Readers’ Rides
Adam Pearce, Aldershot, Hampshire
Adam has been a reader of Classic American for many years and with each passing issue, the itch of getting his own American classic got harder to ignore. About a year ago he opened the magazine to find an advert for the Historics car auction at Brooklands, which included the most awesome-looking orange 1972 Buick Riviera as the main feature. He says he actually said “wow” out loud!
The auction was in July and Brooklands is just down the road from him, so he thought: “What’s the harm in looking, right?” So look he did and was very impressed; the Buick was as described: very original, in good condition, although with some minor issues that could be easily addressed. “What’s the harm in registering to bid?” (I think we all know where this is going…). He had a limit of a £15,000 bid and the hammer fell at £14,500. It was his!
So what had he bought? Well, the 1972 Riviera was the second year of that particular body style and other than changes to the grille and trim – it lost the troublesome ventilation grilles on the boot lid which a lot of GM vehicles wore in ’71, as they leaked! – it was pretty much similar to the previous year. ’72 was the halcyon year for Bill Mitchell’s dramatic boat-tail design which was very much scaled back for 1973, disappearing altogether by 1974.
The big Buick is powered by a 250bhp 455cu in V8, hooked up to a three-speed TH 400 automatic transmission. Needless to say, power steering and power discs up front are standard for such a powerful, weighty car – it’s well over 18ft long and weighs in at more than two and a quarter tonnes. Acceleration (according to Road Test magazine) was 0-60 in 9.9 seconds, with the quarter-mile in 16.8 seconds/85mph. Fuel economy (in US gallons) is 10.6/12.8 (city/ country). Painted in the original factory colour of Burnished Bronze, unusually Adam’s Riviera has manual windows; however, it does have air conditioning ($431 option) and an AM/FM radio ($233 option,) as well as cruise control ($67 option) and six-way power seats ($205 option). Base price for these Rivs (Detroit collection) was $5143, but someone tick-happy with the options boxes could easily inflate it to well over $8000.
Says Adam of the whole buying experience: “I was cheerily greeted by Mark Webb of Webb’s of Weybridge Classic Car Hire who had bought the Cadillac from the same collection and was very happy I had got the Buick. I drove out of Brooklands with the sun shining – life was good.
“I have since met wonderful people who have been so eager to help and impart their wisdom with American cars. The V8 Buick forums have been amazing and Billy from Namco in Farnborough has done any work that I couldn’t do. Owning and working on her has been a pure pleasure and I will be taking her to the show circuit for the first time this year. If you see her, please come and say hi!”