843de

"Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these, 'It might have been.” - John Greenleaf Whittier

Well this is for Ben and Boydie, a "might have been", but never built Riviera Convertible.



What a shame, those Riviera's would have been stunning as droptops, especially in black with a red interior.....sigh.

Benjiwah

That would have been awesome! Wonder why they never did go through with them. Any ideas? They didn't follow the corporate bean counter business models (like they do now) back then. I have no idea why they decided not to make this beauty!

843de

It was a "one off" commissioned by Bill Mitchell GM's head of design and built by Fisher Body, it probably died because the Riviera was already siphoning some sales from Cadillac.

But it would have been one cool ride, sadly it was crushed in 1964.

Benjiwah

Oh that's depressing! Why would anyone crush such a beautiful machine?

843de

Show cars, concept cars, and styling prototypes are crushed to keep them from being sold off. They are usually devoid of serial numbers, VIN's, and safety equipment that would make them legal for street use.

GM has regularly scrapped show and concept cars over the years, some have been kept for historical reasons, and some like the cars salvaged from Detroit's Warhoops Scrapyard by Joe Bortz just got lucky. Like the 1955 Chevrolet Biscayne Motorama Dream Car, think 4-door 'Vette.



Now restored....

Benjiwah

That's an amazing car. I can't believe that anyone would ever be okay with sending it to the crusher!

Blue Beast (aka Boydie)

I like it but I am thinking 4 dr Corvair.

Boydie



[QUOTE=843de;720059]
GM has regularly scrapped show and concept cars over the years, some have been kept for historical reasons, and some like the cars salvaged from Detroit's Warhoops Scrapyard by Joe Bortz just got lucky. Like the 1955 Chevrolet Biscayne Motorama Dream Car, think 4-door 'Vette.



Now restored....[QUOTE]

843de

During the economic recession of 1958, the bean counters at GM decided that all unnecessary assets would be disposed of for tax purposes, that included the Motorama Dream Cars.

Most went to a now closed Detroit area scrapyard named Warhoops, the owner Harry Warholak Sr. was a sentimental sort who couldn't bear to destroy the cars, and being that they were all non-runners and made of fiberglass and plywood...they had no scrap value.

Benjiwah

So was the Biscayne a plywood and fiberglass mockup that got converted into a working car or did it begin life that way? I suppose there wouldn't be any reason that the mockup bodies couldn't be retrofit to another functional cars chassis.

843de

Fiberglass, plywood, and a hand made steel chasss. It was equipped with the new for '55 Small Block 265 V-8, but the car known internally as The XP-37 Shop Order 2249, was people powered....a push-mobile in the normal Dream Car manner.

When it was restored by Bortz, he equipped it with a functional 265 and a two speed Powerglide, but its self propelled moments are restricted to walking speed sojurns around the show fields.

Boydie is right in seeing some Corvair in the design, but it also presaged the '62 Corvette's rump.