Turbo Buicks vs LS1's help me out

[JToups386]

Originally posted by Sinful6
Do you guys remember "Old Grey"? It was a grey '87 T-Type with 250k mi. that ran consistant low 12's on the stock block for most of its life, but when they pushed it into the 11's it spun a bearing after a few passes.

TRs can be extremely reliable if you mod them to be. I don't see why you couldn't run high 11's with a dailey beater, and still go over 200k mi. maybe low/mid if you rebuilt it with forged internals.

A stock version maybe, but,,, I hate to tell ya', but it ain't real common to have a TR running high to mid 11's as a true daily driver. At least, not if you drive more than 10 miles a day. The whole reason I quit using my Turbo T (11.90's) as my daily driver was due to the fact that I drove 65 miles round trip to work daily, and too many days were spent calling the office to say I'd be late, per car problems. Yes, at one time they were great daily drivers, (and can still be), but now that we've all figured out how to make 'em run much better, it takes a toll on parts and causes added wear & tear. 15+ years doesn't help either, unless you've replaced EVERYTHING. I honestly could not imagine being w/o my GN, but I certainly don't want to drive it daily anymore, after having my LS1 Z28. I've spent less than $1000 in mods (mostly on Vigilante converter) on the LS1 and it runs consistent 12.50's at 109. That's plenty fun for a daily driver, and will outrun alot of folks. It also has a full warranty, which is a wonderful thing! In the end, the decision has got to be with what makes you happy, but, I think if I were still in college and traveled any real distance, I'd have to go with something newer and with a warranty. By what you've said you can spend, I think I'd buy a 98 LS1 for about 12-14k, and save the rest towards getting the Buick after I got out of school. This sounds ironic coming from me, since I've had at least one TR or GN since 1991, and I like them a ton! They are certainly more fun to race, and yield huge satisfaction when beating a V8 hot rod! (especially Vipers). However, I've also learned many hard/expensive lessons over the years, and am simply telling you this from a timely acquired wisdom... For whatever that's worth...

 

[Outpost]

'Do You Remember Old Gray?'

It' interesting to see a comment like that. We own that car (check sig).

 

[mark b]

Well, I'd like to throw my .02 in

IMHO, electronic technology has progressed since '87 and they are now more reliable. Like any car, there are TR owners that have high milage and low failure rates while others have low miles and high failure rates.

Most astute people recognize technology is driven by R&D expenditures, business/economic environments and occasionally regulations. There are equally smart people in every part of the world. The US automotive engineering workforce is certainly not composed of only native Americans.

The foreign car argument gets old and complicated quickly. Many foreign cars are actually made here of course. Many US cars have a large number of parts made out of the country. While many may argue the *money* goes out of the country, how many of you own mutual funds? I'm sure we recognize those funds often invest in these companies. Trade deficits and stuff are topics for another forum.

Without doubt, an 85-87 era TR is getting harder to keep on the road. Were it not for our vendors and other individuals with aftermarket products (like the translator), we would be hurting!
In the final analysis, a TR is still a GM product - which means it's not of Mercedes quality, but is not Yugo either!

 

[TurboTnZ06]

True an unrestored Turbo Buick may not be reliable, however, I replaced pretty much everything and my 87 Turbo T is a very good daily driver...11.9 @ 115...Drove it to and from work while the vette was in the shop getting fixed...