Beginner's Luck

This beautiful boattailed 1972 Buick Riviera was acquired last year by American car rookie, Adam Pearce. Was it all plain sailing or choppy waters for this first-time American car owner? Editor Ben Klemenzson finds out…

- Ben Klemenzson

Sometimes, as a motoring journalist, when you’re writing about a particular car it can be quite difficult to know what to write about if the owner doesn’t know a lot about their car, or if they just don’t have much to say about the whole experience of owning an American car… Luckily, in this case, not only has this car been on my radar since it appeared at Historics Auctions as part of an American car collection going under the hammer in July 2019, but coincidentally so has its owner, Adam Pearce. I first met Adam on the Classic American stand at the NEC Classic Motor Show in November 2019, where he was admiring Nick Barnes’ Car of the Year heat-winning ’67 Riviera …. How strange then that these two parallels should align and combine, as Adam had attended that Historics auction and ended up buying that very 1972 Buick Riviera.

Meeting Nick Barnes at the NEC and talking to him about his Riviera (Nick also owns a boattail Riviera, as well as the ’67) was fortuitous for Adam, as he’s kept in touch with him and Nick has even set up a WhatsApp group for fellow Riviera owners to share ideas, tips and technical advice, as well as more social communications about which shows they’re going to and so on. It’s these sorts of platforms, as well as the owners’ groups on Facebook and online forums, that make owning an American car so much easier now than, say, 20 years ago when social media was all but non-existent – you can communicate with large groups of fellow car owners in real time and share information and help each other.