CAR 41 – 1972 Buick Riviera Coupe
There is nothing else like this car in the world, it looks like a rolling concept! It featured on BBC Antiques Roadtrip and on the front covers of Classic American and Classic and Sports Car magazines. It has a big, beautiful bench seat up front and room in the back. The car is in its original colour of Burnished Bronze with original Sandlewood interior.
The car is unmodified and only lightly restored, with the original engine, interior, chrome, wheels and even the spare wheel and jack!
Originally created as a gentleman’s sports car, it is designed to mostly waft passengers along in supreme floaty comfort. It is like being driven along on your living room sofa, something that does not exist in modern cars.
Even though there is a huge 7.5 litre V8, the car is quiet and there is simply a pleasurable rumble from the exhausts.
The transmission is the extremely smooth GM TH400 that was so smooth, it was used by Rolls Royce!
There is plenty of glass around the car, providing you with a great view of the outside and your guests a great view of you! There is also no B pillar or window frames, meaning when the windows are down, you have a large open space across the whole side of the car.
It was originally purchased by a chap named Wayne in America as a tribute to his dad who worked on the assembly line. Following his death it was sold and came to the UK, where it remained mostly unused in a collection from 2012 until 2019.
I purchased the car in 2019 from the collection at Brooklands Motor Museum.
Since that time I have taken it to car shows, video shoots and simply driven it around on a beautiful day.
The car always gets looks, thumbs up and such a positive reaction. Even amongst other American cars people are always so drawn to the unusual look, shape and colour.
Adam