[NYBobP]

I had a chance to meet Frank Sinatra Jr. yesterday for an article I'm writing for one of the music magazines. Afterwards I asked him about his ownership of a Reatta convertible. He said he had a silver/slate/black top '91. It was built towards the end of the run. (Barney thinks it was 16 from the end) The car was not given to him by Buick, he purchased it and went to the factory to pick it up.

Apparently he was involved in the initial marketing of the car, because he told me originally it was going to be called a Scepter , then Reata, then Reatta. He knew everybody connected with the project including Ed Mertz and Darwin Clarke. He knew they out-sourced the convertible top, making the car higher-priced than originally anticipated.

The only thing he had the factory do was install chrome tips to the exhaust. It did not have 16-way seat, but did have a CD player. Does anyone know who owns the car today?

[Barney Eaton]

Checking my records.. the database indicates that someone in California named Imboden owned it in 2001. The vin is 1G4EC33L8MB900610. The last convertible made was 900622 making it 12 cars from the end of convertible production...... however there were 4 coupes built in that string so it would have been the 8th convertible from the end of convertible production.

[NYBobP]

Jr. said that Frank Sr. also bought a white/saddle with walnut interior trim for Barbara. Junior knew his car inside and out and liked driving it. Has anyone else ever heard that Scepter was going to be the name at first? Will check with some retired Buick guys if that was true.

[Booreatta]

Did you by any chance ask Mr Sinatra if he knew anything about the Pewter models? He may have some information. Who knows its worth asking.

[NYBobP]

Originally Posted by Booreatta

Did you by any chance ask Mr Sinatra if he knew anything about the Pewter models? He may have some information. Who knows its worth asking.

No I didn't. If the opportunity every comes up again, I will. Ralph Moss who was involved in the model gave me as much info as he had several years ago. I mentioned before that Ron Fusile the marketing mgr sent me his as a gift a couple of Christmases ago and told me no one was sure how many were produced, but it was a very low number.

[wws944]

That is a great story. Thanks for sharing it!

I'm guessing the one with "walnut interior trim" just used the Rivieras plood?

[NYBobP]

I'm guessing its the Riviera trim. I've seen it on several Reattas.
When we got done with the interview for the column for the music magazine, Jr said "how did we get on the subject of cars?". He was very interesting to talk with.

[Nittany]

Bob,

About the time that you and I joined this forum, there was a guy using the name "Alf" and "Alf1" who had some dealings with these Sinatra Reatta's. I'm sorry I don't have time to search right now (hopefully will get some time while celebrating Thanksgiving) but if memory serves correctly, he owned one of these Reatta for resale as he dabbled in Reattas and was very knowledgeable.

For the new people: he chose the name Alf as he was a writer for the television show of the same name. He was from California and extremely passionate about his Reatta's, certainly will be an interesting read if you search his previous posts. Oops - just did a quick search, nothing under his user name . . . maybe because he is no longer registered or maybe cause I'm in a hurry . . .

[NYBobP]

Let me know if he's still around. In the meantime, I'm going to call some of the retired Buick people to see if they every heard that Reatta was originally going to be called a Scepter or anything else.

[Larry Schramm]

I was working at Buick at the time of the Reatta launch and spent a fair amount of time at the Craft Centre and I do not remember anything about a Sceptre name. Also the Sloan Museum in Flint has a lot of my materials that I was sent from working on the launch including slides in the plant that show the build process.