers.
Some of the late 60s Rivieras came with a 430 and Dual Quads. A ton of horsepower and enough torque to pull tree stumps. I knew 2 people back in the day who owned Rivieras; a 66 and a 67.
I always thought the 41 Buick Century with the compound carburetors (2 two barrels) was the first muscle car or maybe the 37 Century, the first time they stuffed the larger straight 8 into the smallest body.
The 41 Buick was faster then the 49 Olds rocket 88 and 49 Caddy, which was probably why Buick didn’t offer the compound carbs after the war.
The 55 Century was very fast for it’s time. It would beat a 55 Chrysler 300 to 100 mph, although nothing in the 50s American cars would beat a Chrysler Hemi at the top end.
Yeah… I definitely need to own a 60’s Riviera someday… and you are spot on about the power under the hood @ok4450 they were packing heat…all in a business suit, understated, highly optioned, elegant…and that swoopy center console… aw man… Its honestly the way i want to roll.
Damn @oldtimer-11 I wish I’ve known half the vehicles that you do… I never had much exposure to the 50’s vehicles and how they drove or what was faster than what etc… But what a decade for Merican Iron huh? Holy sheet man… It will never be duplicated again thats for certain.
and no… nothing would “out breathe” the Hemi in the 50’s… it’s what it was designed to do after all, of course you knew that already.
As I remember C&D did a muscle car shoot out, of the 67s. C&D cars were supplied by the manufacturers. Buick chose not to participate, they figured the others would “cheat”. The others essential did, the supplied vehicles were “prepped” by professionals. Example Holman and Moody. C$D purchased a Buick GS, the unprepared GS scored very well against the prepped cars.
Add to my list of desirable Buick’s 1957 Century or Roadmaster, 1957 Caballero, late 60s Sport Wagon.
I remember my 72 Buick Skylark with a 350, I believe they have alum. heads, and a touchy gov. in the transmission. I bought my car from an owner that had transmission problems, he had taken it to a transmission guy who claimed he needed a new rebuilt or replace the transmission, He did not want to spend the hundreds they were asking for, he offered the car to me for cheap! I found a master transmission guy said, I just needed to blow out the lines and replace the gov. which is located on the side of the transmission three bolts hold it on, replacement at the time cost very little, and the vehicle ran great! One caution though the Alum. heads can warp if you get the engine over heated. make sure it never overheats.
How much are you paying for the car? If you had a good alternative for the same money and better gas mileage as well as driving a lot of miles compute the cost.
Sorry guys but I think Someone is pullin our legs. Hard to believe working 70-84 hours at some retail big box store and still has time to do custom painting. Allowing time for thing like eating, sleeping, Commuting, and going out with the boys. But that’s just my 2 cents worth
Maybe exaggerating a little but still back in my youth, it was not unusual for the plant to run two 12 hour shifts, six days a week, and sometimes Sundays. Money at time and a half was great but it sure do get old in a hurry.
I appreciate your co,emts and you are right, there has never been a decade of Car development like the 50s, What the spec sheets and performance numbers can’t tell you is what the cars were like to drive. The 55 Buick although a hot performer was a miserable beast to drive on a bumpy winding road at 80 because it was pounding against the bump stops and wallowing all over the road. The 55 Lincoln on the same road handled everything without drama at 110 because of a great suspension and shocks that didn’t turn to jelly as they heated up.
The 48-54 Hudsons and the 52-55 Lincolns were all great handling cars. The 51 -54 Lincolns won the Mexican Road race for two reasons, first their great handling and second, the Chrysler Saratoga’s team said the heck with the stock class, we are going after Ferrari in the unlimited class.
Both cars were modified for the race but Ford issued parts numbers for the parts they raced under export parts and Chrysler did not bother. The Chrysler Saratoga came in 3rd over all behind two Feratrrs, the Lincoln finished 8th but won the stock class.
I can not find the numbers anymore but there were huge numbers of cars entered in the race. I think I remember 41 Ferarris, but don’t hold me to that. In the late 40s and very early 50s there were a lot of well to do people who bought fast cars, drove them all week and raced them on the weekend and prep consisted of potting in colder plugs for the race.
Now that you’re talking old cars, I know a lot of people are having weird shut down dreams, but I dreamed about a 51 Plymouth the other night. This one was parked in our drive way where I lived as a teen and belonged to a friend of my moms. Now what I noticed was that it was that green color and it was faded badly like they used to get. I wanted to polish and wax it. The paints of yesteryear were not like today so don’t know if anything would have brought the shine back. Seemed a shame. This was a four door but I always wanted a two door version. Back then they sold for about $100-150. The good ole days. All we had to worry about then was polio.
Hey it wasn’t me that did the flagging. I think flagging to control the conversation is CS and I don’t do it. Can’t believe someone was offended. Sheesh. And TB is a growing problem.
I did not think it was anyone in particular that flagged it. It was off topic even though I was responding to an earlier reply, but if spmeone is bothered bt that, it is ok.
I ALWAYS click to see flagged posts and unless it contains vitriolic or non family friendly content I wonder what is bothering the person that flagged it.
As I am sure y’all are aware, I’m the KING of off topic… Seems the Flags are a Flyin like they are caught in a Hurricane lately… I’m shocked I don’t have my own Flag Pole at this point in time.
This keeps up and pretty much every one of my responses will be flagged and never seen. Why anyone would want to get rid of my brand of comic relief is beyond me ( perhaps I am only funny “looking” rather than actually funny haha?)…
I particularly enjoy the humor we usually have floating around, but it seems more dour forces are at more active play here lately… I dunno. It’s good to be able to laugh for sure… to be able to laugh at oneself is even better, I always say…
I had a friend with a 1973 Riviera GS, that year had the 5 MPH impact front bumper and less “boat tail” styling in the rear bumper but same powertrain as the 1972. Definitely not a muscle car, just a big cruiser, drove like a 2 door Electra 225. The styling of these old cars draws a lot of attention today with everyone else driving boring cars.
The June 1973 issue of Motor Trend had a road test review of the Grand Prix, Thunderbird, Riviera and Toronado.
Test data;
250 HP @ 4000 RPM
375 lbs-ft torque @ 2800 RPM
2.93 axle ratio
0 to 60; 9.6 seconds
Quarter mile; 17.2 seconds (Grand Pix 15.8 seconds)
gas mileage 10.3-11.2 MPG
Ah, but bear in mind the Riv that the OP is looking at has had an engine and transmission transplant and is not likely to have that effortless performance.