The 1963 Buick Riviera was one of Bill Mitchell's famous designs during his tenure as Chief of styling at GM. In 1960 He promoted what he called the "sheer look," a more aerodynamic]"shoulderless" drop-off from a car's windows to its sides. Mitchell gave GM designers the assignment of combining Rolls Royce and Ferrari styling cues to create Buick's classic 1963 Riviera. According to a popular story, Mitchell got the idea for the Riviera in Paris. He had originally envisaged the design for Cadillac Division, as a new La Salle "a baby Cadillac".
The Riviera also featured frameless glass in the front doors, giving hardtops an even sleeker look. One could only imagine what the concept version of the 63 looked like back in the day. As General Motors' first entry into the personal luxury car market segment, the Riviera was highly praised by automotive journalists upon its high-profile debut. It was a ground-up design on a new GM E platform debuting for the 1963 model year and was also Buick's first unique Riviera model.
Unlike its subsequent GM E platform stablemates, the Oldsmobile Toronado and Cadillac Eldorado, the Riviera was initially a front engine/rear-wheel drive platform, switching to front-wheel drive starting with the 1979 model year. While the early models stayed close to their original form, eight subsequent generations varied substantially in size and styling. A total of 1,127,261 Rivieras were produced.
