Boattail 1990 Buick Riviera - concept car

Description

"Faced with slumping sales, Buick briefly flirted with a radical departure from their stodgy image in 1987, when the Board of Directors secretly commissioned Jerry Hirschberg - the original head designer of the powerful & highly-styled 'Boattail Riviera' - to 'reinterpret the classic boattail design and usher in a new Golden Era for Buick.' Working under a non-disclosure policy so strict it was "pretty much a secrecy oath," Hirschberg spent nearly two years on his design - which maintained the trademark 'boattail' rear end while adding futuristic flourishes, including a scooped grill and daring wheel skirts. When it was finally unveiled to the Board in 1990, the proposed "re-energizer" of the Buick brand was hugely controversial - and it is not hard to see why, with its gas-devouring, old school 455 V8 and unique styling that many on the board condemned as "beyond comic book." When the building that housed the only '90 Boattail prototype - as well as all the related plans and drawings - went up in flames, the supporters of the neo-boattail suspected arson. However, no investigation was ever launched. With the project mired in controversy and now hopelessly behind schedule, the experiment was left behind. Instead, Buick continued on the safe and staid course that had been its path for the last couple of decades - ever since the last of the boattail Rivieras had rolled off the assembly lines in 1973."

Keywords

buick, riviera, boattail, riv, v8, 455, prototype, concept, post, apocalyptic, wasteland, dystopia

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