The legendary Grand National

[Dash65]

I'm amazed at the amount of total recall even non-car guys have about the GN. I traveled back to my old neighborhood in Wisconsin on Saturday and visited my former neighbor. I hadn't been back for about 1.5 years but we had lived next door to each other for the previous 10 years. He's not a car guy...at all. In the past, if I would try to engage him on car things over beers, he showed polite interest at best.
On Saturday, I took pics of my '87 GN with me to Wisconsin. He had no idea I had one. I told him I had an old buick. He said "I like Buicks". I showed him the picture and the transformation was amazing. He first said, "That ain't just an old buick, that's a Grand National!" I was stunned that not only didn't he think it wasn't a Monte Carlo, he knew exactly what it was.
He became more animated and said he was in a buick showroom in '87 to look at a Regal and wanted the GN so bad it just about killed him that he couldn't afford it. Then he proceeded to rattle off the performance stats of the car and was pretty dang accurate.
It was cool that a 24 year old memory of just simply considering the purchase of a GN could elicit such a great reaction and enthusiasm. I don't know of many cars that can make that claim.

 

[WIKEDV6]

I'm amazed at the amount of total recall even non-car guys have about the GN. I traveled back to my old neighborhood in Wisconsin on Saturday and visited my former neighbor. I hadn't been back for about 1.5 years but we had lived next door to each other for the previous 10 years. He's not a car guy...at all. In the past, if I would try to engage him on car things over beers, he showed polite interest at best.
On Saturday, I took pics of my '87 GN with me to Wisconsin. He had no idea I had one. I told him I had an old buick. He said "I like Buicks". I showed him the picture and the transformation was amazing. He first said, "That ain't just an old buick, that's a Grand National!" I was stunned that not only didn't he think it wasn't a Monte Carlo, he knew exactly what it was.
He became more animated and said he was in a buick showroom in '87 to look at a Regal and wanted the GN so bad it just about killed him that he couldn't afford it. Then he proceeded to rattle off the performance stats of the car and was pretty dang accurate.
It was cool that a 24 year old memory of just simply considering the purchase of a GN could elicit such a great reaction and enthusiasm. I don't know of many cars that can make that claim.

I hear ya brother, I still remember the exact conversation I had with the Buick Rep in 1986 at the Chicago Auto Show. I was a big V8 fan, 5.0 slow Mustangs and Vettes. When he told me it was the fastest American production car, I told him “so you are telling me a V6 with that thing “the hair dryer" can out run a 5.0 Mustang and a Vette? He said any day! I said ya right! and walked away but the menacing look of all black Darth Vader's chariot engraved in my head forever, I loved it. Then few weeks later, my buddy and I ran into one with my buddy's IROC and the rest is history. Hooked on them ever since!!

Prasad