My Favorite Classic: Boat-tail Buick Riviera

There are plenty of cars out there that I’d drive if I could: BMW M5; Subaru Impreza WRX STi; Bugatti Veyron; Ferrari whatever. But those cars, nice as they might be, aren’t my favorites of all-time. That honor goes to the 1971 to 1973 Buick Riviera, for my money the bitchinest car of all time.

The boat-tailed, fourth-generation Riviera isn’t a performance beast, with just 250 horsepower from the factory, but with its wide grill and rear-window cribbed from a Corvette Stingray, it’s the perfect balance between sports car and cruiser.

Even better, it’s a two-door, a sort of brazen statement of the utter impracticality of such a vehicle; it’s huge, but doesn’t have a ton of seating space.

Some see the boat-tail Rivs as two cars slapped together—and if you read the history of the design that’s not entirely off-base—but I think it just means you get the best of both worlds: the curvy haunches tensing with power tempered by the lazy class of an American land yacht.

A close second: First-generation Datsun 240Z.