long term buick project

[bugginout]

I'm looking for a used domestic that can be modified fairly cheaply. A friend of mine suggested a turbo buick. Right now I have about 5-6 thousand that I can put down on a car. I'll have about 300 a month after that to spend on modifications and upkeep. Any advice on why I should/shouldn't go with this car as well as how much hp I can get out of it before the engine can't handle it. While, I do want to have a fast car, it won't make many trips to the track and will be used as my daily driver.

 

[bugginout]

nothing?

 

[dconnor]

Check out www.gnttype.org for the low-down on these cars, it's the best place to learn the basics.

Then browse through the Turbo Trader there & the For Sale sections here, making sure to print out a copy of the Buyer's Guide to bring along when you check out any potential purchases.

Solid mid 12's@~108mph are the norm with $500~1000 in mods / tune-up parts. Mainly depends on how much maintenance you need to do to get the car running in top form before starting in with the go-fast goodies. 450~500 hp on the stock bottom end & ~650 with billet caps/girdle are pretty realistic goals, anything more is stage 2 block territory if you want it to live for more than a handful of WOT passes.

Bang for the buck on these cars is dang hard to beat deep into the 11's & about par with any other performance car (dollar for dollar) on down into the mid'low 10's. A stage motor will set ya back a good 15k to set up correctly but will provide the backbone to run 7's!

(WITH the right supporting parts of course!)

Doug C.

 

[BLACK6PACK]

You can buy a mustang and throw some naws on there and run similar times (high 12) for about $500-1000. It is easier to get these cars to run faster after the high 12 in my opinion. Plus the prestiege of owning a Turbo Buick vs. a mustang is a lot more fun. I took my 11second gn to Home depot yesterday to pick up a few things (as easy to drive as grandmas buick) and had no less than 3 people stop and talk to me about the car. I took the brothers 97 SS Camaro convertable back to HD for more stuff, and while I think the SS is a much nicer car, not one person went out of their way to even take a second look.

I would suggest looking at as low mileage of a car as you can. I got a 205,000 mile car that I bought 4 years ago. It had less than 2000 miles on the all new drive train. I haven't had a problem with the drive train, but have had to rebuild the front end, new brakes, rotors, powermaster, rotted gas lines, vac lines, electrical gremlins, etc.

Good luck

 

[bugginout]

Originally posted by dconnor
Check out www.gnttype.org for the low-down on these cars, it's the best place to learn the basics.

Then browse through the Turbo Trader there & the For Sale sections here, making sure to print out a copy of the Buyer's Guide to bring along when you check out any potential purchases.

Solid mid 12's@~108mph are the norm with $500~1000 in mods / tune-up parts. Mainly depends on how much maintenance you need to do to get the car running in top form before starting in with the go-fast goodies. 450~500 hp on the stock bottom end & ~650 with billet caps/girdle are pretty realistic goals, anything more is stage 2 block territory if you want it to live for more than a handful of WOT passes.

Bang for the buck on these cars is dang hard to beat deep into the 11's & about par with any other performance car (dollar for dollar) on down into the mid'low 10's. A stage motor will set ya back a good 15k to set up correctly but will provide the backbone to run 7's!

(WITH the right supporting parts of course!)

Doug C.

Thanks for the info. What kind of cost am I looking at for the 450-500 hp range. Also what kinds of time will that run?

 

[UNGN]

A stock 86-87 buick in good condition, using the tips and tweaks discussed here and in depth on gnttype.org will run low 12's@110 mph, before larger injectors, a larger turbo and a better intercooler are needed.