5.0 still love em!

[alex]

I own a 86 gn for 4 months now (stock now waiting for pt51 and all the stuff for it). before i had 2 mustangs 90Gt and 95 Gt 5.0 5-speed. And sure the stock gn will blow most stock 5.0 but if you were to catch me in the traffic there is no way in the world you would be able to keep up! Dont get me wrong i love my GN but handling is really .....crap! Mybuddys 89 5.0 lx takes corners at 60 i have to slow down to 25 just to take the same corner. what i missed about my stang is racing stupid in my hood. knowing that i also have to have little skills to take that turn. i wish the G body could have the handling somewhere close to stangs ,than the turboBUICK would be the ultimate car in my opinion.
And talking about bang for the buck. But i am not going to get in to it.
Buicks are really nice and i love mine, but when i make a turn i feel like i am siting in a ....buick. thanks for reading my 2c! Alex

 

[Roc87]

Buick cornering vs. Mustang?

I appologize but after driving my Iroc for a while and then driving a friends '88 GT vert, I don't really think that the mustang handles that great either. How many miles are on your GN? Mine had just over 107,000 when I bought it and I thought the same thing, Handling SUCKS! But after getting under it and finding out my front suspension was shot I found out why. Try rebuilding your front end. The GN's cornering is still worse than the Iroc's (of course 17" rims w/ 255/40 tires on it, it'll take a 90 degree turn over 45MPH) but In my opinion (no flames please) it's better than the GT.

 

[NOSjohnWE4]

suspension

you can fix the handling but it will cost you some CA$H. do a search for other posts about suspension and lowering. later...

 

[alex]

i got brand spanking new springs from kirban, and all new KYBs
what else can you do to?????

 

[crash]

Where's the kill story?

 

[BOTLFED]

hey you want handling!

hey roc if you want handling then you should drive the mutant! it hits those corners like a wet sack of mice oh yea crash is right i thought this was about stomping the guts out of a five ltr.

 

[SMOKIN86T]

.......

i have to say but one thing: GNX- 0.93 g's in the skid pad. i rest my case.

 

[bsdlinux]

Alex

Glad you are a Buick brother, but don't try the traffic deal with a TTA on your butt. Any Mustang owner that mistakes a TTA for a white GTA learns the hard way.

TTAs are not the best ever handling cars either, but it takes very little to get them there and they have better high end manners than a TR.

If you want a Turbo Buick that handles, buy a TTA or build one like some people on this board. Or you can spend some cash to get the brick to handle. Plenty of people on this board have done that too.

SMOKIN86T is right. The GNX does have a high G rating on the skid pad. What they don't tell you is that you have to get it into the corner first, meaning they push a little making some corners nerve racking.


Later

 

[Turbojorge]

Hey buddy, unless you planning on racing In SCCA or circle track, don't worry about how Fast your TR Takes Corners. It's staright ahead that counts. If your worried about taking corners at 60 mph, Buy yourself a Honda SHi%-TEC and drop it and be like everyone else but don't compare our cars when it comes to something like that. A TR is like poetry in motion. Someone see's you taking a corner at 25 and they say:" Damb, that's a beautiful car, it looks smooth and he drives it like he is really taking care of it". I mean, I don't see the need to take a curve at 60 MPH! I can take a curve at 45 and it will feel great and as you can see my car has 148 K and the suspension is completely STOCK. But for what? I take care of my car cause if something breaks, I'm in trouble.

 

[cool 84]

If you want a good laugh, find an old magazine from the 80s and compare lateral Gs between a regular (not GNX) GN and a Mustang GT. The GN usually had the higher skidpad rating or at least very close.

I replaced the shocks in mine first too but it still had some body roll. Then I discovered a few bushings missing from the A-arms. I didn't realize the difference a new set of bushings and ball joints could make and that they could reduce bodyroll.

You might want to check and make sure the previous owner didn't remove the front swaybar or that the rear swaybar isn't cracked near the mounting points. The two broken ones I've seen cracked between the two mounting bolts on the lower control arms.

When I bought mine I expected the power but having driven several G-bodies, the handling really surprised me.

 

[BASS]

Alex,
Check to see if your upper control arm bushings are still even there on the downpipe side, I garantee you that they are disintegrated!!

 

[REDS HOT AIR]

my 85 ttype felt ok with 180,000 miles on it but the car has been taken good care of ..till i got it.

then i put 16 by 8 wheels and lower profile tires on it and man big big difference..then i boxed rear control arms and put poly bushings in and even better...i have all front bushings for it too but waiting to get new ball joints tie rod ends and center link before i put them in ...not that anything is wore out i just want to do every thing up front at one time and if you get front end stuff ball joints etc. go with moog there is no better

if that aint good enough get some drop spindles for the front and lowered springs for the rear ..

just my input i've drove plenty of mustains and they didnt impress me at all in the turns even the few saleens i drove.

 

[turbojimmy]

Originally posted by cool 84
If you want a good laugh, find an old magazine from the 80s and compare lateral Gs between a regular (not GNX) GN and a Mustang GT. The GN usually had the higher skidpad rating or at least very close.

I thought so, too, so I checked an old article I had laying around.

"Domestic Dynamite", August 1987 Motor Trend.

Lateral Acceleration:
GN: .79
Mustang GT: .83

Not worlds apart, IMO. It would come down to the driver I think.

When I still had my Mustang (blown 5.0), I was chasing a GN up an entry ramp onto Rt. 80. Not only was he pulling away from me, I lost the ass-end of the Mustang trying to keep up. I couldn't believe he took that ramp like that. He had GNX-style 16" rims (though it obviously wasn't a GNX).

I bought my GN soon after....

Jim

 

[cool 84]

The highest I've seen a stock GN rated is .82 which surprised me. Must've been a sticky skidpad. The original 215/65/15 tires weren't exactly great for anything. I'm not sure if the Mustangs of the same years came with better rubber but I bet they did. Neither car is known for it's handling abilities but the GN really impressed me because I expected it to handle like some of the old muscle cars I've driven.

In fact in my old Popular Mechanics article when they compared a ton of old vs new cars and threw in a "middle" car, a T-type, they said it was somewhere in the middle between the new F-bods and the old muscle cars in handling.

 

[turbojimmy]

Originally posted by cool 84
The highest I've seen a stock GN rated is .82 which surprised me. Must've been a sticky skidpad. The original 215/65/15 tires weren't exactly great for anything. I'm not sure if the Mustangs of the same years came with better rubber but I bet they did.

My '88 GT came with 225/60-15 Skatorbacks. In '91 they went to 16", same width (I don't remember the aspect ratio). The wider, lower profile tires on the Mustang could account for a lot of the difference.

You're right, though - neither is a great handling car. My biggest problem with the Mustang was with traction. I had 107 MPH trap speeds but only mid-13 ETs. Using the SAME tired McCreary's, I've run a 12.6 @ 106 in the GN. I've yet to hit the 107 MPH I hit in the Mustang...but that'll change in a week or so.

Jim

 

[Four-Four-Two]

Check out this months issue of Car Craft, they took a stock 80's malibu, put some hotchiks suspension parts($1100) and made it pull like an .83? pretty cool article.

 

[NOSjohnWE4]

article

saw that...then they give specs on how it's close to some HIGH dollar car. SWEET!!

 

[Epitome]

Get stock height 40% stiffer springs and Bilsteins all around. Trash the KYBs, I have them on my T, they suck. Bilsteins are great. Then get a very heavy rear sway bar and 16" rims all around and mount a good set of 50s on them. You will still be able to get decent (1.75-1.85) 60 foots in the quarters maile and that car will handle great. This is the set up I used until this week when I had a wolf bar installed, removed the front sway bar and went to all drag shocks. If you want all around handling and acceleration, the above combo is the way to go......oh yeah.....don't forget the air bags

 

[Four-Four-Two]

Car Craft Test:

modified '78 malibu: 0.83
'01 Audi A4: 0.82
'01 BMW M Roadster: 0.85
'01 BMW M5 Sedan: 0.83
'01 Camaro: 0.85
'01 Cobra: 0.86

I say thats pretty darn good to be up there with those cars for $1100 worth of mods.


How does a Suspension Tech Forum sound? would enough people post on there? Who is in charge of something like that?

 

[alex]

It just took me 10 mins to get to the bottom of the post.
thanks for the info. i will have to stick with my KYBs for now, but i will be installing bushings all around, and rear seat brace.