My
1965 Buick Riviera
"The Beauty"
2-4 Barrel Car
I purchased this car in 1975. I restored it and applied a lacquer
paint that was factor yellow which is what
came on this car. This car was a factory 2x4 barrel 425 Riviera. Since it
was a special order car and
not a Gran Sport,
so it was very rare automobile. The pervious owner really messed this deal
up.
He pulled the car's original 425 cu in 2-4 barrel engine out and put it in
his Maroon 65 Riviera. I tried very
hard to purchase back the original setup but I was very unsuccessful. I finally
found a 400 Cu In
Engine and purchased the 2-4 carb setup out of Hemming Motor News. I should
have painted the
engine red but I didn't know that at the time. The car was a very beautiful
car but never run like
I expected it to. It failed to live up to the 1964 Riviera I owned in 1969.
These Engines were suppose
to be Red. I did not know that until it was too late. 2-4 Setup is all
factory parts and correct carburetor numbers. This type of Buick engine was
called a "Nail Head"
140 MPH on the Speed-O-Meter
Note that this Riviera had special order "Rollup Windows" instead
of power windows
which were standard on these cars.
My
1964 Buick Riviera
"The Beast"
1964 - "The Beast"
The yellow 65 above ran
nothing even close this Black 1964 425 Riviera I owned in 1969.
This 64 Riviera was solid black with a red leather interior. This 64 was not
a factory 2-4 barrel car
but I had purchased a 2-4 setup that came off a Skylark Gran Sport at Cole's
Wrecking in
Big Spring Texas. The car run better with just the single 4 barrel on it.
It would beat the
390 Fords, stay with-in 2 car lengths of the 396 - 325 hp Chevelles and
GTOs (automatics) in a 1/4 mile drag race.
This Riviera
would boil and fry the tires as far as you wanted to. This car was a very
fast sleeper.
If it hadn't been so much heavier than it's Chevelle and GTO counter parts,
I'm convinced it
would have been as fast and maybe even faster. It would get a two car jump
on both the GTO and
Chevelle when they left the line drag racing, but would fall back in 2nd and
3rd gear (automatics TH 400).
The engine in this car looked identical to the engine above for the 1965 Riviera.
This car was also beautiful when cleaned and just waxed. This is not a good
quality photo of the '64 but is the only photo I have of it. I later added
Custom
Wheels. The hubcaps would have looked better than the plain wheels, I have
no idea what I was thinking popping the caps off.