karl smith my brother has a 83 cutlass coupe & I have an 84 Regal limited 4 door...both are tire smoking, head turning daily drivers🤙

My brother still has an 86 Cutlass Supreme that he bought brand new. He put a 455 in it. Most badass ride to this day.

My ride was the malibu... 78 tbe...

do u have a mullet and smoke Marlboro reds?

I would love to have any of them!👌😎👍

They stuffed the 3800 Turbo in an 89 Trans Am and sold it as a limited edition car. That was around 4-4.5 seconds, and no speed limiter. I'm pretty sure the GNX was throttled at 127, I think. These motors were beasts. Even the Cyclone/Typhoon turbos were beasts. I don't know why GM stopped focusing on them.

GNX's and all turbo regals were capped at 124 mph. Trust me with their suspension 120 is a white knuckle ride. Top Speed on the TTA I believe was 162.

No joke, but ridiculously hard to obtain. I forget what the GNX was supposed to sticker for, but i do remember that the father of one of my classmates who did buy one shelled out over 40 large for it. Well over twice the price of any other loaded G-body of that time.

Original MSRP was 29900

James P The Cyclone/Typhoon platform had Turbo 4.3 motors.

There were a bunch of cars from the mid 80's to mid 90's that got great fuel numbers . But that's all swept under the rug now.

CB85 - I hear you. But today, a performance car that does 0-60 in 8 seconds would be considered molasses. Especially when a frigging Honda Pilot will do 0-60 in under 6 seconds and gets 23 mpg combined?!? A Honda Pilot? 🤔

@@McRocket with 100+hp and cost 3 times more, other example a 09 chevy cobalt with stage 1 can do 30mpg+ 300hp, 0-60 in 4.9, 1/4 in 13.2 and held the record of the fastest fwd on the nurburgring for 10 years and was priced less than 30k fully loaded, its still better than most 2021 cars

@@retrocompaq5212 I am talking about stock cars. You can make almost any, used car go faster and cheaper than a new car with mods.

The 94-96 impala ss was 0-60 in 7.5 seconds and got 25 mph highway. And if you added a hitch or could tow 6500 lbs.

Why to both. A Camry is faster in 0-60 and the quarter mile, and is more reliable. A Jaguar XJR from 2004-2009 is MUCH faster and better looking and cheap. If you want American, a Dodge Charger of any model is better in every way. There are some awesome 60s and early 70s cars but 80s cars were awful, a golf cart has more power due to the emission restrictions and they hadn't yet figured out how to output power under them. I think I'd die of depression (or rather trying to merge onto a hi-way) if it took me 8 seconds to get to 60.

I can't believe you sold it, my aunt bought one in the 80's when she sold it in the 90's she asked if i wanted it. I said Naaa, what a dumb ass i was in those days. She didn't want shit for it either. who knew it was such a gem i guess.

Cruor34 These cars had soul. Personality. You’re right a Camry V6 is faster and infinitely more reliable, but it lacks heart. It’s just an appliance. This car represents a passion that a Camry can’t deliver.

@@Cruor34 Then the 1987 Buick Grand National is perfect for you then. 20k for a very nice example, and a 0-60 under 6 seconds.

@@Cruor34 : ....you don't understand nostalgia.

jmc6000 reading all the comments pisses me off. These people have no idea what the GNX was and how fast it is, even by today's standards. That motor was hitting 60 in under 5 seconds by the late 80s.

@@jamesp504 such a shame that they didnt continue the development of their turbo v-6. The 3.8 was a very good, and tough engine, in all of its forms. Its actually rather incredible that this type of technology never showed up in a Corvette, and only made it into the F-body in a short production run T/A in 89.

@@jamesp504 the GNX was a piece of bad ass steel..I’ve always said if I ever won the lottery 100K of it is set aside to buy one. There is usually at least one for sale somewhere every couple months

My friend had a GNX, the car was clicking off 13:20's in the quarter mile. In 1987 that was seriously fast. We had some good times cruising the strip in that car, many cars had a good look at our tail lights ! My friend nearly lost his driver's license with that car and he sold it around 1989.

@@ShyaMiss Although a great engine, I'm glad it didn't show up in a Corvette. V-8 only in a Vette, anything less, is sacrilegious!

What do you mean "for a buick"? Buick made SFI a thing for the most part in american cars.

Eventually they added intercoolers, and the 1987 GNX was hitting 60 in under 5 seconds. Buick wasn't fucking around in the 80s. They weren't Grandma cars until GM ruined them in the 90s. However, a 1997 Regal was supercharged to 240hp/280 lb ft. So you could get a sleeper grandma car if you wanted.

Very modern for any car. But at this time only American 4 cylinders and the 'Vette had basic throttle body injection and pretty much all other V6s and V8s still had carbs. All foreign cars still had carbs. So this Buick was way ahead of the curve having Sequential Multi-Port injection.

coil on plug too.

@@spazzman90 - Cadillac was using multi- port injected EFI Olds 350" in Sevilles starting in 1975... 10+ years earlier!

Keep it bud. I'm genuinely happy for whoever can have these cars, have fun with and take good care of them. Enjoy it 4 many more years to come

Q- Bert Not sure if you know a person with one. Drive one. It will put a great big grin on your face. Preferably '86-87 model year.

That's correct. For the 1987 model year the Buick Grand National was actually faster than the Corvette, which I'm sure made the GM executives cringe a bit at that fact.

86 and 87 faster than the Vettes of those years

Clinton Stubbs and yet Europeans were getting 200hp out of a 2.0 😂

Not in the 80’s unless a race car

Hardly overrated. They were the quickest american production car 86 and 87. That was proved numerous times by mags of the time including Cars Illustrated which ran a 13.85@99.75 with the 86 T-Type press car. The 87 GNX was the icing on the cake as stock ones ran 13.2-13.5 depending on conditions. I have a video of the GM boys at the track with a GNX and a Callaway TT Vette and the GNX beat every time. Having owned 5 of these turbo regals in all 3 flavors I can say they are not overrated. Even my 87 GN did 14.0 stock on crappy street tires

I love Buick Regal and Grand National

Literal BLAST from the last!

illstplaya: I would imagine that most people who are watching this, know that already. Awesome cars for their time. Still one of the meanest looking cars ever made!

86-87 model years. The 88+ switched to FWD.

The 87 Grand National had MUCH more upgrades than this car and hit 60 in the mid 5's. The GNX was a different story. Car and driver took a prototype in July of 1987 and got to 60 in 4.7 seconds

Also there was no 1988

No 1988 Buick Regal?

Jason Rogers you r right cadillac stole all of buicks heritage and have shelved the GN i will never buy one. NEVER

@@2007deadeye1 No worries. The good V cars are now officially dead anyway.

Don't forget the Limited w/WE4 code, chrome everthing and lots of luxury touches like Landau top and cornering lights...if you wanted it.

I love Buick Regal, GNX and Grand National

Cadillac was using multi-port injected EFI Olds 350" in Sevilles starting in 1975... 10+ years earlier!

Finally someone that gets it. They could have shaved a few tenths off if they had run it up against the brake and got the turbo spooling a little

My stock 84 designer series ran 15.2 with the exhaust opened up behind the cat.

The Mustang LX 5.0 was doing it from 87 onwards for a lot less money. Plus it had the advantage of being able to take corners 😊

@@lancemannion4113 can’t argue with that. Different type of vehicle for sure. I liked the 5.0’s but really liked the body of the Nationals. Both really nice cars

To be fair, that’s a pretty awful digital display on this car.

boss12 my 1989 is fwd and 140 hp 3.1L v6. 2nd gen was way better.

Mr. Queasy I had a 92 with the 3800 and 170hp. And 4 doors‼️

lol

Pussaty early GNs were not black

Nicholas Rodrigues did they ever come in dark cherry red? His wheels were the same as the t-type

Pussaty I don't remember. I do know they came in a similar 2 tone grey that this T Type was in.

ur right young man Grand Nationals were black. but it didn't really matter because any Turbo Buick be it GN T type or Turbo Regals as long it was a 86 87. we're pretty quick stock they ran high 13 to low 14s especially when it was cold. but when you start bolting them by putting performance mods on them. like a computer chip ram air racing pulleys shift kit high flow in tank fuel pump turning up the fuel pressure. crank the boost up to 17 to 19 pounds. they could easily run the Quarter mile any where from low 13 to mid 11s that's with a stock motor. add some good flowing Heads, bigger Cam high flowing injectors. art car 9 inch stall converter. bigger intercooler two high flowing fuel pumps some C 16 blue racing gas turn the boost up between 21 to 25 pounds slap on some slicks those cars would mid to low tens at over 128 MPH in the Quarter mile. to this day it's hard to beat a well tuned Buick Turbo Regal and that's a hundred percent FACTS.

@@SantanKGhey1234 the official color would be called Dark Claret. I know. I owned an 87. Vin code 7 Buick. It looked very dark, but not black.

Adam Trombino what did he buy????? Gota tell us!

Lol. You are so right. Isn't it funny how some people don't see the Beauty in this Beast.

Id trade all 4 of my Hondas for one.. Just classic badass

I had the same car too.

I wonder the same. heard 87 did

haha! I was in the same boat back in the day. 1988 and a $17k car and I said no that it was overpriced. Duh!

+buckets of rust you obviously don't know what your talking about......They "adjusted to the times"? LOL When Buick made this 1984 T-Type, they sold a little under 1 million cars. In 2017, Buick sold about 220,00. Wow Buick(G.M.) really make the right decision killing off their RWD sedans and performance heritage. The switch to all FWD sedans was such a great move(sarcasm off). So much for "learning how economics and demand work" Mr. Buckets of Rust! BTW Buick would have already been dead if they were a U.S. only brand. China's love for Buick heritage is the only reason why Buick made it through G.M. bankruptcy. If the Koreans can make a twin turbo RWD sedan(Kia Stinger), Buick has no excuse. Having said that, I do understand(and hate) the huge crossover demand, and the decrease in Americans buying sedans.....

Jason Roberts Exactly mate.

I'm with you 100% Jason! Buick has forgotten about us and really only want to cater to the Chinese! GM could've made Buick a China/ East Asia brand, and kept Pontiac!

You are right! I read about the new Buick Regal GS with the 3.6 V6 and all wheel drive. It's a fast car and etc... But if Buick REALLY wanted to grab attention, they would turbocharge it (smile).

A 2018 Hyundai Elantra GT does 0-60 in 7.2 seconds, and it is a lot cheaper than a Buick T-type Regal ever was (adjusted for inflation.) A lot of four door sedans and crossovers get under 6.5 seconds to 60mph. I wouldn't call this incredible performance by today's standards, even though it was admittedly decent for its day. As for "unique", it looks like every other Regal from the period except for some blacked out trim and a small spoiler. It's a rarity to see one these days, so I totally understand the appeal, but what made this Regal special was the absence of look-at-me gimmickery...they left that to other GM divisions. I'm not trying to be argumentative but I'm not exactly sure what your point is. Maybe Buick will go the way of Pontiac and Olds, which would be incredibly sad, or be a "China market only brand", but they were never a marque known for their performance heritage. As far back as I can remember - and I am a child of the 70s/80s - Buicks were old, grandfatherly type cars. A safe bet for comfortable luxury cars. As examples, the A-car Centurys and late '80s LeSabres sold like hot cakes, but performance cars they were not, T-type or otherwise. If Buick still made cars like the Regal (i.e., big and RWD), they would have disappeared by the early 1990s, so buckets of rust is right: the market changes, they had to adjust. If anything, they were too late to the SUV game by about a decade. I agree that modern Buicks are too much like facsimiles of other vehicles these days, but they surely wouldn't have survived as a brand had they continued to make cars like the Turbo Regal. The best we can hope for is that GM has some surprises for us. Give us a Buick version of the old GTO (Holden) or some sort of sporty car that is not offered by Chevy or Cadillac. But I wouldn't bet on it, and it didn't work for Pontiac for that matter. Unfortunately, by appealing to mature buyers for such a long time, Buick is just not attractive to younger people (with money) the same way BMW, Audi and Lexus brands might be. (The best-selling Buick in 2016 was the small Encore SUV, but my guess is that even that will lose ground as Chevy introduces the cheaper and almost identical Trax.) In the USA, Buick find themselves in the same difficult position Lincoln and Cadillac find themselves in, no matter how good or competent the current cars and crossovers are...they are seen as an anachronistic brand from a different era. Don't be surprised if GM will just be selling the Chevrolet and GMC Truck brands in the USA soon.

You and me both. I owned 5 of these cars in all 3 flavors. My favorite was my 84 just like this one over my 87 GN. Same WH1 designers package and everything. The times here were a little slow as they didn't spool the turbo at the line. They will run mid 15's.

Not "prototypes" but "precursors." First came the turbo Regals, then came the turbo Regal Grand Nationals, and as a "last hurrah" came the Regal Grand National eXperimental. TR-->GN-->GNX

That is a nice evolution. Wish I had the GNX myself.

Yup the good old G body!

My friend had a Monte Carlo of the same year with the same turbocharged engine as the Buick. At least, I believe it was the same engine. I know it's turbocharged and it was a dog. He got it from a junkyard for like 200 bucks. I bet it's pretty rare

Buddy had a monte ss with a 454, hoollyy sshhiitt!

@@-fuk57 naw young man back 85 86 87 the poor Monte Carlo came with a low output 305 motor it ran only mid to high 16s in the Quarter mile. the Grand national and Turbo Buick's had a a 3.8 L 231 cubic inch V6 motor with a turbo charger putting out 245 underrated horse power with 355 pounds of torque they ran the Quarter mile in high 13s to mid to low 14s especially when the weather was cold. 0 to 60 was high to mid 5 seconds when the weather was very cold 60 to 45 degrees the car ran a low 5 to high 4 seconds 0 to 60.

@@stanleyposey362 But THIS Monte had a turbo v-6. I'm pretty sure it was Factory. It had Factory turbo badges on the fenders.

The Eldorado was the 'E' platform. The other cars you mentioned were the 'G' platform. Eldorado was FWD.

Regal, Cutlass and Monte Carlo were the same body along with the Grand Prix. Eldorado, Toronado and Riviera were the same body along with the Seville.

More like 2 seconds for the standard TR. 3 if you include the GNX

Stuart oliver ??????

There's a 1991 F150 test, search for it

Exactly, The New C8 Corvette weight about 3500 hundred pounds, yike!

True... Every 2.0 turbo today owes something to this 3.8 from Buick.

THIRTY FIVE years later, it better. And your 2.0 Turbo uses more than half the fuel.

That's awesome! Does he have a KZfaq?

No turbo, but front wheel drive. More flash than go. Still a nice Buick

I remembered I wanted one at 10 years old lol. My pops drove buicks and every time he got it service, I remembered sitting in them in the showroom.

ArchetypeDatsun You're delusional 😆

Big block 472 lop

Because it was a blacked out Turbo-T

As a motor week tradition John will always start out standing next to a car in that is related by name plate or segment. Not necessarily the model that is the star of that episode

Cody Clark no such production model. A blacked out T Type is a grand national. Not to mention it has Grand National badge on fender, not the T Type badge.

Rediscover Film ...as others have said, it's a GN in the studio, he even gives a hand gesture saying "like this T-type". While doing the video why no mention of the Leir-Seigler interior or Designer series paint theme? $12K price tag, WOW, someone fire up the DeLorean....NOW!

Klasse Act I’m the one who said it was a GN.

It was ahead of its time!

I think this engine was the first distributorless engine of its type, but I could be wrong.