Text by Patrick Bell.
Buick had their game going in the 1950’s. They offered style, reliability, and power to the hungry car buying public. Today we have several examples to see from that decade, so here we go.
Our lead image was a 1955 Century 2 door Riviera Hardtop with an unusual two tone treatment. I don’t recall ever seeing one like this, as normally the top was painted to match the lower color, in this case the dark red. But it did look good.
As has been said many times the Century was the “performance” model with the higher output engine in the shorter and lighter body.
Here was a toothy 1950 Special 4 door Jetback Sedan with a lady standing by. It was fairly new at the time as it had a 1950 Pennsylvania license plate.
The Jetback sedan was a fastback style that was also offered in a 2 door. And a notchback 4 door was available that they called the Tourback Sedan.
We have seen this 1952 Super Riviera Sedan recently in a different view. It had a four inch longer wheelbase than the other Super’s and Special’s, but not quite as long as a Roadmaster. It was the most popular body style that year.
To the left was a 1946-1948 Oldsmobile Series 66 or 68 convertible, and mostly hiding on the other side of it was a black 1950 or 1951 Studebaker. In the right background was a black 1949 or 1950 Oldsmobile 76 or 88 4 door sedan, and a 1950 or 1951 Dodge Wayfarer Sedan.
And a two tone 1952 Special Riviera Hardtop that was parked on a downtown street somewhere. It had a spotlight/mirror combination and a black wall snow tire on the rear.
Power for 1952 came from the Fireball Straight-Eight engines, with the Special equipped with a 263 cubic inch version with 120 or 128 horsepower depending on transmission. The Super series also had a 263 ci version, but with 124 or 128 hp. And the Roadmaster had its own 320 ci version with 170 hp.
The 1953 models were reskinned to freshen up the style. Shown here was a 1953 Super 2 door Riviera hardtop that was dressed up with two tone paint, a spotlight/mirror combination, and a continental kit.
The new Fireball V8 also debuted this year in the Super and Roadmaster series, while the old Straight-Eight soldiered on for one more year in the Special.
1954 brought a restyle that modernized the look while retaining the family identity. This one was a 1954 Roadmaster 4 door Riviera Sedan in two tone, and someone chose to equip it with black wall tires.
They did not give the Roadmaster’s any extra chrome to set them apart as they had in the past, but they returned to it the next year. So this one was a little plain looking for the top of the line model, especially with the black wall tires.
Here was a gentleman with a 1954 Special or the revived Century 2 door Riviera hardtop with a South Carolina license plate from 1957.
The Special series benefited from a new 264 ci version of the Fireball V8 with 143 or 150 hp depending on the transmission, while the Century was fitted with the 322 ci from 1953 with a hp rating of 195 or 200. The manual transmission cars got the lower rating, and the Dynaflow equipped units had the higher output.
And a 1954 Century convertible that was taking a rest on the shoulder of a road that looked wet. Maybe they were checking out the citrus (orange?) trees. It was nicely optioned with a fuel door guard, backup lamps, and wire wheels.
Convertibles were available in all four series, and for this year the Century was actually the least popular with 2790 units produced.
A 1955 Century 2 door Riviera hardtop with at least two passengers had stopped at a new building site. It was optioned with two tone paint, outside mirror, fuel door guard, full wheel covers, white wall tires, and possibly had a New Jersey license plate.
For 1955 the Century, Super, and Roadmaster series all shared the same 322 Fireball V8 with 236 hp.
A professional looking man was posing with what was likely his new two tone 1956 Super 4 door Riviera hardtop, which was showing its updated front end styling and was in the third and final year of this generation.
The four door hardtop was new for 1955 and available in the junior series (Special and Century) only. They did very well and were expanded to all series in 1956, where they outsold the other body styles in all series except Special, where the 2 door Riviera hardtop continued to reign.
In the center background was a 1952 Studebaker Starliner Hardtop Coupe, and the one on the right edge was too fuzzy to determine.
Here was another 1956 model, a Century 4 door Riviera hardtop that was parked on the grass.
The 322 Fireball V8 was now standard in all series, with the Special having 220 hp, and the other three series had a 255 hp version.
The 1957 models were restyled as you can see in this 1957 Super 4 door Riviera hardtop with perhaps a 1958 issue Illinois license plate. There were at least three passengers inside that were waiting for something or someone.
Also that year debuted a new V8 with 364 ci and 250 hp for the Special, and 300 hp for the other three series.
A heavy reskin came along for 1958 as General Motors celebrated their Golden Anniversary with fins and chrome. Shown above was a 1958 Century 4 door sedan where Junior was inside maintaining order.
The engines were carried over from 1957 with no change. That was the first time that happened since 1949.
We close the decade with a newly restyled and renamed 1959 Electra 225 4 door Riviera Hardtop Sedan. The Electra 225 was the new top of the line series, followed by the Electra, Invicta, and LeSabre. This view shows the canted headlamps, a one year feature.
There were now two four door hardtops offered in the Electra 225 line; the six window style, and the four window “flat top” style they called the 4 door Hardtop. It is difficult in this image to determine which one it was, but I went with the Riviera style as it looks to me like the the roof curved down toward the rear, while the “flat top” stayed straight.
Thanks for joining us and have a great day!
I liked the last pic of the 59 with the sharp looking couple leaning on it.
All of these look great but I still prefer the ’37 ~ ’41’s , especially coupes, I hope some day you find and write one up .
I remember these fine cars and think they were very aspirational when new, somewhat so even today .
-Nate
The claim of the ‘50s as Buick’s zenith decade could almost be completely negated by the abomination that was the ‘58 edition.
My favorite is the white ’54 convertible. This one reminds me of the limited production Skylark, since it has wire wheels. I like the clean almost custom looking front end, especially that grille, and those four individual tail lights set into the rear end sheetmetal. For a long time Buicks were upscale, sporty looking, and fashionable automobiles.
1950s Buicks – the crack cocaine of CC! 😅
In 1959 I was 6 years old when my parents bought a used 1956 Buick special hardtop. It was white and black on the sides with a white roof. When all the windows were open it looked like a two door. It had no power steering or power brakes, but it road real nice.
Something about the house, color, condition makes me think the pic, or the pink “58”, was taken some time after the “50’s”. Kind a staged, throwback, pic.. Good looking car though.
The “54, Roadmaster”, looks good as well.
The aluminum screen door and window frames and the TV antenna all look period correct.
The sturdy couple with the 59 Electra remind me of that 50’s era when pillarless hardtops were new and all the rage. Note how they have all the windows down. It seemed like everyone tried to show off that look as often as they could, weather permitting.
I believe the location of Picture #4 (1952 Special Riviera Hardtop) was Hartford, Connecticut. The store in the background was likely Freed’s Furs, which was located at 20 Allyn St. (long gone – I think it’s now on the site of the PeoplesBank Arena).
The photo below isn’t the best, but it shows the store’s facade, which seems to match the Buick photo.
I always wanted a ’50 4 holer, but with the ’55 portholes.
The ’59 and its owners are on a very fashionable street. I’d bet this photo was taken the day they took delivery of the car.
I like the last pic of the black `59 Electra 225 sedan. The look on the man’s face is as if he’s in his finest moment of achievement . He has a nice home in a nice neighborhood, and now drives the very best Buick had to offer that year! I’d have a sly grin too if that beauty was mine (the car).
The picture featuring the 1956 Super 4 door Riviera hardtop was taken not too far from me. In the background is Jenison Field House on the campus of Michigan State University in East Lansing.
Two extra rims which allowed a quick switch to two mounted snow tires was a real convenience, especially when you’re blindsided by an early season snow or ice storm. There weren’t all season tires back then, just a lot of heavily lugged, extremely noisy snow tires, which wore very quickly if used outside of the snow/ice season. Hence, the two extra rims made perfect sense — we always picked up a couple of salvage yard rims (often mismatched colors) when we changed cars. By the time we got a car, there were plenty of junkers like it around with good rims, sometimes with usable snows already mounted!
We had this exact same red and white Buick when I was in the sixth grade. It was my favorite family car of all time! My father had always chosen Chryslers, but I liked the Buick. I liked the four “portholes”!. I couldn’t believe he chose red, he always had more conservative colors.