The Buick Riviera was a great generation of cars which appealed to the every day traveler and the 65 Riviera was no different. These models were complimented by great engine power and a very nice aspect over all. The interior was also very well received by the people and when it came to performance, this car would definitely not disappoint. Even if you would be a fan of this brand, an opposing manufacturer or just an amateur, only by looking at it you would soon understand that there was something special about this car which was impossible to find in other models. It just had something that would draw people to it.

Thus the first generation of Rivieras were just a work of art, and they were rendered the title of classic American muscle cars. They were the result of the great imagination of some of the best designers from General Motors who really proved once again that they can do wonders when working 100% on a project. But this was not only the effort of the designers. There had also been a lot of effort put into advertising and getting this car to be known to the public in the best available commercial formats of the time. Therefore for this car a very good and efficient image promoting method had been groomed in order to kick up the sales.

The first luxury car that Buick had built would prove to be as a response to the amazing success that Ford had with its series of muscle cars at that time. This car which was code named the “Squarebird” was introduced in 1958 and its looks were tremendously similar to that of other cars General Motors has designed. This model was especially similar in terms of the interior layout, size and concept.

It is clear that there are no clues saying that a 4 seat Thunderbird would be nevertheless offered by Ford, and this was because partly it was thought that General Motors had something like the Chevrolet Biscayne fielded and this was a car which featured very elegant bucket seat interiors and compact dimensions.

All in all, the 65 Riviera proved to be a good car and it really stood up to the legacy that was compacted before it.

The 63 Riviera would prove to be a very unique car which would not have its body shell shared with any other car model, which would most certainly be something very strange when it came to General Motors, who always had things shared. The frame of the 1963 Riviera would be similar to that of the standard Buick one (the only difference was that it would be narrower and also shorter) and it featured a 51 mm track which was narrower than before.

When it came to size, this model was 5300 mm long and had a wheelbase of 3000 mm and it was 200 mm and 150 mm shorter respectively than that of the Buick LeSabre. Still, when compared to a contemporary Thunderbird it would be most certainly a little longer.

The weight of the 1963 Riviera would also be noticed around at 1813 KG. The engine this unique model was sharing was that of the Buick’s V8 and the displacement of this engine would be of 401 cubic inches (6.75 litters) or 425 cubic inches (6.96 litters). When it comes to the brakes, they were the standards you could find in the Buick Al Fin (aluminum fins) drums which stacked 300 mm long, and the transmission of this little beast would be the twin turbine automatic transmission. Another thing that would come as a standard on this car was the power steering which had a steering ration of 20.5:1.

The coil springs of this new model proved to be a little softer when compared to those of other Buicks and the suspension’s design was the same used in all the standard Buicks, featuring double wishbones for the front and a live axle which could be found by a lateral track bar and trailing arms, meanwhile the roll centers had to be raised in order to have the body lean reduced.

Even though the Riviera would be biased towards under-steer, many people have considered this car to be a great model which regardless of the weather, would perform great and handling would not be a problem with it.

The date the car was released to the public was the 4^th of October 1962 and the only engine you would be able to buy was the 325 HP one, the transmission would also be single (the Turbine Drive) and you had to shell out $4333 in order to drive this little beast.