So here it is. After nineteen articles and a few hundred cars profiled, I’m declaring this to be my favorite of all the vehicles I saw in January in Scottsdale at three auctions: a 1966 Buick Riviera GS. I would not necessarily expect anyone who is not me and wasn’t there to agree as it’s entirely based on my particular tastes and experience there. I’ll try to explain why this car captured my attention so intently.
As a car enthusiast, I can appreciate all sorts of cars from most every maker and every era. Though an equal opportunity car lover, the sweet spot for me for as long as I can remember has been Buick. Perhaps it was the influence of my beloved great uncle who always drove Buicks. I’ve always liked the styling and premium-without-being-extravagant vibe, and at least in their golden era, ample power. Four of my couple dozen cars over the years have been from Flint, though sadly none of them Rivieras.
Buick’s personal luxury cruiser has been a favorite of mine. I can honestly say that I like every generation except the last, even the unloved ’74-’76 and ’86-’93. Of course, examples from the first ten years are much preferred. I wouldn’t argue against the first gen being the most attractive, but I’ve always thought the second gen was just a masterful design. Interiors, while not quite as gorgeous, are still unique and sixtiestastic. Engines were very competitive during the height of the horsepower wars. This Riviera exemplifies what GM did best in its most prosperous and dominant era: it was beautiful, fast, comfortable and generally well engineered and built. It was big and bold, but every square inch tasteful. Paul also wrote a very appreciative CC several years ago on the ’66 Riviera.
Unlike in 1963-65, the ’66 Riviera was only available with one engine: the previously optional 340hp “Wildcat 465” 425cid nailhead. Buick dropped the dual carb 425cid “Super Wildcat” for the nailhead’s last year. However, they did sell the parts through dealers, who could then install them. Buick also put 179 Super Wildcats in Riviera GS’s late in the model year, even though they weren’t in the catalog. This car does not have one of those, but is one of the 5,539 (out of 45,348) Rivieras with the GS option and standard engine.
The GS option was even less consequential for this year. They had a chrome air cleaner, aluminum rocker covers, specially calibrated version of the Super Turbine 400 transmission, limited slip 3.42:1 differential, heavy duty springs and shock absorbers, white or red line tires and GS emblems. A faster 15:1 steering ratio was also optional only on GS’s.
Buick’s consistency was shown by offering a GS package on Rivieras through 1975, well into the malaise and brougham eras.
The car’s owner was present, and he let me take a shot of the interior. When I opened the door, I was hit with the Scent of the Sixties. Maybe you know what I’m talking about. It’s an aroma, I assume of period vinyl, that I’ve smelled from time to time when I peer in an open window of an immaculate car of that era or a few times when I’ve been able to sit in them, particularly when I was a kid in the ’70’s/’80’s and original cars from the ’60’s and early ’70’s were still seen around occasionally. I suspect it’s more present on cars with original upholstery. One reason I love old cars is my tendency towards nostalgia for past eras, even ones before I was born (like the ’60’s). Smells can be emotionally powerful and that one takes me to a different time and a very nice place in my mind.
The interior is rather understated, especially when compared to Thunderbirds and earlier Rivieras. Bucket seats were a no-cost option, but a center console with shifter was extra-cost, which didn’t flow into the dash like before. The speedometer is drum style, like the Toronado’s, and unlike other full size Buicks, a full compliment of gauges is provided. This one has the optional Strato-notchback bench, wood steering wheel and air conditioning, since it was originally from Florida.
Chrome wheels were optional, though it seems most ’60’s/’70’s vintage Buicks you see these days have them. That’s certainly not a bad thing, as they are some of the best looking wheels anywhere. So good looking, in fact, that the division kept them available on their rear wheel drive cars until they went all FWD in the mid-’80’s. Here’s a trivia question for the CC scholars out there: what was the last year Buick offered this style of wheel?
Finned aluminum brake drums are visible through the front wheel slots. These 12 inch drums were steel lined, and the rears were just steel. The early Toronado and Eldorado are infamous for having barely adequate brakes (a topic covered on CC), but I have not heard that about the Riviera so much. Was this because it was rear wheel drive? The first generation Rivs were considered to have quite good brakes for being an all drum system, having 197 square inches of swept area and aluminum drums. The new 1966 model was down to 193 with about 200lbs more weight to stop. Front disc brakes would be optional for 1967 but not standard until 1971.
My favorite cars to see are unrestored originals that have managed to come down the years to us in great condition through unlikely combinations of light use, good care, ideal storage or favorable geography. It never ceases to amaze me when I see a beautiful survivor. Restored cars are great, too, don’t get me wrong, I just love the originals which are relatively rare, even in Scottsdale. They are like a direct connection to the past. While not sporting hallmarks of superhero originality like paint and tires, this Riviera is a 15,000 mile mostly original creampuff (that you could actually drive some without feeling bad!).
Something else I love about this car is the color. It’s unusual and attractive and I’m not sure I’ve seen another example in person. This car has been repainted in the original Riviera Red Poly, one of six unique Riviera hues and fifteen total available. Unbelievable from a modern perspective is the ten interior choices, which dictated the color of nearly every interior surface.
Here’s the brochure page (from OldCarBrochures.com) for the Riviera GS. The woman in the picture doesn’t seem concerned, probably because this car is so capable and distractingly beautiful that being stuck on a rock in the middle of a rising tide is no reason to worry.
I estimate I had about 2,700 vehicles pass before my eyes in Scottsdale. I’ve spent the last several months writing gushing articles on many of the great cars I saw. It may seem a bit implausible that I could pick one favorite, but looking at this car on my last day (then going back and looking some more) there was no doubt in my mind that this was the car: it was simply breathtaking for me.
Surprisingly, this car was at Silver, the most humble and modest of the Scottsdale auctions. The event is actually at a casino on the Ft. McDowell Indian Reservation outside Scottsdale, set apart geographically and attitudinally from the more famous events. Average sale price was $17,620, versus $38,197 at Russo and Steele and $65,692 at Barrett-Jackson. They had some really cool cars there, though, including some not likely to be seen elsewhere in Scottsdale. As I’ve stated before, the auction has not made results available, so unfortunately I don’t know if this fine car found a new home. If so, I hope it is a good one that will treat it with the loving care it deserves.
So this is it for my series on cars I saw during my trip to Scottsdale this year. What I figured would be a handful of articles over a couple of months turned into twenty articles and nine months worth of writing, as I had time. A large car event can be a bit overwhelming and you find yourself desensitized to amazing cars. A car you would normally ooo and aah over if seen on its own can lose its impact when surrounded by tons of other great cars. Going back and revisiting my favorite finds and considering them individually has been fun. The process of picking cars, researching them, then writing about what makes these cars great has been rewarding. It turned three days of entertainment into an educational experience!
If you missed any of them, here are all the articles:
Cadillacs-part 1 restored cars
Cadillacs-part 2 unrestored cars
What a gorgeous car! Now THAT looks like a Buick. It has become my phone wallpaper so I can see it all the time.
Jon7190, Coming back in 2019? If so, maybe we could start an informal CC meetup on specific days and times at specific auctions. And yes, the vib at Silver is much different from B-J.
Lastly, ’63-’65 Riv for me please. Glacier Blue, Navy leather, please.
Dave
I don’t know yet if I will make it this year. I live in Texas now. My wife has family in the east Valley but this year was the first time I was able to visit there during auction week in several years. I hope I can!
A CC meet up would be really cool.
I’d go to a CC meet in Scottsdale during the auctions – preferably not at an auction site but somewhere where it would be easy to park (not B-J!).
There are two non-auction things to note about that week too.
One is that the local Craigslist brings out local sellers of some old family heirlooms. They don’t want to bother with the auctions but know there are a lot of potential buyers in town who can potentially take that garage queen off their hands without too much hassle. Ask me how I know this. Mine had sat unused in the garage for six years until they finally decided to try to sell it during auction week.
Two is that the normal weekly (Saturday) “cruise-in” at Pavilions shopping center (Indian Bend Road between 101 freeway and Pima Road) has lots of cars “for sale by owner” on the Saturdays adjacent to the auctions. So many for sale is atypical for the event. Local car guys know this and do go looking at Pavilions too. The site is just a bit south of the R&S location at Talking Stick baseball stadium parking lot.
When I lived in the Valley I regularly haunted the Pavilions on Saturdays. There’s a lot of people in the area that have beautiful cars!
Gorgeous! My mother’s Uncle Frank came into town around maybe 1971 or so for a visit with relatives and stopped by our house. He was driving one of these in navy blue. I was very familiar with the Gen1 Riv and with the new boattail version, but somehow these were not on my radar before that day. I just walked around and around it, marveling at that sleek, fluid shape. These really are beautiful cars.
And that color – that shade of reddish rust may be my very favorite paint color on a car. A quick look says Buick called this one Riviera Red and is identical with the paint color on the twin 66 Olds Cutlasses some neighbors owned in the 60s. Everyone had a color something like this in the mid 60s but GM just nailed the shade. My 77 New Yorker in Russet Sunfire was very similar to this shade.
I can see how this would have been your very favorite.
I’ve also seen many Corvairs and other Chevy’s in this color. I believe they called it Aztec Bronze. Many had Fawn (kind of a beige) or black. The most striking ones to me were the ones with the matching bronze interior.
That Riviera is a stunner! All of a sudden the “Buick, wouldn’t you really rather?” jingle just popped into my head. In those days that car was a Buick people really aspired for.
Buick was quite proud of their aluminum finned drum brakes. In the late 50’s Buicks were getting so heavy they were over taxing their brakes causing them to seriously fade on hilly roads. They engineered lightweight aluminum finned drums with a lot of surface area to dissipate heat quickly. Apparently Buick was one of the last divisions to switch to front discs because they were so happy and confident about the brakes…..Since the divisions were so much more autonomous in the 60’s I bet Olds and Cadillac used different brakes
It was once explained to me that hot iron drums actually increase their inner diameter with high heat, thus causing fade when shoes cannot extend far enough to make good friction (let alone the effects on the friction material itself). Those aluminum drums shed dissipated heat quickly and were probably the best drum brake made to that time. Discs, of course, made them obsolete.
Brakes function by turning momentum into heat (in other words, the opposite what an engine does). That heat has to be dissipated faster than it is generated. That’s why a cold drum brake works quite well, before it gets hot. When a drum gets hot and cannot dissipate any more (or a significant amount) heat, it ceases to function as a brake. Hence the reason for finned brake drums, large drums, and ventilated wheels; to dissipate heat faster.
Disc brakes simply dissipate heat more efficiently, especially the internally ventilated discs that soon became ubiquitous.
This explanation is fine as far as it goes, but it presumes that there is some ceiling to how hot the drum can get. In theory the friction could continue to heat the drum until some component either hits a melting point or begins combustion. It is a combination of thermal expansion of the drum, reduction of friction due to heat glaze on the lining and eventually the boiling of hydraulic fluid that reduces friction and thus drum brake fade. And of course the failure of the drum to dissipate heat as quickly as friction is causing it (as you have noted) brings those other factors to the fore.
The thermal expansion is the factor that is probably least intuitive. Most of us would think that when you heat something with a hole in it, expansion of the material makes the hole smaller. Actually the hole becomes larger. Stacked glasses fresh from a hot dishwasher will get stuck because the outer glass cools and the diameter of the “hole” shrinks a bit. Heating the outer glass will help, while heating the inner glass may cause the outer one to break. So it is with a brake drum, a very hot brake drum has a slightly larger inner diameter than a cold brake drum. It is not the only factor that causes fade, but it is one of them. High heat’s effect on the drum, the lining and the fluid (all three components necessary for effective stopping) all compound with one another to render a really hot drum brake fairly worthless.
I wasn’t trying to negate other factors, including the expansion of the drum itself. But hitting a ceiling on heat dissipation is clearly the key one, which explains why drums were finned and ventilated in an effort to reduce fade. The issues you cite (drum expansion, glazing, fluid boiling) are all really just secondary consequences of the drum getting too hot. They undoubtedly exacerbate the fade problem.
I don’t believe that Oldsmobile or Cadillac used the finned aluminum brakes on the Toronado or Eldorado. Which was ironic, as those cars, with heavy, powerful V-8s driving the front wheels, desperately needed upgraded brakes.
The standard drum brakes offered on the Toronado through 1969, and on the 1967 Eldorado, were simply terrible.
I give Olds a little slack on this one. I would bet they wanted front disc brakes from the beginning. The corporate folks on the 14th floor may have shot that down for cost reasons.
Bob
I’ve read that the 66 Toronado used finned drums, I’m not sure if they were aluminum. Even the optional disk brakes starting in 1967 were problematic, an issue brought out in a 1968 road test that was seen on CC a few months ago.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/vintage-review/vintage-review-1968-oldsmobile-toronado-april-1968-car-and-driver-road-test/
From 80 mph, the testers at Car and Driver were able to get two acceptable stops – one good, the next one okay – with their 1968 Toronado.
From what I’ve read, even one stop from 80 mph in a 1966 Toronado was a dicey proposition.
1st stop great, 2nd stop so-so, 3rd stop disastrous. I’d call that problematic!
The disk may have been an improvement over the drum system, but it was clearly still not ready for prime time.
The question is how many drivers at that time were making three panic stops in a brief period of time from 80 mph. I would say not too many.
Good point, one hard stop is probably enough for most owners. Excessive brake fade is generally considered unsafe, though. Especially on a powerful car with sporting pretensions, it’s not hard to imagine hilly, winding roads where drivers could get themselves in trouble.
The scary part is that drum brakes were standard on the Toronado until the 1970 model year. Those couldn’t handle even one hard panic stop!
Totally agree with this choice of best of show (auction)!! IMO it’s one of the best shapes and cars of the 60s, or ever for that matter. A close friend has a ’67 GS in Riviera Aquamarine Poly with console and buckets in 2 tone Aquamarine/Teal and it’s become one of my favorite cars of all time… I hope to own it one day if I’m still around if/when he ever decides to downsize!
When I was in high school a family that lived a few blocks away from us had 1 of these Rivieras. That 1 was white with a black interior, which sounds pretty ordinary but I thought that car was very special.
This generation of Riviera manages to look futuristic without being outlandish and yet is also a classic design. Looking at the pictures here, I wonder if this car might have influenced the designers of the Camaro.
As much as I like the styling, I don’t think I would ever own one of these, or any Riviera as they are a bit big (says the current owner of a Crown Victoria), with the possible exception of the downsized 80s model.
That gorgeous lady that parked that gorgeous car on that rock had better stop smiling and roll up the windows!
Another thing that seems to be missing from modern car ads is exotic or unusual locations. I wonder how difficult it was (and how many attempts it took) to get that Riviera onto that rock, completely unscathed.
Good question. There was no Photoshop in those days. I’d still bet that the image was developed in an actual “photo shop” that placed the car shot in a studio in the totally implausible location.
Auto ads and brochures were generally more attractive and interesting back then, I think.
Good point. My mother used to be a photo retoucher and colourist. We tend to forget that suitably gifted people could do some truly amazing stuff before computers.
That’s a beautiful Buick!
I’m a Riviera fan too. I agree with you about liking every generation of Riviera except the last one (1995-1999), wish I could have one example from each generation. My favorite is the 1965 GS, make mine dark green with tan vinyl interior. The 1974 Riv has a great transitional aggressive grill and looks good especially without a multi-hued velor interior.
I love that 65 too. I assume you saw my Buick article yesterday. It had a sweet 65 GS in black with white interior
This featured car is a fine example of this body style; but one of my personal least favorite Rivieras.
My favorite Rivs:
1963-65
1971
1977
1995
Interesting choices. What do you prefer about the 77-78 over the 66-70?
My favorite era of the Buick Riviera’s are the first two era’s and for some reason I have a hard time deciding which one I like best between these two, IMO the most underrated era of the Buick Riviera’s are the 1977-78 era, I wish it would’ve lasted into the 1979 model year.
I still like the final generation Rivieras – striking looks and fine performance with a supercharged 3800. However, back to the matter at hand – the ’66 Riviera. An absolute beauty that nearly matches my favorite Riv, which is the ’65. The ’66-’67 Riv had a really cool dash with a drum speedometer and full gauges. Sadly, a boring Electra-derived and info-free dash was used for 1968.
This is unquestionably my favorite Riviera, with due respect to the 63-65, I personally find them a tad overhyped, if I were a buyer for a personal luxury car back then I’d pick a Tbird, 66 is where I’d be sold on the Riv.
The Buick road wheels are incredibly pretty (though I’m fond of the Turbine wheel covers in the brochure too, can’t go wrong with either), I used to think they were the ubiquitous Magnum 500 for a long time when I’d see old Buicks but they looked way more exotic and pretty than real Magnum 500s(I’m normally not keen on those on Muscle cars over the corporate options or aftermarket). I’d really like to see an 80s A-body Century with them like in the brochure, they are super rare, but they make even that mundane car look good.
My favorite Riv is the ’72 Boat-tail. I was 11 or 12 when the guy across the street bought one in emerald green, and I was fascinated by that car. I liked Impalas back then as my Dad was a Chevy fan in those days, and to me that Riv reminded me of a ’72 Impala in the front, only much cooler looking all around.
But you make a compelling argument for the ’66 featured here, Jon. I don’t normally like ‘burnt orange’ cars, but this color is gorgeous on this car.
I am also a huge boattail Riviera fan. This was my favorite individual car I saw on this outing, but in general I’m about equal in enthusiasm between 65, 66-67 and 71-72. I could DEFINITELY see a boattail in my garage.
This and the ’67 Riv are my favorites (although a ’72 boat tail is up there as well).
In my case, I was given an AMT pre-assembled friction model of a ’67 at 10 or 11 years old, and loved the design even then.
In 1966, I drove a standard model, in black, from Ft. Lauderdale to Detroit. I still consider it to be one of the best looking cars of all time. In mostly freeway driving I obtained 12 miles to the gallon. On one occasion, I took the Wildcat 465 up to 100, it reached that speed rather quickly. The ride was rather floaty as exhibited by my inability to keep a VW off my tail in a section of Kentucky with winding two lane roads.
Because the car was so conspicuous, I had a couple of slightly negative experiences with it and resolved never to own such a flashy car. However, I saw a white one for sale in Saskatchewan several years ago and I was tempted. I hope that it got the owner it deserved.
I’ve always loved this generation of Riviera, too. It’s sharp, distinct, and dignified. What was interesting was that the Riviera was the only GM car still using a cruciform (X) frame after 1964, and that continued through 1970, which was the last year for these second-gen models.