For as long as I have been a car guy, I have been enthralled with the Buick turbo cars from the late '80s. Obviously, a rare as hens teeth GNX is what would really fit the bill, with a GN being my next choice. Unfortunately, these cars are either priced into the stratosphere or are just plain beat. The last two GN's I looked at were both good looking cars, but each owner wanted almost $25,000... no thanks. About two weeks ago, a friend shot me a Craig's List link to a Regal located just over an hour south of us. We went down a week ago to look at it and ended up making a deal on the spot.
We hooked up the trailer Friday afternoon and went down to pick it up. The car is everything the owner represented and we were thrilled to add her to the collection. After looking at the car and returning home, I immediately began researching the turbo G-bodies as I had never really read up on them. Turns out that they made around 4 basic variants in the final year of production -- the bad boy GNX, the GN, a WE4 model which is essentially a blacked out Regal, and the Regal Turbo. Prior to 1987, they called them T-Types, but this designation wasn't carried over into 1987 for some reason. The car does carry a "T" badge on the front fenders and horn button, but "T-Type" is nowhere to be found.
This was a local car and came with complete documentation - including the window sticker and name of the original owner. It has had one re-paint and is essentially stock with the exception of an air distrubution plate under the plenum, the addition of valve cover breathers, a Kenne Bell chip, larger injectors, a "test pipe", modifed waste gate linkage, an air filter intake assembly, and lexan front parking light covers. All the original parts, together with the documentation and a spare set of GN wheels, were included along with the car. Overall, the car is is really good shape and has only a small scrape in the passenger door and a broken bumper filler panel under the rear license plate.
These first two pics are from the day we went down to see it:
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Once we got her home, I started with a wash job, removed the lexan covers, and polished all the chrome and stainless.
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The trunk and interior are both in really good shape. The last owner installed a new headliner and visors.
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The documentation supplied with the car was essentially everything from day one, including a pile of receipts for maintenance items and the few add ons the car has. I do have the original chip and all the stock parts were carefully packed in boxes and bags.
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And of course, the motorvation and what makes these cars so special. Stock they are rated at 255 h.p. and 355 lb.ft. of torque that comes in low in the rev range. I never knew that GM mounted a fan to the crank pulley to pull air through the intercooler -- kind of a neat surprise.
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The plan is to perform some service on the car and then enjoy it this summer. I'll start by changing the oil and flushing the cooling system later this week. After that, I'll look at the brakes and probably change the fluid in the rear. Not sure yet if it is a posi or open rear, although it is an 8.5" with 3.42 gears out back.
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/v...ps6b1f6472.jpg