Meet the Fleet – Muscle Cars: ’63 Buick Riviera

• BODY: Auto World (based on Aurora original)
• WHEELS & TIRES: Road Race Replicas

I’ve mentioned before that I’m a die-hard Buick nut, but I’ll go ahead and mention it again! The 1963-’65 Buick Riviera isn’t just one of the most beautiful cars of the 1960s, it makes my list of the top 25 most beautiful cars ever! That for years these works of art were neglected and junked is an utter travesty, but the world has finally seen the error of its ways, as the few good remaining examples of these cars are now selling for record prices.

Auto World wisely opted to recognize this in deciding to remake the Aurora Model Motoring version of the ‘63 Riv for their modern updates on the vintage T-jet theme, and although several versions of it have been released over the years, it still seems to have been made in limited numbers and is still quite hard to find. This medium metallic blue version is from Release 6 so it’s at least 15 years old now, and I haven’t seen one for sale for a while. This was one of my early purchases from the first couple of months of 2020, before everything went to hell and prices started climbing steeply as more and more people developed an interest in “indoor hobbies,” not to mention an increase in nostalgia for a time when the Western world was still sane.

This car’s history has been mentioned in a couple of my previous technical posts, specifically the one talking about what I call “my best trick”, the invention of the front axle spacer for use on AW TJ’s with custom wheels. This car originally was a very poor performer, but I was willing to accept that, since the narrow wheels and tires I fitted it with looked so much better than the wider units that would have given it better cornering: at what price fashion, eh? Once I installed my spacers on the front axles, those tiny pieces of plastic completely changed the car’s character, and it went from a no-go showboat to a screamer that can hold its own with many lighter, more powerful muscle cars. The fast luxo-cruiser’s pilot, Jim “Comet” Coburn, appropriately dubbed his car “Poetry In Motion.” Who would disagree?

Its true you don’t see too many Rivieras on racing tracks, but with their high-compression big block nailhead engines, it would have been possible, if someone were willing to race such a beautiful car. Hey, they did it to Ferraris and Aston Martins, so why not “race a Riv?” Clearly, a couple of drivers who show up regularly at Drag City do!