I'm glad this series is so popular again. It isn't easy to find old footage of these cars being thrashed like this and tested to their limits when they were brand new. Especially full sized cars like this.
The BEST designe era !!! 60/70 V8/Muscle era is MAGNIFICENT !!! This Riviera is BEAUTIFUL, sadly don t build on my continental country.....Greetings from Brazil !!!
I had one of these! That same color but without the vinyl roof. The car looked much cleaner without the vinyl. It was a standard coupe with the suspension upgrade and the factory chrome spoked wheels. Ya, a console and bucket seats would have been cooler. But with the arm rests up, we could fit 6 nicely. A feature which came handy on many occasions. I drove the hell out of that car. I've owned a bunch of cool cars; a 40 Ford Coupe, a 67 Mustang and a 72 Challenger, were among my favorites. But, thirty years later, I still miss that '71 Riviera more than all the others. Thank you Mr. Doe
This is so cool - as a six year old kid I got to ride in one of these distinctive boat-tailed beauties. My uncle worked for Buick and this was his car in the summer of '71 when my family traveled the 200 or so miles to visit the cousins. My aunt had a floor-shift red-brown metallic Opal Manta in the garage which even then i turned my nose up at! I relished the rides we had in his white-interior Riviera, looking out that big, bent glass back window. Nice to see an old favorite that I can only dream of decades later turned out testing so well.
I remember when the 71 Rivera first came out ,the rear end treatment was so controversial,but the rear.end treatment has really aged well,and in my eyes a great profile,from front to rear.
I'd love for shows to teats new cars like this. Push them to the limits and see how they respond. Show us the where they excel and where they fall short. And I'd REALLY love to see the reverse spin test done to new cars! Maybe new tires grip too well??
Wat a great car. My friend had a 71 gs blue. It had some work done to it. But it could smoke both rear wheel slckes for hundreds of feet. And it sounded awesome.
LOVED THIS SHOW BACK IN THE DAY, I WILL BE 62 IN 3 WEEKS AND ME AND A FRIEND USED TO WATCH THIS EVERY WEEKEND===GOTTA LOVE THAT RUBBER JUST FALLING OFF THE TIRES WHEN CORNERING
Out of the hundreds of MILLIONS of people on this earth who drive all types of cars, I have yet to hear: "I'm so glad I bought an uncomfortable, hard riding, Euro-designed shitbox, or I might have hit that poor little deer which darted out in front of me". I don't remember anywhere in this film whereas the big comfortable Buick hit any of the cones either. Just positive, solid PROOF that those hard suspensions that are torturous to the body are overrated and needless.
YES! Those hard suspensions hurt, Especially to the over 30 crowd. I bought my Grandmas 64 Rivera and drove it from age 17 to 21. Ac not the greatest , (never found out why) wonder if anyone would know the answer ?It was first car i fell in love with. She drove it from Charlotte to Myrtle Beach house . The engine really would heat up that carport! It was so dependable ! Only had 45k miles on it when I got it. I garaged it and treated it with extreme care . Still love That huge grill.
@@reglook1 I knew someone who bought a Probe GT - slick looking, new style etc... because of the sport suspension (i.e. stiff), they despised it after one week. I just laughed to myself because I knew this was going to happen.
This car I’m sure could get 17 mpg highway but single digit, like 8 mpg, around town. Gm did a great job on the styling and quality, albeit ancient technology even then. Why did they have to lose all their quality on their cars once the 1980s hit? Or when the Vega hit the streets? Such a big, bloated company put out a car that was highly desirable in 1971, puts out cars less desirable today than the competition. Still bloated today (more so) but not many want theirs cars. A lifetime of research may not answer this question.
@@nathanmcdonald610 by no means is your tired truck (yawn) a 71 Riviera..if that Riviera hit your truck, your truck would be in pieces....plus its a Ford..
@@JxT1957 71 is the only year,as most know that GM fullsize cars had the Flow Thru Ventilation exhaust vents were in the decklid and station wagon tailgates.
Awesome show! I remember when I first saw a 1971 Buick Riviera. I thought it looked attractive from some angles, but hideous from other angles. I thought it looked beautiful from the side, but I hated its tail end. I also didn't find its front end very attractive. Today, 35 yrs on, I find the whole car attractive.
Jason Carpp That's what I thought about it, too. I was 6 years old in the fall of 1970 when the '71 Riviera appeared. It looked strange to me when I first saw it. Now, nearly 50 years later, it's not all that bad. BTW, the fall of '70 was a memorable time for Orioles fans like me: The Orioles won the World Series over the Cincinnati Reds. (4/13/2018)
Welcome aboard! I always liked the styling; although it seemed a little odd. Nowadays, considering everything that has come after, I regard it to be one of the standout styling masterpieces among automobiles!
I agree with Bud Lindemann about using beefier suspension for the Buick. Ride comfort is important, but it doesn't do you much good if you need to avoid hitting something and the car rolls excessively and threatens to hit what you're trying to avoid hitting.
Out of the 400+ MILLION people on this earth who drive all types of cars, I have yet to hear: "I'm so glad I bought an uncomfortable, hard riding, Euro-designed shitbox, or I might have hit that poor little deer which darted out in front of me". I don't remember anywhere in this film whereas the big comfortable Buick hit any of the cones either. Just positive, solid PROOF that those hard suspensions that are torturous to the body are overrated and needless.
Bud says he can't understand why Buick didn't make the heavy duty suspension standard. Not everybody in the American buying public wanted a stiff suspension on a full size luxury car. It was wise on Buicks part to leave it as an option.
The big cars from gm all floated across the ground with the soft suspension back then. Evidence the slalom run between the cones with the tires squealing and rubber flying off.
You’re speaking as if it was a hard riding sports car suspension from a BMW or Corvette - this was still a GM luxury product, that heavy duty suspension wasn’t all that stiff in reality.
70-0 in 197 feet is excellent for 1971, especially with all that weight on those tires. Not bad well into the 1990's. I don't know if it had the floating calipers most cars have or the four-piston Corvette-like calipers offered the year before on big Buicks. Those could haul down a heavier Estate Wagon in the same distance.
My first car. Sure didn't drive it like the psycho test driver. I drove it with my pinky finger. Most comfortable car I ever drove. 8mpg/city, but so what. Wish I could look at it and drive it at the same time.
Laugh, but my simple-living father always said our '75 Pinto wagon had great handling. I drove that car in its later years and at the time, I would agree. Well, it should have - it was small, low, and had that low-effort power steering that American automakers couldn't help but use in even the cheaper small cars when you got the option! The real issue with "American cars" back then is (a) they were bigger than those made in high fuel cost countries, and (b) handling took a back seat to soft ride.
