My Hot Wheels Stories: 1971 Buick Riviera

1971 Buick Riviera, i took another classic car. It is based on the actual General Motors production vehicle. It debuted as HW 2005 First Editions Realistix.

Mine is a part of 2015 HW City - Performance. It has green painted body, with a "Mr.Gasket Co." tampo at side.

Origins

The name Riviera, Latin for coastline, was chosen to evoke the allure and affluence of the French Riviera. It first entered the Buick line in 1949, as the designation for the new two-door pillarless hardtop, described in advertising as "stunningly smart". The Buick Roadmaster Riviera coupe (along with the Cadillac Coupe de Ville and Oldsmobile 98 Holiday coupe) constituted the first mass production use of this body style, which was to become extremely popular over the next 30 years. Buick added a two-door Riviera hardtop to the Super the following year, the Special in 1951 and the Century upon its return, after a 12-year absence, in 1954.

Real Life

The Buick Riviera is a personal luxury car produced by Buick from 1963 to 1999. The Riviera name has been given to concept cars displayed at auto shows in 2007 and 2013 in hopes of resurrecting the brand, but no plans to do so are currently in place. GM's first entry into that prestige niche, the Riviera was highly praised by automotive journalists upon its high-profile debut. While early models stayed close to the original form, subsequent generations varied substantially over the Riviera's thirty-year lifespan. In all, 1,127,261 were produced.

The Riviera was radically redesigned for the 1971 model year with flowing and dramatic "boat-tail" styling. Designed under Bill Mitchell's direction, it was penned by Jerry Hirshberg, future head of design for Nissan, mating the two-piece vee-butted fastback rear window, inspired by the 1963 Corvette Sting Ray split window coupe, to the Riviera's platform.

The 455 engine had a lower compression ratio to meet EPA emissions requirements, reducing power to 255 hp (190 kW), with 265 hp (198 kW) in the Gran Sport. Performance remained reasonably brisk, with a 0–60 time of 8.1 seconds for the GS, but the Riviera's sporty image was rapidly fading.