My dad and I recently took a Saturday jaunt to the Scarab Club in Detroit to peruse their “American Dreaming: Car Style Detroit” exhibit of original stylists’ drawings from the “Big Three” and major independents. As a follow up to Don’s Riviera post, please enjoy this Paul Deesen drawing from November of 1964 that offers a “not as far off as one might think” interpretation of the ’66 Riviera (which of course, is almost identical to the ’67).
There are some definite similarities between Mr. Deesen’s drawing and the eventual production model (not to mention the striking resemblance to the ’68 model’s grille). The ’68 may have been a greater styling success if Buick would have adopted Deesen’s front end design a little more closely, but either way, no sixties Riviera really needs any apologies for its design. Enjoy!
Aaron, I loved the “American Dreaming” exhibit!! Such incredible illustrations in that collection, including this Rivvy proposal. Is it just me, or does the proposal look a little like Richard Teague’s AMX III? (I’m not sure which came off the drawing board first, though I’d assume the Riviera…)
Funny how some design cues persist until finally reaching production. While the bumper and grille design of the sketch are somewhat evident in the 68-69 production cars, those grilled floating under the front on each side came up in the grille of the 70’s.
Interesting stuff. The one detail not picked up on the car is the pair of vertical slotted areas under the headlights. This detail seems to have found its way into the Oldsmobile studio for the 71 Toronado.
I picked up on that too. The sketch walks a line between slots and grill inserts.
The Toro seems to have functional grill inserts – there is little or no traditional grill opening. Maybe a slot at the bottom of the hood lip.
Wow, I had never noticed before how much the ’71 Toro face has elements of my ’72 Pontiac in it.
That reminds me just a little of the Charger III concept of 1968.
The ’68 and ’69 Rivieras never used to even be on my radar or in my orbit, but they’ve been growing on me lately. There was a black ’69 on “Fast and Loud” the other night that I drooled over! Luckily, they didn’t totally ruin it like they often do with cars I like. 🙂
Nice Aaron. would love to have seen that exhibition.
Riv rendering circa 1971-72. Proposal to redo the controversial “boat tail” rear-end. Notice that the vehicle side profile remains pretty much unchanged from the first year ’71 production car.
Interesting. A quick search throws up quite a few Riv concepts.
This one is dated 1967
That’s an awesome rendering!! I want it on my wall…
no date on this one
And courtesy of CC’s own glen.h
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Some more boattails…
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And from later in the day…
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The rear view is very similar to the actual ’66 and ’67 models, The front of the production cars was very attractive but very prone to collision damage as the bumpers were only there for looks. I’ve had four early Rivieras and I think they are very desirable. They are just now considered a little too big. When the 1979 model came out it seemed kind of small but even those seem pretty big now.