With a few small exceptions, boat-tail designs haven’t made a comeback to the automotive world for quite some time now. But there was an age when they were quite common, with some believing that General Motors had some of the best-looking ones with the Buick Riviera.
A model that originally entered production in 1963 and ran all the way until 1999, save for 1994, it lived on for no less than eight generations until the automotive giant decided to pull the plug on it.
Some might be wondering what a modern-day Buick Riviera ‘boat-tail’ would have looked like from this brand, yet with the industry being mostly interested in crossovers and EVs, such a question has been left unanswered. However, today’s proposal, signed by Khyzyl Saleem, better known as the_kyza to his 887k Instagram followers, goes above and beyond, turning this classic into a modern-day mid-engine supercar.
Does the overall styling look familiar? Well, that is because the digital artist used lots of parts from the McLaren Senna to come up with these renderings. The result barely resembles a Riviera ‘boat-tail,’ as it looks more like a custom-made track car, capable of chewing through its tires at a gentle push of the right pedal. On top of that, it borrows the mid-engine setup of the British exotic, which uses a twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8 engine, making 789 hp (800 ps / 588 kW) and 590 lb-ft (800 Nm) of torque.
The thrust rockets the Senna to 62 mph (100 kph) in 2.8 seconds and to 124 mph (200 kph) in 6.8 seconds, making it a 9.9-second car down the quarter-mile and enabling it to tap out at 208 mph (335 kph). The mid-engine Riviera project would be capable of similar performance, though the chances of someone bringing it to life are, as you already know, zero.
After a series of unfortunate events put an end to Cristian's dream of entering a custom built & tuned old-school Dacia into a rally competition, he moved on to drive press cars and write for a living. He's worked for several automotive online journals and now he's back at autoevolution after his first tour in the mid-2000s. Full profile
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