What a pairing we have here, uploaded to the CC Cohort by CC favorite Curtis Perry. For some reason, I would never think of these having almost anything in common except for technically being “fastbacks”. The Marlin is a classic first generation (meaning when this body style first came back in style in the ’60s) fastback, meaning it was grafted on an existing sedan body, not unlike the gen1 Charger. Sadly, the 1965 Marlin did not pull it off; not even remotely, as I made it painfully clear here.
The “boat tail” Riviera, from 1971, is a very different animal indeed, as its tapering fastback is hardly grafted on, and looks fab from some angles, but not so much from certain angles, where its hips protrude awkwardly. My take on it is here.
Aha! There’s also a Cadillac hiding behind them. Quite the little get-together. No fastbacks on it, once it shed its delicious tail from 1948-1949. I’ll take one of those over either of these any day. Sadly, we’ve never written up any 1948-1949 Cadillac. Now that’s a serious omission on our part.
Note: a rerun of an older post.
These two interesting styling exercises were both severely compromised by meddling and interference from corporate executives. Both began as concepts designed for shorter-wheelbase chassis, but product planners and beancounters forced these efforts to share platforms, AMCs with the nerdy Classic and GMs with the ponderous B-bodies. In both cases, too many cooks spoiled the meal.
When I was in fifth grade (which was 1965) my mother had a friend who would sometimes show up at my classroom door and tell me that I was going to her house that afternoon, not home. She had a Marlin like the one here. I liked her, and not going home, but I LOVED her Marlin. I had never seen bucket seats before. That car had black ones. It had seat belts too. And the grace of that rear window… That was my idea of the coolest car in town.
I used to see a 65 or 66 Marlin every day around 1975. My house was on a residential street that was the back entrance to an Allstate corporate office. It was like knowing that a flying saucer would pass by at 745 every morning.
The names —
Riviera, Marlin, deVille.
Surely beats alpha-numeric nonsense.
And crossover shapes…. I sure can tell these rooflines apart!
The 1940s torpedo style seems like the precursor to the 60/70s fastback at least on this shoreline. A similar idea also cloaked in somewhat aerodynamic principles.
This is a good juxtaposition of the difference in how two auto makers approached styling .
I never did cotton to the Marlin’s style, the Buick OTOH, still looks great t me all these decades later .
-Nate
The boat tail isnt perfect but what a perfect car to put it next to to make it look stunning
This generation Riviera was in many ways interesting, but just way too big. It would have worked much better if it were on a slightly stretched Skylark chassis, similar to what Pontiac did with the 1969 Grand Prix, which was based on a stretched version of the intermediate Le Mans. It would have been cheaper too, adding to its appeal.
The Marlin was also too big, but was so hideous that I don’t think anything could save it.
Speaking of 48-49 Caddy fastbacks heres a pic of my uncle with his, and his girlfriends, uh, Chevrolet.