I’m off this morning to do some true primary research for the Riviera Project. By total coincidence, the Riviera Owners Association’s annual International Meet is in Gettysburg, PA this year. That’s only about two and a half hours away, so it seemed fairly apparent that I should make the time to attend.

The meet’s organizers are expecting over 100 Rivieras by the time everyone who has registered arrives. From the early photos posted on the meet’s thread on the AACA forums, I can already see six out of the eight generations represented—the fourth (1974-1976) and fifth (1977-1978) generations have yet to make an appearance.

I see this as a great chance to immerse over the next two-and-a-half days. I’ve made some acquaintances on the ROA portion of the forum, but there’s nothing liking talking to folks in person—and, of course, seeing the cars.

As I work on the Riviera Project, some of my more important primary sources are the brochures Buick published between 1963 and 1999. These brochures give me many things including specifications (though sometimes these are inaccurate or imprecise) and equipment (though sometimes this is inconsistent or misleading).

I think the most valuable feature these brochures offer is context. You get to see what features Buick was emphasizing for each model year and what they thought was important to their potential buyers. In the brochures that cover the entire Buick line, you can sense the Riviera’s place within the range. Some very draft text from the Riviera Project about the 1967 model year is instructive:

Buick brochures made significant mention of safety for the first time since the Riviera had been released. Four-way hazard warning flashers were now standard—a year in advance of the federal deadline. Brakes got a lot of attention; the Riviera now had a dual master cylinder system, the number of fins on the aluminum front brake drums were doubled, and the power brake vacuum booster was larger. Finally, front and rear seat belts were now standard equipment, with shoulder belts optional for the driver and one front passenger.

Rivera Project, late April

Aside from being valuable as source material, these brochures are also a lot of fun. I must confess that I especially enjoy the ones I’ve purchased in physical form—there’s something about opening a 68-page full line brochure from 1975 that someone has lovingly preserved for over 40 years.

One of the things that I try to do—even though some readers may not notice or care—is to be consistent throughout any single book with how I describe things. In doing this, I’ve needed a lot of help from my long-suffering editors, but recently I’ve been trying to get at least a little out front of them.

Fairly early on in my Riviera Project, I’ve settled on a few guidelines. First, if the term is a trademark or brand name (like Turbo Hydra-Matic or Soft-Ray), I will spell it exactly as it was spelled in period descriptions. This decision makes things a little interesting sometimes as spelling didn’t always stay consistent—for example, I’ve seen Turbo Hydra-Matic, Turbo Hydra-matic, and Turbo Hydramatic in various General Motors materials.

Handling other more generic terms is different. I’ve got to make some judgment calls—an example is “air bag” versus “airbag,” where Wikipedia and NHTSA disagree (the AACA’s general forum leaned heavily toward the one word form). I think “blackwall” versus “black wall” is an easier decision, though my grammar checkers do not like blackwall. There’s also deck lid/decklid, roof line/roofline, trunk lid/trunklid, and name plate/nameplate—and I’m sure there are some more.

Decisions, decisions, decisions …