One of Bill Mitchell's (designer of the StingRay) most beautiful designs!

           Even the hideaway headlights were designed for beauty.

 The longest production hood in GM History, and it had 16 compound bends.

               My engine has the factory optional "engine dress up kit" and that "465" stood for the torque in foot pounds.

   The 1966 Riviera GS (for Gran Sport) was the last of Buick's famous "Nailhead" engines. 

      They were called nailheads because to most mechanics, their small, vertically stacked intake and exhaust valves looked like nails in a block of wood. 1966 was also the largest displacement nailhead     ( at 425 cu.in.) and had the highest horsepower rating as well..360 HP. this combo provided 465 ft.lbs. of neck-snapping torque!

   After a complete re-style from the classic 63-65 Rivieras, this car was the first GM car without vent windows.

  Along with the new, front-wheel drive Oldsmobile Toronado, the Riviera was designed as a "Personal Luxury Vehicle", but GM was really trying to compete with the bigger Ford Thunderbirds in that segment. These cars were expensive for their time, often topping  five thousand dollars or more when new. 

   However there were very few options that were available, because almost anything you wanted was standard. 

   Power Steering, Power Brakes, TH400 Automatic Transmission, Air Conditioning, Power seats, Power tinted windows, AM/FM with reverb, electric antenna, remote trunk release, DeLuxe Road Wheels and on and on..

   Mine is a second owner car, with 36,000 original miles. Always a South Jersey car, it had 1972 inspection stickers on the window when I bought it in 2002.After a two year refreshment, I had it painted 2005 Nissan "LeMans Sunset Orange Metallic", and then had my painter put extra 22k gold in the clear coat.

    Oh by the way, I have the original dual-quad setup for this engine. Problem is it gets about 7 mpg!