By American standards, the Avanti, Sting Ray and Riviera (left) were taut, unadorned and breathtaking from every angle.
Loewy — who spearheaded the Avanti design — just happen to time their greatest work simultaneously? We may never know.
What we do know is that the three cars sent a signal to the world that American car design could compete anywhere and wasn’t just limited to the outrageous finned caricatures of the 1950s.
BUICK RIVIERA
When they hit the show floor, showroom and street, the Corvette Sting Ray, Studebaker Avanti and Buick Riviera
turned heads and dropped jaws
WHAT WAS IT ABOUT 1963? There’s no question that 1963 was a transitional year. The world left 1950s sensibilities behind, the U.S. space program switched into high gear and three of the most stun- ning American cars ever made were revealed to the world.
The 1963 Corvette Split-Window coupe, the 1963 Buick Riviera and the 1963 Studebaker Avanti made everything around them look de- cades older, and they represented all of the confidence and headiness of America in its prime. In fact, no other year in U.S. or world automotive his- tory produced three cars as notable.
Was it divine intervention? An align- ment of the planets? Or did GM’s Bill Mitchell — who led the design of the Corvette and Riviera — and iconic industrial designer Raymond
The Riviera was an all-new personal car for Buick. But it wasn’t originally meant to be a Buick. Bill Mitchell had envisioned a reborn LaSalle as a means of creating a smaller, sport- ier Cadillac. According to the late Chuck Jordan, Mitchell’s later suc- cessor as design staff chief, “Mitchell went to London, saw a Rolls-Royce in front of the Savoy Hotel and said, ‘You know what we’ve got to do? Make it a Ferrari-Rolls-Royce.’”
“The Brits called it knife-edge or razor-edge,” says automotive histo- rian Terry Boyce. “It was very much a theme of British design plus the egg-crate grille inspired by a Ferrari. Mitchell asked Ned Nickles, the man who designed the original ’49 Buick Riviera and ’53 Skylark, to come up with this knife-edge look. When Mitchell saw it, he knew it was the game-changing car he was looking for.”
Problem was, Cadillac didn’t want the car. But Buick General Manager Ed Rollert wasted no time in claim- ing the vehicle for his division. Roll- ert was keen to go after the personal car market that had been estab- lished by the four-passenger Ford Thunderbirds beginning in 1958.
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