Central IL fun in the sun

BennyBuick

Member
Joined
Sep 10, 2014
Its been awhile since I've been on this site, not since the car was fairly new, and I remember reading these stories being bummed that I had none of my own. Well, now that Ive had the car for 2 1/2 years, I got a few to share. I drive my GN quite a bit around town in the summer here in Peoria, IL, T-Tops are almost always off and loving it.

So, I'll start with the best story, and also the closest rival that's run against my GN.. I'm driving down 29 which is a nice straight 4 lane lightly traveled highway that runs next to the IL river, a nice summer drive. I'm just cruising, not hot rodding, and enjoying life driving to meet up with my wife at River Beach, a cool lil spot for good eats, Catfish tenders.. mmmm... I got about 8 miles or so to go before I turn off, and traffic is nil. About 10-12 car lengths ahead, a brand new Camaro SS is merging on and I can hear the exhaust bellowing like crazy, he's on it and on it hard, so I hammer down to catch up, by the time he's up to speed I'm about 8 car lengths behind and I can't catch up, I'm gaining nothing and he lets off at about the 120 mph range. I let up and creep up slowly as he's down back to cruising speed. Best I could tell from about 8 lengths behind, our cars were dead even in acceleration, and my interest is heightened because I kinda like these new cameras. I can tell its not stock, he's definitely, at the very least, had exhaust work done because this thing is wicked loud, but sounds nice. I inch up and creep past at about 5 over the speed limit and he's not interested, not even making eye contact as I check out his car. So oh well, I go about my way and cruise at 5 over until he's back in my rear view. I don't know if he had to take 2 or 3 mins to rub one out or what, but after that he rides up on me hard and is staring me down checking out my car, like he just then saw it was a GN or what I dunno. So he locks eyes, and we both slow to a crawl at about 20 mph, in a 55 zone. As I'm slowing down with him, I'm switching the boost profile on my greddy controller to the "race" tune which brings boost to 25psi instead of the 19psi "street" tune profile I was cruising on when we accelerated dead even. I rarely put it on the "race" tune, because, why? My 255s usually just get shredded anyhow, usually even on the street tune. But now is the time! This has really never happened to me before in this car, especially with wide open road, no other cars in sight, & beautiful sunny weather along side someone who wants to play and a car worthy of my attention, IMO . My blood is pumping, my pulse is racing I'm so giddy. From 20 mph he gives me the 3,2,1 and we set off. He jumps about 1/2 to a full car length as his huge meats hook up instantly while I'm feathering the throttle enough just to keep it from breaking loose, which is seriously about 1/2 throttle at this speed. My turbo spools so fast lag isn't much of an issue at all, which turns out to be abad thing on 255s most of the time. Some turbo lag would probably help this thing by giving it a chance to hook up once in awhile. Anyhow, he jumps out to a quick lead, and as he shifts gears, we are in it to win it, I pull even and at this point I'm entering the speed at which I can floor it without worry of wheelspin. Turbo hits 25 psi instantly and we are still in the throttle way past the stableness of these G bodies. about 145mph or so and every shift he lost at least a full car length. I was about 4-5 car lengths ahead before we let off! I coast down to cruising speed and he pulls up and you could tell he was both impressed and caught off guard that he lost. He gave me the humbled big thumbs up and in a weird gesture admitted defeat. He gave that half head shake no like he couldn't believe his brand new sports car got spanked by an old 80's buick that he held off without issue just a bit earlier. I was ear to ear, I couldn't have been cool about it if I tried. My hands were shaking from adrenaline and you couldn't have wiped the shit eating grin off my face if you told me I had cancer. I was so smitten with my buick i about missed my turn and and to show the camaro how truly terrible my brakes were as I had to brake hard to not miss my turn. That was about the most fun and daring of a ride I've had in the car to date. Man it was fun. I found out later as I passed the story on that it happened to be a friend of a friend of a friend and I found out that the new SS did in fact have an aftermarket exhaust with no cat, an intake upgrade, and a retune on the dyno. So stoked my old 3.8 V6 took down a brandy new V8 muscle car. This was just this past summer.

So, story number 2 occurs early in the first spring that I owned the car. Just learning what the car is capable of and not so great at figuring out how to get it to hook up. I'm traveling north on 24 which starts out as a 4 lane in civilization, but as you get out in the country in the boonies, it goes down to a 2 lane. about 1/2 mile before this occurs, there is conveniently an intersection with a stop light. I pull up to the fresh red side by side with a new challenger SRT. Pretty sure it was stock, and pretty sure the kids in it were probably driving daddys car. So, new objective, be the head car before the merger to 2 lane right? He revs it a bit, I grin but don't really look over or rev, cuz I saw how young these kids were... had to be high schoolers. But nonetheless, this is my first opportunity to take down a sports car in my fairly new to me GN, so I'm not going to pass it up on account of age. At this point, I haven't even really had the tune on the high setting, and I didn't plan on doing so, but at this point of my ownership, the street tune boost profile was slightly different than it is now in that the boost controller was set at about 20-21psi instead of the very usable 19 it is now. so green light go. I don't floor it, but a bit too close to flooring it, and his modern Sports cars hooks up with its big meats and traction control and lunges forward about 3/4 of a car length. I'm roasting the tires, but just so that its still accelerating pretty well. We hit about 45 mph or so by the time my tires stop spinning and I'm still about 3/4 to a full length behind. At this point, I didn't understand how I wasn't getting just spanked because I biffed the launch soooo bad and traction was a fairy tale. As the tires hook up finally, I was letting off to get them to hook up, and fell to more than a car length behind. As soon as I realized I wasn't spinning anymore, I mashed it to the floor and in the blink of an eye was a bumper ahead and accelerating much harder than he was until he fell about another car length behind every second and a half or so. I let off at about 130, well before the merge and never looked back after as I coasted back to cruising speed. It was fun, but I realized how terrible I am at launching it. To this day I can't do it and just prefer roll on throttle rather than figuring out how to feather it from a standstill. I was on my way to a friends house that day, a friend whom is infatuated with my buick. He loved the story.

Story 3 concludes all my "confrontations" in the car and isn't very entertaining. Some jackass in a previous gen corvette (non Z06) was acting like an idiot accelerating hard and slowing down next to me on the freeway, and I finally gave him what he wanted and it wasn't close to my surprise. we pulled from 55-120 and it was embarrassing. I don't know if his car was just so tired, or he didn't know how to drive, or if those cars are just that much slower( I can't imagine that's true).. The guy was such an imbred idiot it kinda took the fun out of it and I was ashamed of myself for even engaging. I coasted back to cruising speed and he resumed doing the same stupid crap. I turned off to get gas well before I needed it just to get away from him.

I remember like yesterday looking through turbobuick for the first time, learning valuable info, and gushing over other peoples rides. I came to this section and read story after story and thought to myself, I can't wait to post some of my own. So, there's one check mark on the bucket list. Wish I could own the car a lot longer to put a bunch more on here but..., sigh, cry, yell, pound floor... My wife is kinda forcing me to sell the car. This car has been a wedge in our marriage ever since I bought it. She just hates it soooo much, I don't understand it. After some mitigation and compromise, "we've" come to conclude that selling the car for a more practical & family purpose car would do wonders to repair our relationship. Facepalm! My daily driver is a single cab pickup, which I can't get rid of as I need it too often. She wants it listed now, but I think I'll dilly dattle until I've had some spring fun first! Cheers all, hope you enjoy
 
I bet your story would have a different ending if you met your car before you met your wife. Mine understands that buick is #1. That was a great read but a sad ending.
 
I ran hwy 29 50+ yrs ago....Back when it was a 2 lane. My 55 Chevy was the terror of the streets, in Peoria, and surrounding towns....
LOTS of stories from back in the day....:D
Could always get a drag at any one of the 3 Steak N Shakes.:smuggrin:
 
I ran hwy 29 50+ yrs ago....Back when it was a 2 lane. My 55 Chevy was the terror of the streets, in Peoria, and surrounding towns....
LOTS of stories from back in the day....:D
Could always get a drag at any one of the 3 Steak N Shakes.:smuggrin:
That's awesome man. My father is originally from here, worked at Bauer Buick in the 60s. He's got a million and a half of these stories and he, as well, talked about cars meeting at Steak 'n Shake. He still has 2 1965 Buick riviera gran sports left from his collection. He was a Buick dealer in the 80s and 90s, had a GNX for 10 years. No 124. But he always raced around here, I wonder if your paths have ever crossed.
 
That's awesome man. My father is originally from here, worked at Bauer Buick in the 60s. He's got a million and a half of these stories and he, as well, talked about cars meeting at Steak 'n Shake. He still has 2 1965 Buick riviera gran sports left from his collection. He was a Buick dealer in the 80s and 90s, had a GNX for 10 years. No 124. But he always raced around here, I wonder if your paths have ever crossed.

I was the service mgr at Bower Buick, in the 60's! Right after they moved out of downtown.
I'm sure your dad and I know many of the oldtimers...
I lived in Rome, during my street racing days.
Chuck Leeper
codymspt@bellsouth.net
706-342-3152
 
I bet your story would have a different ending if you met your car before you met your wife. Mine understands that buick is #1. That was a great read but a sad ending.


Simply explaining that you love the car and if she loves you she would understand that the car is part of who you are. I went through something similar when I was married. Some things are non-negotiable. Before we did get divorced (for reasons not to do with cars) I sold my first GN to my brother so she couldn't get it with the understanding I would buy it back later. Bad move... My brother let his girlfriend drive it and I got the call, car is totaled. 7 years later I finally have another GN. *sigh*
 
My girlfriend now wife for over 27 years was with me when I bought the car new.Glad to be able to hang on to both of them over the years, and yes both frustrating at times.
 
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