71 Concept.

[Chimera]

The one feature I would have loved to see crystallize in the final for the 71 Riviera is the V shaped front windshield. 

[60FlatTop]

I have been reading articles about Riviera cars since their introduction. I remember one that told Bill Mitchel was disappointed the GM used the boattail styled on the large body. He wanted to see it built on the A-body platform.

 

Back around the turn of the century I bought this Jaguar XJS.

 

I had it shipped to my house in a enclosed trailer sight unseen. We unloaded it and I had a dealer plate at the time. I pulled out of my driveway and stepped on the gas. My first thought was "Wow! This is the car Bill Mitchel wanted to build". 4,000 pounds, 5.3 engine, and a really solid Buick-like feel. Nice car.

 

[Rivdrivn]

I think Jaguar sometimes takes their cues from Buick, e.g. 95-99 Riv vs. 99-06 XK

[J3Studio]

On 1/25/2020 at 10:09 AM, 60FlatTop said:

I have been reading articles about Riviera cars since their introduction. I remember one that told Bill Mitchel was disappointed the GM used the boattail styled on the large body. He wanted to see it built on the A-body platform.

 

A short and unfinished treatment from my ongoing project:

 

    The third generation Riviera was announced on September 23, 1970, and featured the most radical styling ever for Buick’s big coupe. Within a mere seven years, Buick itself would acknowledge that the styling was “controversial” in its 75th-anniversary brochure. For the moment, the division stood by its brand new top-of-the-line model—general manager Lee May stated that it was “a classic new design … a triumph of automobile styling,” though he is reputed to have hated the exterior design.
    That boattail styling came from a Bill Mitchell concept with the actual execution led by Jerry Hirshberg, but it did not come without substantial issues in its development. The design’s genesis came from Don DaHarsh, who was working in Mitchell’s “Studio X.”
    Initially proposed for the A-body like Pontiac’s Grand Prix—a somewhat smaller car—the third generation design was scaled up to the full-size B-body at the behest of General Motors president Ed Cole. To reduce production costs for a relatively low volume model, Cole required that the Riviera share the chassis and inner body stampings of the much higher volume LeSabre and Centurion models, along with their windshield and side windows. This decision meant that the production Riviera ended up being 14 inches longer and four inches wider than the original styling concept.
    Scaling size significantly up or down has been the bane of many promising automotive designs over the years, and one can argue that this was the case with the third generation Riviera. Years later, Car and Driver would mention in passing that Bill Mitchell still wouldn’t talk about what had happened. On top of all this, it seems that manufacturing the boattail was not easy—the rear glass backlight gave major issues.
    Press coverage of the day hinted at some surprise that the Riviera now seemed to be chasing a younger and more sporty crowd than the Toronado—marking a reversal of sorts from the previous five years. Initially, writers gave the new design a chance; Popular Mechanics stated that the new Riviera was “a looker.”