General Motors styling boss Bill Mitchell had a taste for drama in automobile design, and few were more dramatic than the boat-tailed 1971 Buick Riviera. 

The flamboyant styling of the 1971 Buick Riviera is formally credited to Jerry Hirshberg of the Buick advanced design studio (later, chief of design at Nissan) but the inspiration and driving force behind its radical look was GM design vice president Bill Mitchell. “It was his baby,” former GM design director David Holls told Collectible Automobile magazine in 1990. The ’63 Corvette Sting Ray was Mitchell’s favorite car, Holls explained. “He felt that cars were getting kind of ordinary and bland, and he wanted that kind of drama in a larger car.” The result, introduced on September 22, 1970, was the memorable ’71 Riviera.

​Plans were originally laid to base the Riviera on the stretched-intermediate platform shared by the Chevy Monte Carlo and Pontiac Grand Prix. But in the end, the car got a full-size chassis with a 122-inch wheelbase and a full perimeter frame, discarding the cruciform frame used on previous Buick E-bodies. This GM studio model from April 1968 (above) exhibits all the key styling elements of the eventual production car in exaggerated form—note the deep checkmark line in the greenhouse and rear quarter panel.

​Even in toned-down production form, the Boattail Riviera, as it shall forever be known, made a radical fashion statement. The giant two-door coupe was highly controversial even within the halls of the GM styling studios, but that was of no concern to Mitchell. At more than 218 inches, the Riverboat was nearly as long as a four-door LeSabre sedan, but without even a nod to packaging efficiency. The Riviera was above all an exercise in style.

​The two-door hardtop, model 49400, was the only available body style, with a base price of $5,253, and while the standard equipment list was long, the list of available options was equally lengthy, including Cruise Master and GM’s vaunted thumbwheel Climate Control. One forward-looking $91 option was Max Trac, an early form of electronic traction control. Interior choices were many, all luxurious (below). Buyers who chose the bucket/console combination got a neat boat-throttle shift lever to command the standard Turbo-Hydramatic 400 transmission and 455 cubic-inch V8.

Despite the bombastic styling, or maybe because of it, the new Riviera was less than a sensation in the showrooms. Annual sales slipped to around 33,000 units in 1971, the worst year for Riviera to date, where they remained for 1972 as well. For ’73, the final year of the production cycle, the boattail styling was squared up and smoothed down a bit, in part to meet tougher federal impact standards, but sales remained planked in the 33,000 range. Mitchell’s boattail Riviera proved to be polarizing in the GM styling studios, polarizing in the Buick showrooms, and from what we hear around the campfire, the styling remains polarizing to this day. But for our part, we like it.

Reviled by Packard purists, ignored by the collector car world, the final Studebaker-based Packards of 1957-58 have earned the unfortunate name “Packardbaker.” Here’s their short, sad, and interesting story. There very nearly was no Packard for 1957.

On June 25, 1956, the last of the Detroit-built Packards rolled off the assembly line on Conner Avenue. On the following day, company president James Nance resigned, unable to persuade the bankers to advance any more funding for new products and tooling. On August 20, with all the other possibilities exhausted and time running out, the Studebaker-Packard board elected to throw together a skeleton lineup of ’57 Packard models. These cars would be closely based on existing Studebaker products and built in the Studebaker plant in South Bend, Indiana.

This last-ditch, last-minute effort was attempted mainly to satisfy the few remaining dealer commitments, keep the Packard name alive in the marketplace, and buy time for a reorganization that, as things turned out, never arrived. The Studebaker-based Packard lineup—soon to earn the name “Spackard” or more commonly, “Packardbaker”—made its debut on January 31, 1957.

There was but one model line for 1957 and it was designated the Packard Clipper, a tacit admission that these were not true senior Packards. Only two body styles were offered: the four-door Town Sedan (lead photo at top) and the Country Sedan, a four-door wagon. The four-door was a mildly facelifted Studebaker President, of course, while the wagon, based on the Studebaker Broadmoor, gave Packard its first wagon model since 1950. Just one engine was available and it was Studebaker’s most powerful, the 289 CID V8 with McCulloch supercharger usually found in the Golden Hawk, and it was good for 275 hp.
With barely 90 days to work with and virtually no budget, the styling team, led by Richard A. Teague, tacked on classic Packard design cues wherever they could. Among other imaginative tricks, somehow they managed to graft the fabulous ’56 Packard tail lamp assemblies to the aging Studebaker sheet metal. But if you look a little more closely, the wagon’s 1953-vintage greenhouse is all too evident.
Priced near $3,000 and carrying more standard trimmings, the Packards sold for around $400 more than comparable Studebaker models. Sales amounted to only 3,940 Town Sedans (Model 57L-Y8) and 869 Country Sedans (57L-P8). But given the shortened ’57 model year and the rapidly vanishing Packard dealer network, maybe it’s a wonder they sold as many as they did.

For 1958, the Clipper label was dropped and two more body styles were added to the line, a two-door hardtop (above) based on the new-for-’58 Studebaker Starlight roof, and the Packard Hawk, a variation on the Studebaker Hawk theme (below). The previous sedan and wagon models continued largely unchanged except for the addition of awkward fender extensions to house quad headlamps, the hot Motor City styling trend of 1958. The normally-aspirated version of the 289 CID V8 was now standard on all models except the Hawk, which retained the McCulloch VS-57S blower setup.

The Packard Hawk (58L-K9) is known in some parts as the “Hurley Hawk” after Roy T. Hurley, Studebaker-Packard chairman and CEO at Curtiss-Wright Corporation, which effectively controlled S-P at the time. Hurley admired a Ferrari he saw on a visit to Europe and asked Duncan McRae, S-P design chief, to work some Italian styling flourishes into a Packard-badged Hawk design. As the story goes, McRae assumed the request was for a one-off special and was as surprised as anyone when it turned up on the production schedule. Along with a wide, Ferrari-esque grille, McRae added vinyl-upholstered door tops and a faux spare tire to the deck lid.
The addition of a Hawk model to the lineup did little to boost sales. Only 588 units found buyers, for total of 2,622 cars in Model Year 1958 and a grand total of 7,431 for the two years of South Bend-built Packards combined. Volume was far too miniscule to carry on, obviously, and the Packardbakers were discontinued on July 13, 1958.

The Ford Motor Company pulled out all the stops to introduce the Edsel to the American public. Here we take a quick look back at The Edsel Show, the carmaker’s star-studded TV spectacular of 1957. 

​Formally introduced on September 4, 1957—“E Day,” as it was called—the Edsel received one of the grandest consumer product rollouts in history. The Ford Motor Company pumped out a media blizzard of print, sound, television, and film properties to promote the bold new car line, but arguably, the most memorable element of the campaign came on October 13 with The Edsel Show.  A CBS Television variety special hosted by Bing Crosby, the one-hour extravaganza starred the biggest entertainment personalities of the day, including Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney, Louis Armstrong, and Bob Hope. The Edsel may have been a flop, but The Edsel Show is celebrated as one of the great moments in the Golden Age of Television.

The Edsel Show is historically significant from another angle—as the oldest example of videotape in existence. (Host Bing Crosby was an investor in the early technology.) For the surviving videotape we can thank Kris Trexler, an Emmy-winning Hollywood production guy who also happens to be a car enthusiast and an Edsel man. Kris tracked down and preserved the sole remaining copy of the show. For the story of the videotape, Kris’s car collection, and some fascinating TV history, be sure to visit his website, King of the Road. 

If you enjoy classic musical variety, you’ll definitely want to watch Kris’s complete, unabridged version of The Edsel Show on Youtube. You’ll appreciate the quality of the recording, which is far superior to the clunky kinescope technology of the period, and to see Sinatra, Clooney, Satchmo, and company performing together is a gift in itself. But because cars are what we do at Mac’s Motor City Garage, we’ve snipped one of the extended-length Edsel commercials from the videotape (with Kris’s permission, of course) to share here. In this clip, all four Edsel models for 1958 are given the star treatment: Ranger, Pacer, Corsair, and the top-of-the-line Citation, with flowery exposition by announcer Warren Hull. And now, a word from our sponsor.

The GTX was Plymouth’s deluxe entry in the ’60s muscle car wars, offering style and comfort—and an optional 426 Hemi V8, too. Here’s the original 1967 sales pitch. 

Before there was a Road Runner, there was the Plymouth Belvedere GTX, the brand’s first official entry in the ’60s muscle car wars. Introduced in September of 1966 as a 1967 model, the GTX was a fully equipped muscle car, boasting deluxe exterior trim and badges and an upmarket interior with bucket seats and a floor-shift console. The list price reflected the extensive list of standard features: $3,178, several hundred dollars more than the bare-bones Road Runner introduced for ’68.  Of course, once the red-hot Road Runner arrived, it outsold the more expensive GTX by more than two to one. In more recent years, automotive writers have dubbed the GTX the “gentleman’s muscle car.”

Despite the posh equipment, the GTX was as potent as any in the muscle car category, with a standard 440 CID Super Commando V8 with 375 hp and a choice of Torqueflite automatic and four-speed manual transmissions. Of course, optional at extra cost ($564) was the mighty 426 Street Hemi V8, laughably underrated at 425 hp.  (According to factory records, 720 such beasts were produced.) At that moment, the Street Hemi was pretty much the king of the heap at the drag strips and drive-ins. But in this original 1967 commercial spot, the GTX is presented not as a hairy drag strip monster but as a fun and sporty lifestyle tool. Enjoy the video.

In 1956, Studebaker introduced the Hawk line—a stylish flock of coupes and hardtops that made the automaker’s final years more memorable. Here’s a look at the four original Hawk models that launched the series. 

​The Bob Bourke-styled 1953 Studebaker is easily one of the most beautiful automotive designs of its time, but by 1956 the car-buying public was ready to move on. Studebaker-Packard responded with a complete product realignment for ’56, with the Studebaker model lines split into two. The sedans were treated to all-new sheet metal south of the belt line, while the coupe was repackaged and repurposed as a “family sports car,” in Studebaker’s words, and rebadged as the Hawk.

To create the Hawk, Bourke and crew raised and squared up the flowing lines of the original ’53 design, adding a neo-classical vertical grille and a tall, flat deck lid to match. Cockpit and exterior details were given a luxury sports-car theme, much in the same flavor as the successful President Speedster marketed by Studebaker the year before. (Check out our 1955 President Speedster feature here.)  For the ambitious 1956 rollout, the Hawk was offered in four models: Flight Hawk, Power Hawk, Sky Hawk, and Golden Hawk.

​The base models of the Hawk line, the Flight Hawk (blue, above) and Power Hawk (red) were similar but for engines and badging.  The Flight Hawk, powered by Studebaker’s trusty 185.6 CID  flathead 6 with 101 hp, boasted a list price of just under $2,000, while the Power Hawk featured a 259 CID V8 with a two-barrel carb and 170 hp for a few hundred bucks more. Both were based on the Starlight C-body two-door post coupe with 120-inch wheelbase, and they were equivalent to a Champion or Commander in trim and equipment. A small number of hardtop-bodied  Flight Hawks were also built for export.

​The next step up in the ’56 Hawk lineup was the Sky Hawk (above). A true pillarless hardtop based on the Starliner K-body shell, the Sky Hawk carried President-level equipment and trim. A longer-stroke 289 CID version of the Studebaker V8, new for 1956, produced 210 hp with a Carter WCFB four-barrel carburetor and dual exhausts. On all ’56 Hawks, the front turn/parking lamps were housed in chrome bullets atop the fenders.

​One sporty and distinctive Hawk feature, and a departure from the rest of the Studebaker line, was the dash. Round, competition-style Stewart-Warner instruments with white-on-black dials were housed in an engine-turned panel in classic sports car fashion. Both the manual three-speed and automatic transmissions relied on a column-mounted shift lever.

​The Golden Hawk, above, was the ultimate of the four Hawk models and the flagship of the entire Studebaker line for 1956. With a list price of $3,061, the Golden Hawk was loaded with equipment and chrome. For example, note the bright metal rocker panels and wheel opening moldings unique to this model. Like the Sky Hawk, the Golden Hawk was a K-body hardtop, but it was powered by a 352 CID Packard V8—the only Studebaker to be so equipped. (Read about the Packard V8 here.)  With 275 hp, dual exhausts, and a shipping weight of 3,360 lbs, the Golden Hawk was touted by the car magazines as one of the hottest performers of the 1956 new-car season.

This shot from the 1956 Chicago Auto Show (above) reveals more of the Golden Hawk’s super-deluxe features, including the bolt-on fiberglass tail fins and a wide stainless band across the top of the rear window. While the Golden Hawk was a respectable seller at 4,000-plus units, the most popular Hawk in 1956 was the Power Hawk, the two-door post V8 version, at more than 7,000 sold. The slowest mover was the $2,477 Sky Hawk at 3,000 units.

For 1957, the Hawk line was consolidated from four models to two, SIlver Hawk and Golden Hawk, and the Golden Hawk’s big Packard mill was replaced with a McCulloch-supercharged Studebaker V8. A Packard-badged Hawk was briefly offered in 1958,  and in 1959 the line shrank to just one model, the Silver Hawk, which in 1960 became simply the Hawk. The curtain call for the Hawk series was the Brooks Stevens-designed Gran Turismo Hawk of 1962-1964.

Article courtesy of Mac's Motor City Garage.