1963 Buick Riviera: The LaSalle Nobody Wanted Became Buick's Masterpiece

The Riviera's roofline began on a street in London. Ate Up With Motor recounts that Bill Mitchell, General Motors' vice president of styling, spotted a custom-bodied Rolls-Royce there and suggested its sharp-edged roof as a starting point; the history identifies the likely model as one of the Hooper-bodied cars that carried a similar crease. In mid-1959 Ned Nickles, running a Special Projects studio, painted a watercolor of a personal coupe with fender nacelles and horizontal grille bars that deliberately recalled the 1939 and 1940 LaSalle. He labeled it 'LaSalle II.' Mitchell asked for it as a hardtop, and by spring 1960 it stood as a full-size clay model, project XP-715.^1,2

The obvious home for a new LaSalle turned it down. Mitchell took XP-715 to Cadillac general manager Harold Warner as a revival of the LaSalle concept and name, and Warner said no. According to Ate Up With Motor, Cadillac was already straining its production capacity after building more than 142,000 cars in 1960, and its recent exclusive model, the Eldorado Brougham, had lost money. Chevrolet was no more interested; general manager Semon Knudsen said his division already had enough to manage. A design that the world's leading stylists would later praise had been turned down by the two divisions with the most obvious claim to it.¹

That left the three middle divisions, and a contest. Pontiac's Pete Estes and Oldsmobile's Jack Wolfram and Harold Metzel wanted the design changed; in Ate Up With Motor's account, only Buick was prepared to accept the car as it was. The General Motors Executive Committee then did something unusual. It staged an inter-divisional competition, giving Pontiac, Oldsmobile and Buick 60 days each to build a complete presentation, and then another three weeks for a second round. Buick's case was judged by far the best of the three, and after further hesitation the committee gave the car to Buick in April 1961.¹

Buick needed the win more than anyone. Edward D. Rollert had replaced Ed Ragsdale as general manager in 1959, after Buick's sales fell below 300,000 a year, well under half of the division's 1955 peak. Ate Up With Motor describes Rollert as brusque and hard-driving, and records a very unusual step in his campaign: he brought in McCann-Erickson, Buick's new advertising agency, to strengthen the division's presentation. Having won the car, he wanted it for the 1963 model year, which left chief engineer Lowell Kintigh less than a year and a half to finish it. The Riviera went on sale on October 4, 1962.^1,2

Kintigh's team gave the car a shortened version of the big Buick's cruciform frame, a 117-inch wheelbase and an overall length of 208 inches. The frameless side glass needed unique bolt-on outer door panels from Fisher Body, so doors could be finished after the glass and regulators were in. Sources disagree on the weight saving: Ate Up With Motor calls the Riviera about 200 pounds lighter than a LeSabre, and Wikipedia about 390 pounds, measured against its 3,998-pound shipping weight. Motor Trend's test car weighed 4,192 pounds at the curb. There was one body, the four-passenger sport coupe 4747, and one transmission, the twin-turbine automatic.^1,2,3,4

Under the hood the plan changed at the last minute. Motor Trend reported in April 1963 that a 425-cubic-inch engine had been scheduled as standard and was replaced by the 401 just before production. The 401 Nailhead, the engine Buick called the Wildcat 445, was rated at 325 gross horsepower at 4,400 rpm and 445 lb-ft at 2,800 rpm. The 425, the Wildcat 465 at 340 horsepower, arrived as an option in December 1962. The Riviera Owners Association's table divides the year's 40,000 cars into 37,399 with the 401 and 2,601 with the 425, so about 6.5 percent of first-year buyers took the bigger engine.^3,4,5,2

Buick priced and rationed the car with care. The Riviera listed at $4,333, which Ate Up With Motor places $112 below a Thunderbird and $271 above a Buick Electra 225. General sales manager Rollie Withers estimated demand at up to 55,000 cars and deliberately held the first year to 40,000, on the reasoning, as that history puts it, that 'it was better to have buyers clamoring for more.' Buick hit the number exactly. The Over-Drive production table, the Riviera Owners Association and Wikipedia's Standard Catalog figures all give 40,000 for 1963, three listings of one figure rather than three independent counts.^1,4,5,2

Motor Trend's Jim Wright tested a standard 401 car with the 3.23 axle, optioned from its $4,333 base to $5,158.61. It reached 60 mph in 8.1 seconds, covered the quarter mile in 16.01 seconds at 85.71 mph, reached an observed 115.5 mph and stopped from 60 mph in 151 feet, while averaging 13.2 mpg overall. Those are one car's figures, with two aboard, and they belong to the 401. The magazine also listed optional axles from 3.36 to 4.45 and a 2.78 economy ratio, a reminder that this luxury coupe could be ordered with gearing more familiar from the drag strip.³

Against the Thunderbird, the Riviera won nearly every argument except sales. Ate Up With Motor judges it faster, better handling and better braking, arguably better looking and a little cheaper, yet the Thunderbird, in the last year of its body style, outsold it by 50 percent because it was, in that history's words, 'by far the stronger brand.' The designers were won over. Wikipedia collects the praise of Sir William Lyons, Sergio Pininfarina and Raymond Loewy, who called it 'the most handsome American production car.' The Riviera's crisp, unadorned lines, the same history suggests, may simply have been too subtle for buyers who wanted glitter.^1,2

The first year was the high-water mark of the first generation. The Riviera Owners Association and Ate Up With Motor give 37,658 cars for 1964, when the 425 became standard and a dual-four-barrel Super Wildcat version was added, while Wikipedia's table gives 37,958; sources disagree, and both are shown. The count fell to 34,586 in 1965, the year the Gran Sport arrived. Ate Up With Motor's diagnosis is an awkward niche: too expensive for young performance buyers, not showy enough to lure Thunderbird or Cadillac customers. The 1963 car had nonetheless proved something. A design two divisions refused became the car that gave Buick a new identity.^5,1,2