[TroyBoy620]

I have a 71Riviera and its all stock I want to do a little to increase performance but I dont know where to start.What will give me the most bang for my buck?

[327NUT]

Get a hold of TA Performance www.taperformance.com, they're near Phoenix Az. All they do is big Buicks.

[Mr. P-Body]

Agreed, TA Performance (Phoenix) are Buick gurus. There's another, Poston Enterprises (Aabama). Poston has a good book with all the "little things" to make the Buick "live" and make power.

Jim

[beertracker]

Here is a site: http://www.v8buick.com/
The Riveria is a nice looking car.

bt

[MARTINSR]

I had a 71 Riv and it is still one of my favorite cars I ever owned. I had at the same time a 68 Camaro RS and I still laugh to think that the Riv out handled and out accelerated Camaro by far!

Brian

[OLNOLAN]

Hey Troy, Of the three (71-72-73) you have the best one IMO. The grille and trunk louvers make it stand out versus the '72 grille and the hideous extended bumpers on the '73. I had a '73 for quite a few years and truly enjoyed the combination of luxury and performance.

The '71-'73's poor horsepower versus the earlier 455's can be improved upon without alot of expense. Generally an overhaul/rebuild along with a mild performance camshaft and timing set will really wake them up. Headers are not really necessary for a mild performance upgrade, just a pair of free flowing mufflers. I used a mild Crane cam in mine, didn't have any lope in the idle, just provided a bit more duration and lift than the stock smogger cam. With the stock 2.73 12 bolt rearend it would boil the tires of the rims for a block if you stood on it, the 455 is a real torque monster. The top end performance is tremendous provided the suspension and brakes are up to the task. Most were equipped with the 2.73 highway gears that were perfect for highway cruising into triple digit speeds.

When my daughter was a kid, we took an enjoyable cruise to Florida to visit family and Disneyworld. Studio tours and Disneyworld kept us there til midnight. Had the old Riviera wound out on the way back from Orlando, we were the only car on the highway through the swamps and orange trees. All of a sudden the underside of the car erupted in banging and booming. My first thought was the driveshaft, the floor pans were being hit from underneath hard enough to cause dust clouds to come out of the carpet. When my wife and daughter woke up from all the noise, the wife immediately started reaming me to slow down. Before she got the words out of her mouth, the armadillo I had encountered spit out the rear of the car. Go back to sleep girls, everything is ok. HaHa

As a footnote, if I were you, I'd keep it stock as possible. I've got a feeling that they are going to grow in collector value. Now, how about some photos? Nolan

[MARTINSR]

Absolutely the 71 is the best of the three. Did you know that Bill Michell the designer of the 63 Vette designed that car?

Brian

[OLNOLAN]

I guess the OP is MIA but at least Brian and I love the old Buicks.

The "Boattail" styling is so unique, it seems folks either loved them or hated them. As the big three introduced musclecar after musclecar to gain "king of the street" status, I remember when the Buick Skylark GS with the Stage 1 455 held the fastest car off the showroom floor title. The 455 equipped Buick models were known as a gentleman's musclecar.

I know that glorifying street racing is not permitted here, so I'll just say that the Riviera that my wife and I used as the family car was known by many to get through traffic really fast and I was never late for work.

A friend at work had built a really mean 383 stroker SBC for his ElCamino and kept hinting around about trouncing on my old rusty Riviera. So I took him up on the challenge on our interstate commute home one night. He did fairly well trying to keep up with the old boattail, but the 455's torque just walked off once the speed got on the right hand side off the speedometer. Never try to top end with any 455 Buick. Next day he claimed that he had to back off because when the big Riviera's tail really got squatted down, the tailpipes were so close to the ground it was sandblasting his windshield. When I asked him why he didn't take a lane and get even or ahead, I didn't get a response.

Here's a link to a guy who took the top end speed challenge to another level with a boattail Riviera;http://www.buick-riviera.com/fastbill.html

[MARTINSR]

I did the link Nolan, I love that stuff.

The only bad thing about the 71 Riv in my book is my biggest memory I have with my beautiful burgandy boat tailed beast is it was the car I drove away from the church with my ex-wife when I was 20.

Brian

[OLNOLAN]

Here ya go Brian, watch this and that bad memory will be erased. Turn up the volume!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiVAmRVnCuk

[MARTINSR]

Originally Posted by OLNOLAN

Here ya go Brian, watch this and that bad memory will be erased. Turn up the volume!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiVAmRVnCuk

LOL, oh heck yeah. The only bad part is the air cleaner in the hood, I don't get that. I know why was needed, because the stock intake was really a poor design with very short runners with the quadrajet stuffed down like a monster had stepped on it. So the hood was able to be very low over the engine. Any change to the intake gets you in trouble with the air cleaner room. So this guys solution was to cut a hole in the hood.

My brother is a well known Buick expert (though way more about Nailheads) and between us we have owned a lot of Buick muscle. He had a 69 GS400 fourspeed that I sure wish I had today, very cool, very fast car.

Brian