turbo riviera's? What is that about?

[Quinnpatrick]

I have been doing "turbo Buick" searches on e-bay. There was a turbo Riviera on there. The motor looked identical to the non-intercooled 84/85 cars?

What is up with that?

 

[Quinnpatrick]

Here is the ebay item I saw.

170166686517



Thanx.

 

[notacarlo]

Well, Buick made a Riviera T-Type.

 

[blown okie]

yep they really exist, theres one here in my town that the guy has tried to sell to me, but i ain't got the $. & i have to many damn cars!!

 

[Quinnpatrick]

Weird/interesting. Do people make them fast, convert to 86/87, etc? I think it is FWD, which is weird.

 

[Turbo6Smackdown]

Do people make them fast? No. Plus, theyre soo rare, ya never see em anyway. Though, what made you think that car was FWD?

 

[blown okie]

they ARE fwd!

 

[turbofish38]

Welcome to todays history lesson on Turbo Buicks. Just kidding. I've owned 7 of the SFI T-Type Rivieras. I still have one running car, one project car and at least enough parts to build 3 more cars. They are FWD. Cruise on over to the hot air forum and you'll see a few more. My personal best was a 13.94 and this was a basic recipe stocker. K&N,chip, fuel pump and gutted cat. No slicks or DRs. And that my friends is a 3900 pound hot air car driving through the front wheels. Let me see if I remember the numbers. 1086 cars were built in 84 and 1115 in 85. The motors are actually rated at 190HP because they use the old carb camshaft instead of the SFI cam in the Regal. 84's are considered faster because they have a 3.36 final drive compared to the 85's 3.15. The transaxle is a FWD version of the BRF tranny including TCC in 3rd and 4th. They use the same TC has the hot air Regal. I have a few window stickers. The base price was about $4000 more than a Regal T-Type. If you buy one make sure it is running,has all of it's parts and is as rust free as can be.
1- Zero parts availabilty.
2-The Riviera rust in places that dont exist on Regals. Again zero reproduction parts.
Condition dictates price. Most people think they are worth something because they are rare. Dont fall for the BS. Even mint showroom examples of a NA Riviera dont fetch more than $5K on average. Convertables are a different story. BTW the SFI turbo converts are the only cars fetching the big bucks.

I love my Rivieras. I like them better than my GN. It's fun blowing away Impala SS's and those pesky Civics in stop light grand prixs. They are true stealth performance cars.

 

[garyk1970]

heres a pic of my jewel saving it for the turbo,block and moon roof......

 

[Quinnpatrick]

Interesting stuff. Thanx for the lesson guys.

 

[coldair85GN]

One more thing you should add...before you shell out money for one MAKE SURE it is an SFI car and not an earlier 4bbl Turbo model from 78-83.

 

[Turbo6Smackdown]

How is a non transverse mounted engine, front wheel drive? Not that im doubting you, but how in the hell did they do that?

and im not sure modifying a FWD car would be worth it.

 

[coldair85GN]

How is a non transverse mounted engine, front wheel drive? Not that im doubting you, but how in the hell did they do that?

and im not sure modifying a FWD car would be worth it.

The same way Oldsmobile did it with the 455 Toronado back in the 60's
You can do pretty much anything to the front drive Riv's that you can do to an 84-85 TR...except the halfshafts will probably disentigrate very quilckly. Buick actually toyed with the idea of making the baby Riv an intercooled turbo car in 88 but the tranny wouldnt hold it.

 

[JDEstill]

now who was it that used to race their Riviera in NHRA... I want to say it was a record holder, in one of the Stock classes. Back in the late 90's or early 00's, when the mailing list was still active and TB.com had yet to be born. A little search through the mailing list archives would probably turn him (and his car) up. Or another old timer might remember. Maybe a friend of the Gallina's? West coaster?

John

 

[Turbo6Smackdown]

not to hijack but, you guys know some odd stuff, so maybe you'd know the answer to this question. as a kid, i read about this one car, (i really think it was olds) that had exhaust cutouts, that would open as the car accelerated faster and faster. anyone know this car?

 

[JDEstill]

Found it. Scott North was the guy, running Stock Eliminator BF/SA, with an unopened, 75k mile '84 Riviera. Set the record back in '98 with a 13.8@96 on just 15 psi boost, running 1.5 secs under the index. Said he was afraid to crank up the boost because he was afraid he'd get re-factored into a higher class!

John

 

[usetaboost]

is the car silver by a chance?

 

[Quinnpatrick]

I think it was a grayish silver with a red interior. Above I have the ebay auction number. Pop it in on the ebay search button and it will come up.

 

[turbofish38]

You can do pretty much anything to the front drive Riv's that you can do to an 84-85 TR...except the halfshafts will probably disentigrate very quilckly. B

The half shafts are beefy truck style units. The same ones used on the Syclone/Typhoons. Not wimpy 4 cylinder ones. I've never busted one yet. The needles in the CV joints do wear rather fast but they give fair warning and they wont frag the axle apart anyway.

 

[blown okie]

Hmmm....maybe i should find a way to buy the one here local...go race stock class with it for a bit.....hmmm