My Favorite Ride: Yep, that's a rare 1966 Buick Riviera

Laura Lane, The Herald-Times
·4 min read

Readers responded when asked if they could identify, from small detail photos, these vehicles parked a few weeks ago at the Thursday night cruise-in on the Morgan County courthouse square.

A dozen people took a stab at the challenge. The first message I received was spot-on; way to go Don Talbott.

IU Maurer School of law professor emeritus Alex Tanford got them all right as well, and has first-hand experience with three of the vehicles: he drove a 1967 three-on-the-tree Chevrolet pickup for his summer job in 1969, his college roommate had a 1966 Buick Riviera and Tanford has a red 1967 Mustang convertible, featured here in December, parked in his garage.

Alex Tanford's favorite ride: Finally finding and affording the car he wanted after 35 years

Some readers got most of them right; one guy identified three of the five from memory without checking the internet. "I promise," he wrote.

Last week's My Favorite Ride: So, can you identify these five mystery vehicles?

Here they are:

Car Number 1 is a spectacular 1956 Ford Fairlane Victoria
Car Number 1 is a spectacular 1956 Ford Fairlane Victoria
Car Number 2 is a kind-of-rough two-door 1966 Buick Riviera GS. Check out that sloped backside.
Car Number 2 is a kind-of-rough two-door 1966 Buick Riviera GS. Check out that sloped backside.
Car Number 3 is actually a truck, likely an 1967 or '68 Chevy S-10.
Car Number 3 is actually a truck, likely an 1967 or '68 Chevy S-10.
Car Number 4 is a 1966 Ford Ranchero.
Car Number 4 is a 1966 Ford Ranchero.
Number 5 is, of course, a Ford Mustang from 1967. Nearly everyone got that one right; the taillights in the first photo were unmistakable.
Number 5 is, of course, a Ford Mustang from 1967. Nearly everyone got that one right; the taillights in the first photo were unmistakable.

I'm focusing on the Buick Riviera; I don't see many around, and it caught my eye. I don't know who the car belongs to (owner - please call!) It looks pretty original, down to dings in the paint and a rip in the vinyl seat.

The "identify this car" photo of the 1966 Riviera
The "identify this car" photo of the 1966 Riviera

General Motors introduced the luxury Riviera, which translates to "coastline" in Italian, in 1963. Production continued through 1999; I'm not sure why, but there was no 1994 model.

Full-color advertising featuring the 1966 Buick Riviera Gran Sport described a car with a foreign flair. "The old gray Buick ain't what she used to be" one headline said.

And there was this. "What makes a car a car is styling, performance, ride and handling. Only when they're all tuned together is this car a Buick. Like this 1966 Riviera Gran Sport."

The car's safety features include "seat belts front and rear" and backup lights. "We overlook nothing to make your driving more pleasant. Nothing at all."

The ad copy continued: "You'll quickly discover that this '66 Riviera is as sleek and dramatic as any Roman chariot could possibly be," while at the same time carrying on "the Buick tradition of comfort and solid dependability."

Hmmm, a Roman chariot?

Another ad showed a fashionably dressed couple standing beside a 1966 Riviera parked in a pasture. Their children, an older boy and a girl perched on a Shetland pony, are in the background.

The ad ends with the question: "Wouldn't you really rather have a Buick."

I have a soft spot for the Buick Riviera. Back in high school, my best friend Sherrie had a series of cars; her dad was a mechanic who bought and fixed up used vehicles he was always selling or trading.

From 2017: The time has come to leave the peaceful Riviera for a Bug

When Bernard Boller brought home a chocolate brown 1972 Riviera, he pounded out some dents and painted the car. Sherrie fell in love with the unique vehicle's fast-back rear window and boat-tail style backside. I had never seen a car like it.

She took the Buick over, after her dad "decided to change the original pretty-ish brown to a hideous orange," she recalled. "Eventually he traded it for some other car."

Her cousin named the Riviera "the flying pumpkin." Back in the late 1970s, it was well known around Eagledale, the neighborhood where we grew up, and in the parking lot at Crispus Attucks High School in downtown Indianapolis.

The Buick was a classic, and fast. "Oh, what a car," she said when I asked about it this week. "A damn fine car. A V-8. I could hit 100 mph in less than a few minutes. It could hold about 15 people stacked."

Her Riviera was like a minibus transporting students five miles home after school. I was never among those passengers. I had my own boat of a car back then: a faded green two-door 1970 Chevrolet Impala with broken motor mounts. I bought the car for $50, and sold it for $200 to Sherrie's brother, Wayne.

Because I needed cash to buy a white 1970 Ford LTD with fancy blue cloth upholstery and flip-up headlights. Oh, what a car.

Have a story to tell about a car or truck? Contact My Favorite Ride reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com or 812-318-5967.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Readers guessed right: It's a 1966 Buick Riviera, 3 Fords and a Chevy