1985 Buick Riviera Convertible

While the performance renaissance didn't really get underway in Detroit until the mid-'80s, the first stirrings were felt a couple years earlier. Mopar started sticking turbos on their 2.2L four bangers, Chevy experimented with their ill-fated Crossfire fuel injection system with its twin throttle bodies, and convertibles began finding their way back into the catalogs of the Big Three.

When Buick introduced the droptop version of the sixth-generation Riviera personal luxury car in 1982, it was the most expensive vehicle sold by GM. A base run-of-the-mill hardtop Riv was just shy of fourteen grand in '85, which was a lot of money back then. The roofectomy at ASC in Lansing, Michigan bumped the sticker on this White 1985 Riviera Convertible w/ Red leather interior to the then-nosebleed-worthy price of $24,494 ($71,600 in 2024 dollars), and that was before you went crazy with the options list.

By comparison, a base '85 Corvette coupe started out a little over eighteen grand, and a Cadillac Eldorado was a shade over $19k.

For 1982, the base engine in the ragtops was the 125bhp 4.1L V6, or buyers could get an optional Olds 5.0L V8 topped with a 4bbl Rochester Quadrabog, wheezing out 140bhp. 

 By the time the 6th Gen Riv went to the elephant graveyard after 1985, to be replaced with a unibody badge-engineered Toronado/Eldorado/Riviera pod car replacement, the convertible was available with the turbocharged 3.8L V6 from the T-Type hardtop. The boosted motor was rated at 200hp. The lack of the tell-tale turbo hood bulge, however, indicates that the '85 droptop Riv in the photos has the 140hp 307 Olds Rocket V-8.

This one was spotted in September of 2015 and photographed using a Nikon Coolpix P7000.