97' Buick Regal GS vs 11' turbo/6speed Regal

[tpivette89]

So my brother just bought a fully loaded, black on black 2011 Buick Regal with the turbocharged 2.0 4cyl and 6speed transmission. Its a very sweet ride, for sure. Wish I could afford a new car in this economy, but I'm doing just fine with my 115k mile 97' Buick Regal GS. Soon after buying it, he challenged me to a Regal vs Regal race once his is broken in.

Back in May (in 80 degree heat and near 1000ft DA), my 100% stock Buick ran a 14.5 at 94mph. I still have a few weekends to make it down to the dragstrip before it closes for the season. I'm thinking it should do a bit better in the cooler air, but is it enough to take the new 220hp manual trans version? He wants a street race, and to go from a stop and a roll.

 

[murphinator]

you should have him covered , the numbers thus far wont touch your regal.

that being said its the same motor the cobalt guys make huge power with so it has potential

it is supposed to be the first flex fuel capable factory forced induction car , after you beat him get him to take it to the track once on gas and once on e85 , I wonder if buicks engineers have a surprise in store for people that run it on e85..... the guys running 50/50 e85/pump premium with these turbo 4 bangers on hp tuners forum in cobalts , solstice/sky are posting a lot of positive results

as far as roll racing your gs with stock gearing you want to ask for a 20mph roll , stay away from any roll over 30 as youll be in 2nd gear on a stock tune and lugging- 20 roll is the stock/near stock regal gs sweet spot

 

[tpivette89]

TC/SS or Solstice/Sky are MUCH lighter and 40 more hp than the new Regal. Probably not in the same league.

I think when he said "race from a roll", he meant a rolling start in 1st. So a 20mph roll would probably be where we would go from. However, he's saying now he doesn't really want to run (maybe he's done a little research on the L67)... but claims if he got a factory retune, that he would clobber me. To which I replied... "if u get a tune, ill throw a pulley on mine".

Now, I know a pulley isn't an ideal 1st mod on these cars, but its primarily my wifes ride. And she almost never gets into boost while driving. So I figured, if I do pulley it, and only get into higher than stock boost conditions, ill... A) be running in cooler air, hopefully preventing detonation, or... B) be running 100 octane unleaded, also hopefully preventing detonation (or a combination of both).

Thoughts?

 

[murphinator]

Now, I know a pulley isn't an ideal 1st mod on these cars, but its primarily my wifes ride. And she almost never gets into boost while driving. So I figured, if I do pulley it, and only get into higher than stock boost conditions, ill... A) be running in cooler air, hopefully preventing detonation, or... B) be running 100 octane unleaded, also hopefully preventing detonation (or a combination of both).

Thoughts?

the stock exhaust has a hard enough time keeping the boost from stacking on a stock pulley , cold air makes it stack & detonate more , it actually increases the outlet temps of the sc from trying to stuff the denser charge with the same exhaust - its common for people that mod them to go larger with pulleys in the winter to cut down on detonation (KR) for example 3.4 in the summer 3.6 winter on a headers/intake/tune car

now if you go with a modular pulley system with a stock size pulley (3.8") and drop to a 3.5 or 3.6 with the 100 octane to kill some detonation and swap back to the 3.8 after you race that would likely work well but a 3" downpipe with a decent intake would be a safer way to start out and should put it solid low 14's

 

[tpivette89]

That's what I was thinking, a module pulley setup so I can change back to stock when I hand the keys back to my wife.

I know a pulley swap isn't a good first mod, but I wanted to match my brother mod for mod, and I know the boost is raised when he gets his 11' retuned. A pulley swap on mine would be a comparable mod.

Likely this race won't happen til the first of the year though, as he has to break the car in still. I'm planning on going back to the dragstrip in the next few weeks to see if I can improve my stock times in the cooler air. I'm sure I can best anything a stock 11' Regal can muster

 

[murphinator]

this will sound bass ackwards but lowering boost can make more power on these sc cars.

for example I did a 3.5 pulley with only a 3" downpipe and a whisper resonator for exhaust mods initially , car was indicating over 13 pounds of boost and could barely crack 13's at 100 flat or so.

added a powerlog , zzp ported rear manifold , and a 3" hogan catback to it and boost dropped to around 11 psi max and the car ran 13.5-13.7 @103 ish on the same 3.5 pulley - theres actually a link in my sig to one of those passes, car is similarly modded still and is my daily driver with 216k on it now and still feels strong as ever my pb's listed were with a different L67 car that I was spraying the crap out of

 

[fast86gn]

Stock for stock the '97 GS wins against the '11 CXL turbo. Now the '12 GS I believe would be a different story. Do you know what tune he is getting? GM left a lot of power on the table with the CXL turbo.

I have the Trifecta tune on my Sky Redline. Stock boost is 16-17, it now is at 25 and runs low 13's on pump.