J.F. Launier of JF Kustoms in Osoyoos took home the coveted Ridler Award for America’s most creative and innovative custom car at the 2014 Detroit Autorama.
His radically customized 1964 Buick Riviera, cleverly named Rivision, took three years and 20,000 hours to complete with parts and pieces that cost an estimated $300,000.
The Canadian debut for Rivision will be at the BC Classic & Custom Car Show starting today and running all weekend at the Tradex Centre, Abbotsford Airport.
J.F. Launier, who has been customizing vehicles since he was 13, has had three Great Eight winners at the Detroit Autorama. But this year, Rivision took the coveted Ridler Award selected from the eight cars.
The Ridler award winning Buick Riviera features unique rear plumbing for the twin turbo system.
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The Detroit Autorama is the largest indoor custom car show in the United States. The Ridler Award is named for the late Don Ridler, who started promoting the show in the 1950s. This year marks the 50th anniversary for the Ridler top custom car award.
Launier’s concept was to blend two generations of the Buick Riviera into rolling art. He started with a junkyard 1964 Riviera purchased for $300 and then bought a 1971 “boat tail” Riviera to harvest its unique roofline and sloped rear window. What followed were thousands of modifications to the original Buick body.
“I wanted to build a car that looks like a sister car to the 1963 Corvette fastback with NASCAR theme bumpers that was a lot more high-performance-race oriented but refined,” Launier says.
Major surgery included shortening the car by removing sheet metal behind the doors and rear wheel openings. Then the front wheel openings were moved forward to allow for placement of an 850 horsepower 6.2-litre Chevrolet V8 engine as low and far back as possible for maximum weight distribution.
Adding a 1971 Riviera roof to a 1964 model was no one-day job. The roof had to be sectioned, narrowed and shortened so it would have the proper fit and slope.
The body was painted a bright BASF yellow that was custom mixed and called Rivieran Sunset Pearl. The full custom interior was finished in tan leather.
The builder is always quick to point out that he did not build a top award winner alone.
“My family, sponsors and friends helped in ways that I can’t thank them enough for,” Launier notes. “It’s a car of the people, not just belonging to a guy who wrote cheques to win a trophy.”
JF Launier, kneeing right of car, shows off the yellow 1964 Buick Riviera custom that won him the Ridler Award at Detroit Autorama. Posing with him are members of the team that worked on the car.
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Many British Columbia suppliers contributed to the custom car including Vancity Plating, which did the chrome and gold work.
By far the most dramatic view of the car is through the large sloping rear window, which reveals the chrome plumbing for the twin turbos found in the trunk. The piping runs directly through the passenger compartment to force air into the mighty V8 engine.
“The journey was not an easy one as I am the first owner/builder to win the award in 40 years,” Launier admits. “The fact that I was able to bring this award home to Canada really makes me proud. It’s my moment in time and hopefully it will inspire others to follow in my footsteps and chase their dreams.”
JF Kustoms has built numerous award-winning custom cars including a 1967 Shelby GT500 fastback, a 1956 Chrysler station wagon and 1951 Kaiser, which have all achieved Detroit Autorama Great Eight Award status.
J.F. Launier has come a long way since he sold his dirt bike as a teenager to buy a 1951 Mercury pickup truck, which he has customized four times since. He worked at gas stations and body shops, became a journeyman painter at 20, started his own vehicle salvage business at 21 and his own body shop at 23.
He got the car customizing bug early and has been setting the pace in car customizing ever since. “The more artistic I got, the harder it was to achieve things,” he says of that period. “You get more and more needy for skills and have to learn.”
This rusted out 1964 Buick Riviera was the basis for J.F. Launiers Ridler award winning custom car called Rivision.
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Launier’s Rivision will not be a garage queen. With a twin turbo charged 850 horsepower V8 engine and near-perfect weight distribution, he plans to campaign the car in track and autocross events.
There are big plans this summer to chase another coveted U.S. award — the Street Machine of the Year — in Columbus, Ohio. “For that event, the car must perform well on an autocross course, so the boys at the shop have already started to make changes to transform this show pony into a raging bull.”
Launier has driven the prestigious Optima Street Car Challenge in Las Vegas twice and will be “pouring the boost” to his personal car this year — again setting a new standard for a Ridler winner.
“None of the show cars of this calibre ever get driven,” he says. “So, to go beyond that and put it on a race course will be a way to make sure Canadians are not soon forgotten in U.S. car circles.”
Alyn Edwards is a classic car enthusiast and partner in Peak Communicators, a Vancouver-based public relations company. aedwards@peakco.com
