Origins of The Personal Luxury Car
In the late 1950s, GM began to feel the need for a personal luxury car to compete with the highly successful Ford Thunderbird — a uniquely styled, two-door, four-passenger car with an image of both comfort and performance. The design that became the first Riviera was created as a Cadillac model, the XP-715, possibly to be called LaSalle, after Cadillac's smaller "companion" car of the 1930s. Its styling was reportedly inspired by GM styling chief Bill Mitchell's visit to London during the period, when he was struck by the sight of an elegant, custom-bodied Rolls Royce in the fog. He later said that "knife-edged" styling was what he wanted for the new model, but with a lower profile and a bit of Ferrari thrown in for performance. The design itself was penned by stylist Ned Nickles.
The management of Cadillac was not particularly interested, since the division was very successful at the time and needed all their production capacity for their existing models. In an unusual move, in 1960 the project was thrown open for competition by the other divisions. Buick, which was desperate to revive its flagging sales, enlisted the aid of the McCann-Erickson advertising agency, with which it had just signed, to create its presentation. Buick won, and the finished design was adapted to a shortened version of Buick's cruciform frame. The design was substantially the same as the original, although the hidden headlights — originally concealed in the fender grilles — were initially omitted for cost reasons.
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