One short Instagram video has made us rediscover one of the coolest, most expensive American car builds ever. This is the "Rivision" Buick Riviera, a show-stopper that's driven hard.
Our first reaction was that it looked like an old Corvette, but wider. Obviously, the Riviera did have this sexy rear window design, but nobody paints 1960s Buicks bright yellow and does burnouts. Nobody, that is, except, JF Launier, the man who spent something like 22,000 hours putting together the most exotic Riviera ever.
This labor of love cost $300,000, and its builder had to remortgage his parents' house to get it done. But it all paid out in 2014 when this won the prestigious Ridler Award at the Detroit Autorama. The vehicle was Mr Launier's fourth attempt at the Ridler Award in 16 years.
An award-winning and unique car that its owner values at $1.65 million should be in a private collection, but the Riviera is actually driven hard, taken drag racing, and frequently toured the country. This video alone should prove that it's no trailer queen.
Describing this custom car is impossible. However, we still think it looks a bit like a muscle car version of a Corvette. Partly responsible for this is the roof, taken from the 1971 version of the Buick and attached to a $400 junkyard dog. It's got 18 inches removed from the rear quarters including 10 inches behind the door, so that's why it looks like a sports car now.
The front is also different, partly because the wheels had to be moved forward to make room for the engine. This is a rather unique twin-turbo 6.2-liter that's making 850 horsepower and is piped through the cabin. Yes, the turbos are in the trunk, and just check out that central exhaust tip!
“This is no show pony, It’s a 850 HP turbo stick shift roll cage weapon of mass destruction. It’s so far out of the box you cant even see the box anymore. When working outside the lines of what is considered normal/safe you will always create controversy," the JF Kustoms website says about its Ridler show-stopper.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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