What attracted you to the Regal/TR/GN?

[StlRegal]

Basically, what made you want one of these cars?

For me, my boss always drove G-Bodys during the 80s which we would talk about while working. Then one day my friend pointed out a beat up old cutlass when we were riding around. Even though it was a POS I could still recognized its ability to be a badass car.

Then to even furthur the disease, I played gran turismo 4 which had a GNX in it. Before I had always thought of it as a hoodlems car. But then i slowly realized that it was more than that. Then at work one day I saw a g-body for sale, and when I finally got up close I was stoked to find out it was Regal.

So I worked my ass off, saved up, fought my dad (he doesnt think so highly of them 80s cars) and bought the car, which is why I'm here now.

 

[bad V6]

For me, it was being out cruising the strip, Scottsville Road back in '87, '88, '89, '90, and so on, and being awed as the sound of that little V6 took over town during the Nats. After seeing them come to town every spring, watching them tear up the track and the street, I hoped that someday I'd have one.

Well, my wife and I were out during the week of the Nats a few years back and she messed up, by saying how she'd like to have one of those black cars, the search began. Now she wishes she had never seen a Buick.

Finally I located the car I'd so longed for, a 2 owner '87 GN. First owner a female school teacher, likely not to have hurt the car. Second owner a gentleman who had the car for 7 years. He had done some minor upgrades and had the car to the track some, but had kept the car in storage the last 5years, except for the Hot Rod Power Tour, which had ventured through his neck of the woods 3 of those 5 years.

Now it's in my hands, and we celebrated a milestone this weekend, 1000 miles with me behind the wheel. At only 1000 miles in 2 1/2 years, I hope it will be around a long time.

Pat

 

[artrenee10]

Its unique....
I bought my first one about 6/7 years ago....I had never seen any, and I thought they were just bad ass looking. Now 7yrs later I am on my second one....The trend will probably continue....:tongue:

 

[yullose]

I was lucky enough to work as a Service Advisor in a Buick dealership in the mid-80's. I got a to drive a bunch of Turbo Buicks right after they were unloaded off the car carrier with the plastic still on the seats and floor.

Didn't actually buy my first one until about 2 years ago... I was always building Big Block Chevys and Camaros before that.
I wish I had stumbled onto the Buick scene alot sooner... It would have saved me a ton of money.

 

[1FASTV6]

In 1987 I looked at the Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS and the Buick GN / T-type and purchased the Buick as the Monte Carlo SS didn't come with a electric antenna. The two tone dash on the Monte Carlo SS was not great looking either. The quickness of these cars were not greatly known when I made my purchase. The speed of these cars quickly spread soon after. That was 20 years ago

 

[troGNman]

I liked them ever since they changed the body style in '81....the Indy Pace Car sealed the deal for me.

I wanted to buy a new '84 GN but couldn't swing the payments at the time so I settled for a Blue MCSS ($12,800 vs. $15,800). When the '86 GN came out I traded the Monte + cash on a T-Top GN.

 

[no-nos]

for me it was back in 87 still in high school, when at my girlfriends house this guy drives up that my friend knew, and he had just picked it up from the dealer, ( i used to like mustangs ) anyway, when he took of he nailed it and the car did a 360 burn-out and when i found out it was automatic, that was it, i've had 2 gn's and 1 turbo-t ( i had to sell one when i went into the army.

 

[86brick]

Well since my dad is the one that got me as well as my bro started on these cars I guess it's only right I share his story as to how he got started with these cars... Back in '87 my dad was working for the city Utilities and his friend who happened to be a Lt. for the local Police department had just purchased a GN and came by to show it to him while he was on his lunch break knowing that my dad was in the market for a new car.. My dad immediately fell in love with the way the car looked, but was a bit confused about how quiet the car was.. When his friend explained it had a turbocharged V6 my dad was turned off after having owned plenty of V8 GM muscle cars including a '68 327 SB Camaro, '69 427 BB Vette, and a '78 Pontiac Firebird TA.. He thought there was no way that a little V6 could make enough power to make this car feel like the muscle cars he had owned in the past.. Well his friend told him to get in the car for a ride and he'd gladly show him what this little V6 could do, but not having too much time my dad told him he might go test drive one just for the hell of it at the local Buick dealership... After my dad got off from work that day he first went to the Chevy dealership and test drove a Monte Carlo SS as he knew it had a V8 and liked the fact that it had enough room for the whole family (at the time I was taking rides in a baby seat) so after his test drive he was pretty sold on the Monte... Still being intriqued about what his friend had told him about the black Buick, he decided to go test drive one at the nearest Buick dealership which happened to be Endicott in Fort Lauderdale.. When he was pulling out of the dealership parking lot in the Buick the sales guy warned him to be careful because these cars had a lot of power and so you can imagine what my dad did at that point......

Needless to say after scaring the $hit out of the salesman and having a big grin on his face he went in the dealership and started filling out the paper work for his '87 GN.

The rest as they, is history.:smile:

 

[budget_crx]

my dad tought me about them in elementary school, ever since then I wanted one bad. There was a neighbor of mine whos friend had an 87 WE4 and I used to ride my bike down the street to gawk at it. Then In high school I met this kid Dave whose dad had a WE4 as well (not the same one). So throughtout school we constantly talked about GNs and it just fueled my love for them even more. So as is customary with high school kids and a fast car, we were constantly working on it, cruising, racing, whatever. When it came time for me to buy my first car (I was 15) I tried to buy a local '84 T Type., It was briar brown, had Cragar wheels on it... it was a POS, but i loved it. My parents were all for it until they found out the insurance costs, so they didnt let me buy it. I had the money, but not for the monthly payments! (instead i ended up with the CRX)

Somewhere in there I learned what a WH1 was, and that became the ultimate Turbo Regal for me! (the intercooled ones of course! ) So after oly a few short years of dreaming and waiting, I finally bought my first TR; and it is EXACTLY what i was looking for!!

In all honestly what wouldnt attract you to a TR? They are fast, reliable, somewhat inexpensive, damn good looking, practical. Gbodies themselves are amazing cars, and the TR are the top dogs :biggrin:

 

[budget_crx]

Now it's in my hands, and we celebrated a milestone this weekend, 1000 miles with me behind the wheel. At only 1000 miles in 2 1/2 years, I hope it will be around a long time.

WOW! my first 1,000miles were completed in my first 2 days of owning the car!

 

[notacarlo]

In 1987 I looked at the Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS and the Buick GN / T-type and purchased the Buick as the Monte Carlo SS didn't come with a electric antenna. The two tone dash on the Monte Carlo SS was not great looking either. The quickness of these cars were not greatly known when I made my purchase. The speed of these cars quickly spread soon after. That was 20 years ago

Yeah, I got mine for the electric antenna too.

 

[yullose]

I can still remember driving them brand new... When the intercooled cars came out, it was like night and day difference the way they performed.

Every new IC car would lag a little when you mash the pedal, then lay down 50ft of rubber at the top of 1st gear, and spin another 20ft shifting into 2nd.
Some cars ran better than others, but all the intercooled cars were always fun to test drive.

We still had customers bringing the hot-air cars and carbed turbo Buicks in for routine maintenance, but they just weren't as much fun to test drive as the intercooled versions.

 

[86 TR]

Back in 1995 I was cruising town one night and a black buick regal caught my eye. I didn't know what a Grand National was so I figured my 86 Monte Carlo SS would be a good challenge for it. I kept following him around and it just didn't sound right. Then I see on the hood the 3.8 turbo emblem. Ha, a V-6, my 305 should teach him a thing or two. Got out on the highway he punched it and I could have swore I hit the brakes he pulled away so hard.

Finally caught up with him and I asked him what the car had under the hood. The hood opened, I was in awe. Asked him if he wanted to sell and he told me 9,000 bucks and it had about 82,000 miles on it. The deal was done and the rest they say is history.

One thing though, I blew the engine up the first year I owned it got pissed sold it not knowing what the value of the car would be.

Bought another turbo buick about 6 years later and still wish I would have kept the GN.

 

[darkred87T]

The price I paid for mine...$850. :biggrin:

 

[StlRegal]

The price I paid for mine...$850. :biggrin:

You lucky bastard Please tell me it atleast needed alot of work.

 

[turbo nasty]

Came back to the states from living in Japan for 3 years and had a worked over Skyline there and just had to have Turbo something when I came vback toi the states and the GN was scooped up.

 

[saxman88]

My family's story

Well lets see, My dad is the one who got the family into Grand Nationals, though his reason for getting the car is some what unusual, to say the least. And if anyone has a similar story, please tell cause I would love to hear about a similar situation! Well my dad worked part time at a Hi/Lo, along with his other job, well as Im told, one day a friend/customer brought by his brand new GN. My dad at the present time was looking for a four passenger car, b/c he was planning on having a child(me, born 7/15/88). well, he had looked at the monte carlo ss, along with other cars, and made up his mind when he was "introduced" to the grand national, the rest is history. what makes the story sweeter is that im the only child, so he practically bought the car for me! And now, I drive it. still its my uncle who was introduced to them through my dad, who has now obtained his fair share of GN's. Did not know what they were for the longest, just that both parents had one, and that my mother was the greatest at passing on the freeway come to find out the car had a lot to do with that title. lol
~saxman

 

[RUQWKNF]

My story goes something like this.
In Jan of '86 my parents took me shopping for a new Buick for my mom. Up until this point, we had owned a VW Karmen Gherr, VW bug and 2 Toyota Corollas. We head over to Fowler Buick and the Turbo cars were a plenty. They had five 86 GNs and seven T-Types in pretty much every color you could think of outside with a fully loaded '86 GN inside on display. As much as I tried, I couldn't talk them into a Turbo Buick. My mom did get a sweet '85 Buick Somerset 5spd with a 2.5L Iron Duke motor that averaged 42mpg hwy and 37 city. I learned how to drive in that car. Flash forward to later that summer when I was on a church youth trip. One of the life guards at the pool drove a brand new butternut black out trimmed '87 Turbo T hard top. I really liked the look and by that time I was soaking in as much info I could be my hands on about how fast they were. Flash forward again to '87. I had a friend in High School ('87-'90) whose Grandmother bought all the grand kids a new car when they started HS. Luckyyyyyy!!! (in my best Napoleon Dynamite voice)

Anyway, we had all been following the car mags about the Turbo Buicks from late '86 and he knew he wanted an '87 GN. He got it and was his driver in HS. We would travel to away football games, street race on the streets and constantly tinker with it. He had all the catalogs from Kenne Bell and ATR. And by the spring of '88, he had already had some parts from ATR on the car and it was probably running mid to high 13's. The one time that really comes to my mind that really sealed the deal for me was one night coming home from the movies, the 3 of us in his GN rolled up along side a Sr. from our high school who thought his stuff was the baddest in town. With his blonde haired beauty of a girlfriend driving an '88 Iroc Z convertible. We slowed down to about 35 or so. My friend stuck both his feet out the window and motioned that he was ready to race. The Iroc guy nailed it, my buddy repeatedly punched the cruise control stalks accell button and the car kicked down into 2nd and took off. We blew by him so fast it wasn't even funny. Now, I don't recommend anyone go out and try that, we were young and he was dumb, but I will never forget the look on their faces when we went flying by them with his feet out the window.

I made the mistake of letting him take my Dad for a ride. Not what you want to do if you are trying to convince you parents that their 16 year old can handle a Turbo Buick. Nope, not a good idea. After his test ride, he came back saying, nope, too much power for you son. So I did the next best thing and settled for a '90 Pontiac Sunbird Turbo GT. It was a quick 4 cylinder 2.0L turbo that ran 15.20s bone stock and eventually got PKT RKT down into the 14.00s @ 98 range using Buick GN tuning tricks and no intercooler. After the AF, I found my '86 T-Type that was bone stock, peg legged, from the original owners with 68k miles for $6,500. Brought her home, gave her a good Spring cleaning and ran 14.00s @ 98 on 265/50/15 radial T/As and peg leg rear end. Then I developed a bad case of GFI or Gofastitis after attending my first GS Nationals in '95. Bought a white/chrome '87 Limited in '98 that was my dd, modded it and raced the heck out of it. Eventually took it to a best of 11.07 @ 120. It did make it into an issue of GM High Tech performance back when it was called High Tech Performance magazine. Only kept that one for about a year before I sold it for a more reliable dd. It was around this time that I discovered Turbo Buick.com and joined up. I became a Moderator in the Turbo Lounge forum in '99 and have been trying to help whenever I could since. I then turned my attention back to my '86 with my goals being to run low 10's and still be able to drive it. I eventually got the '86 to run a best of 10.07 @ 135 in TSE trim. Sold it back in Jan of 2005 so I could buy a house. I'm on my 3rd Turbo Buick now and will always own one from now until the comet comes.
Thanks for letting me share and sorry so long.

Patrick

 

[StlRegal]

Good stories, you guys. I got hopes for getting a turbo'ed regal one of these days because ive kinda noticed a pattern. If you guys dont get your turbo regals right off the bat you settle for some other turbo charged car. Well my beater right now is a 87 turbo lebaron, so things look good.

 

[darkred87T]

You lucky bastard Please tell me it atleast needed alot of work.

Yeah, it was pretty run run down but it was all there.