Originally Posted by turboparker

Doesn't anyone around here like Grand Nationals?

But of course ! I had a Turbo Regal Limited for a few years ... two tone, T-Tops, cornering AND opera lights ... the list went on and on including block heater !! Kirban said maybe 6 or 7 others built out like it was. Sticker was over 19K



Im celebrating my 20th aniversary with BigRed this year - in that time, its had 4 motor(s)/rebuilds, 2 trannys, 5 rears ... 1 repaint, 1 top, and about 50-60,000 miles. I usually put about 6-7K a year on it including a trip to either the GSCA Nats in KY (1,800+ miles) or the BPG Nats in Ohio (1,000+ miles)



Current motor dyno'd @ 556hp/560tq pump gas 91/93 octane ... 3.31 gears got me into the 11's. I was running 3.08's for the highway cruisin' but just coudn't get that 11 second pass.

BigRed goes 11.99 (0 min 19 sec)

Here's a still of the launch for the above video



... and lastly, a return to what started the Buick-Mania for me - growing up in the back of a Buick SportWagon. Friends in the Buick club new I was looking for a Sporty and found this one owner, 29,000 mile car sitting in the widow's garage. Her husband loved this car so much that after ordering it and taking delivery and driving it a few months, he went out and bought another used wagon for daily driver duty - this was only used on the weekends and for summer vacation. When he died in 1983, she closed the garage door and it hadn't seen daylight until I bought it 2 years ago. Original paint is still MINT ... interior the same, in bringing it back to life I only changed out what was needed to make it a safe car to drive keeping all the original parts like belts, hoses, plugs and wires ...etc. It's truely a time capsule.

Originally Posted by 7car7

Take a closer look, there's a lot of cars in this thread that get 0-1 comments. Mine included.

True- I posted a $231,000 car and got a comment on the $40k car behind it.

Originally Posted by turboparker

GS,

Nice! Good to see another GN on here. I notice that our cars hardly get any comments on here. Doesn't anyone around here like Grand Nationals?


Joel

Love Them awesome looknig car man is it stock?

Originally Posted by CryHavoc

Lovin' the GN, Joel. Like most of us those cars are unobtainium so I've never had my hands on one to have much to say. I do look though.....

In fact I saw it when I was looking through the thread last night and it got me thinking. V6 Magnums can be had cheap. I wonder what it would take to go fast goodie one of the new Mopar 3.6L V6 and drop it in???

Hmmm.... I think I'm gonna read up more on that engine. It would sure lighten the rolling weight of these cars a little.

Originally Posted by Alan W

But of course ! I had a Turbo Regal Limited for a few years ... two tone, T-Tops, cornering AND opera lights ... the list went on and on including block heater !! Kirban said maybe 6 or 7 others built out like it was. Sticker was over 19K

Im celebrating my 20th aniversary with BigRed this year - in that time, its had 4 motor(s)/rebuilds, 2 trannys, 5 rears ... 1 repaint, 1 top, and about 50-60,000 miles. I usually put about 6-7K a year on it including a trip to either the GSCA Nats in KY (1,800+ miles) or the BPG Nats in Ohio (1,000+ miles)

Current motor dyno'd @ 556hp/560tq pump gas 91/93 octane ... 3.31 gears got me into the 11's. I was running 3.08's for the highway cruisin' but just coudn't get that 11 second pass.

... and lastly, a return to what started the Buick-Mania for me - growing up in the back of a Buick SportWagon. Friends in the Buick club new I was looking for a Sporty and found this one owner, 29,000 mile car sitting in the widow's garage. Her husband loved this car so much that after ordering it and taking delivery and driving it a few months, he went out and bought another used wagon for daily driver duty - this was only used on the weekends and for summer vacation. When he died in 1983, she closed the garage door and it hadn't seen daylight until I bought it 2 years ago. Original paint is still MINT ... interior the same, in bringing it back to life I only changed out what was needed to make it a safe car to drive keeping all the original parts like belts, hoses, plugs and wires ...etc. It's truely a time capsule.

Originally Posted by MUSTANGP51LOVE

Love Them awesome looknig car man is it stock?

Mike,

Thanks! She's been a lot of fun over the decades. Of the hot-rods I've owned over the years, she is by far my favorite!

Regarding Mopar's 3.6L V6 - I don't know much about it. However, some of the newer 'high-feature' V6 engines were designed with turbocharging in mind. For instance, Buick's 3.6L quad-cam V6 w/forged rotating assembly, is designed for 450+ HP in twin-turbo trim - even though a forced-induction version is not currently available. In n/a trim, it's tuned for about 320 HP. If the Mopar V6 can handle some boost, it may be a good choice. I'd think it would provide a much more favorable F/R weight-ratio than the big hemi.

Alan,

Nice Buicks!! So, you're the owner of Big Red! Cool! I haven't made it to the nats, but I have seen pics & vids of your car on numerous occasions. Seems like I remember reading about it before, as well. Sounds like your Limited was exceptionally rare! If anyone would know - it would be Dennis! That Sportwagon is a real find! I rarely see them at shows. Nice to see that you're keeping her as original as possible - right down to the belts, hoses, wires & plugs!

Back in the mid-70s, I had a '67 GS 400 ragtop w/factory 4-speed & posi. One of only 422 made. I had no clue what I had back then. I drove the crap out of that car. Built the engine for 400 HP. TRW 11:1 forged skirtless pistons, 455 Stage 1 valves & cam, headers, Edelbrock B4B intake w/850 double-pumper. She ran traction-limited 13.7s on street rubber. Never did put stickies on the back. I'm sure she would have been quite a bit quicker out of the hole.

I've also been a Buick guy since childhood. Dad always drove Buicks, and he ordered his by number. He always got the most powerful engine available. Plus, the local Buick dealer was a personal friend, so he sometimes got things that weren't supposed to be available. When I was young, we had a '61 Le Sabre with a 401 nailhead. In '69, he ordered a '70 LeSabre Custom 455 - one of less than 2500 made. He ordered it with the 'plains axle' & posi. He then had the dealer put the Stage 1 package in the engine. Top-end was well over 150 MPH, but it could still pull off a 14.7-sec quarter-mile on a good day - despite the insanely tall gearing. It trapped @ 99-100 MPH - in second gear! Not bad for a 4,900-pound, 6-passenger family car. He traded it in @ 180,000 miles for a '79 Turbo Regal. The 455 still performed flawlessly, and hardly burned any oil, at 2000 mi/quart.

I started messing with nailheads when I got my license in '72. Put together a '64 LeSabre with a factory dual-quad 425 from a wrecked Riviera GS. I used the stock two-speed switch-pitch trans but I put in the V6 variable-stall converter. I also put in a posi rear with 3:70 gears. It was good for mid-14s all day long on street rubber. Picked up the '67 GS while I was in the Navy. After only 3 years of owning it, somebody did a hit-and-run & destroyed the entire driver's side of the car. Insurance screwed me & said that it was "just an old car". So I parted it out to my best friend, who put everything into his '66 Chevelle - including the engine & driveline, HD suspension parts, springs, swaybars, HD brake system, fast-ratio steering sector, etc. Wasn't until a number of years later when we started reading GSExtra that we realized how much the old GS was worth - even with the damaged driver's-side sheet-metal. Went back to his dad's land where all of the old cars sat - but they were gone!! Damn crusher got 'em all - including what was left of the GS! Didn't have another Buick hot-rod until I bought the GN. I still had a black & blue spot from kicking myself in the butt countless times over losing the GS to the crusher. I vowed that I would never make that mistake again. When I bought the GN, I made a promise to myself that I would never sell it. I took her to the track a few times back in the day, but I never really figured out how to properly launch the car. Best I ever did on the track was a 12.76 @ 106 MPH - with a 2.2 60-foot. That was on 275/50/15 BFG street radials. Like I said - my launches suck!

The GN was my 3-season daily-driver for over 130k. Nowadays, she's primarily a weekend cruiser, but I still take her cross-country on summer vacations from time-to-time.

MUSTANGP51LOVE,

Thanks! Aside from a few bolt-ons, she is a numbers-matching, well-kept original with 190k on the clock. Original paint, wheels, upholstery, and the engine has never been unbuttoned. The only engine-work I've done is a set of LT1 valve springs @ 100k & a double-roller timing-chain & gears @ 130k.

Here's the rundown:

Stock 3.8L Buick turbo V6 w/LT-1 valve springs, double-roller timing chain & gears
Walbro 340 pump w/hot-wire kit, 42 lb. injectors, Red Armstrong chip. 3" maldrel-bent intake, 3" LT1 MAF w/Translator Plus
TA49 turbo, stock intercooler w/Duttweiler neck
3" mandrel-bent downpipe, 3" cat, dual 2 1/2" mandrel-bent cat-back, ATR Pit-Bulls
Trans rebuilt by Art Carr: billet servos, cryo-treated shafts, Redline clutches, big pump, lots of shiny stuff inside, 3000 RPM stall converter
HD Eaton posi w/Redline clutch-pack, Richmond 3.42:1 gears, Moser 31-spline forged axles
PST polygraphite bushing kit front & rear, GNX body bushings, GNX frame & body braces, Eibach springs, Bilstien shocks
Kirban Performance 145 MPH stock-appearing calibrated speedometer
Modern Musclecar Scanmaster II computer readout
Lotek stock-appearing dual-pod pillar & coin-tray gauge holders, VDO oil press, water temp & boost gauges, Auto Meter electronic fuel pressure gauge
Kenwood Excelon stereo w/24-bit Burr-Brown DACs, Infinity Kappa separates

52/48 F/R weight ratio
22 pounds of boost on 100 octane unleaded
410 RWHP @ 5,000 RPM
485 pound-feet of torque @ 2,000 RPM
410 pound-feet average from 1500-5150 RPM

After more than 25 years & 190k, she still makes me grin like a kid in a candy-store every time I spool her up!

Joel

awesome man...ive got a 97 buick century with 97,xxx miles ill trade u jk!!! very nice very nice

If anyone needs taillights for there old car shoot me a pm and see if I have some for yours. I sell tail lights got couple hundred left.

Looking for more places to say how proud I am to own this car I just picked up from a guy who bought it from the guy who spent the last 10 years fixing almost everything on it. Most fun car I've ever driven really. Only took 20 years for it to get old enough for me to afford Now its broken in!

Originally Posted by seeingeyegod

Looking for more places to say how proud I am to own this car I just picked up from a guy who bought it from the guy who spent the last 10 years fixing almost everything on it. Most fun car I've ever driven really. Only took 20 years for it to get old enough for me to afford Now its broken in!

Looks familiar.
Yours looks to be in much nicer shape!
For those not in the know, this is pretty much the most desired VW from this era.
Very light, and very quick "for it's day". Easy to make VERY fast. Incredibly good handling car.

1990 GLI 16V 2.0. Stock Power is 134hp.
Mine has Bilstein Shocks, H&R Race springs, Techtonics Exhaust (2.25" Mandrel Bent Pipe, Straight thru mufflers)

Originally Posted by 7car7

Looks familiar.
Yours looks to be in much nicer shape!
For those not in the know, this is pretty much the most desired VW from this era.
Very light, and very quick "for it's day". Easy to make VERY fast. Incredibly good handling car.

1990 GLI 16V 2.0. Stock Power is 134hp.
Mine has Bilstein Shocks, H&R Race springs, Techtonics Exhaust (2.25" Mandrel Bent Pipe, Straight thru mufflers)

Yay another Jetta lover! I am new to the cult. Yes, mine was pretty well worked over but I don't know the exact details so I don't brag to avoid looking like a noob. I do know it has neuspeed front and rear top and bottom sway bars, a performance cam, momo steering wheel and an (ABD I think) short shift kit, oh yeah different hard springs I forget what brand. It feels like a large go cart going around corners... the wheels feel like they are directly linked to my hands

My daily commuter is a VW R32, so good to see some VW love on here. Now slap a 24V VR6 in those Jettas...

Tested out the sound system good with NIN Pretty Hate Machine on the way to work this morning. Subwoofer kicks Rockin the late 80s early 90s haha.

Originally Posted by MGBGTRacer

My daily commuter is a VW R32, so good to see some VW love on here. Now slap a 24V VR6 in those Jettas...

now we're talkin'!

If they'd made a jetta wagon with that drivetrain I might've bought one instead of my Magnum. But you're right, that system in a MKII like ours would be very serious.

I have a friend building a MKII GTI with a VR6 swap. It'll be fast, but the 4Motion cars are so much more fun. The 3.6 liter Passat 4Motion is the best sleeper out there if you want a project sleeper VW.
It would make the purists cringe, but I'm seriously considering getting an 04 4 door Golf and swapping the floor pan and drive train from my R32 over to the 4 door body. I need a fun kid hauler because when it's time to go fast, I have a V10 in the R8- but can't really haul the wife and kids around in it.

Originally Posted by MGBGTRacer

......... I need a fun kid hauler because when it's time to go fast, I have a V10 in the R8- but can't really haul the wife and kids around in it.

What V10 is this?

Originally Posted by GregG

What V10 is this?

http://models.audiusa.com/r8