1957 Buick Special Riviera

Back in 1957 there were still really only two Buicks, the longer 127" wheelbase Roadmaster and Super built on the General Motors C-body chassis, and the shorter 122" wheelbase Century and Special, on the B-body platform.

They all had the traditional Buick "Sweepspear" styling line on the side, and the top two models had four chrome "Ventiports" on the fenders while the two more plebeian models made do with three. Not that any Buick was really downmarket; the brand was positioned only slightly below Cadillac in the GM brand hierarchy. It was the car of the upper middle class, and buying even a Buick Series 40 Special announced that you were on the way up in the world.

Enough people wanted to make that announcement in 1957 to move Buick into third place in sales in the US, passing Mopar's budget Plymouth for the slot.

The Special was powered by the new-for-'57 Buick Fireball V-8, an OHV pushrod motor that displaced 364 cubic inches (6.0L). While the Roadmaster, Super, and Century got a version of the Fireball with a four-barrel carburetor and 10.0:1 compression, rated at 300 gross horsepower, the Special made do with a 250hp version of the same engine, using a two-barrel carb and 9.5:1 compression. There was an even weaker optional 8.0:1 version for people who didn't want to pay for premium fuel. It could only be had with a manual transmission and is rather scarce, since most Buick customers wanted that smooth Dynaflow ride.

A lot of things were optional on the Special, like power brakes, which would be a thing you'd want because those four drums had their work cut out for them hauling two-plus tons of Buick down from speed.

In the center of the dash on this lovely Dresden Blue and Dover White example is a Sonomatic radio, which was the cheaper alternative to the famous "Wonder Bar" unit, which had automatic channel seeking; pretty space age stuff for the Fifties.

The Special could be had as a hardtop coupe like this one, called the "Riviera", or as a pillared two- or four-door sedan.

This one was photographed using a Nikon Coolpix S6500 in Concord, Tennessee back in August of 2014.