Car Spot: Buick Grand National

Not your grandpa’s Buick

Growing up I remember my uncle having a Buick and that’s pretty much the image the brand had with an aging demographic preferring a cushy ride more than performance. With not a lot of foot traffic in the dealerships they needed something much like American Motors that I’ve written about in the 80’s. The answer was to take a page out of the brand’s past when Grand Sport models were used to attract younger, performance and image-conscious buyers and introduce them to the Grand National, the subject of this week’s car spot.

The old saying “win on Sunday, sell on Monday” The Regal steamrolled the competition. 1981 and 1982 saw Darrell Waltrip pilot a Regal to win the Winston Cup Grand National Championship back-to-back. If that wasn’t enough, the car swept the manufacturer’s championship, with a Regal in the winner’s circle 47 out of 62 races. Ah, how times have changed.

In 1982, Buick moved to capitalize on this success and introduced the Grand National, named for the Winston Cup Championship it had just won. The original Grand National was a Regal option package that could be ordered on any trim level. GM would send the cars out in base charcoal grey paint to a modification shop in Michigan, and once there they would be hand-painted two-tone silver on the base charcoal paint and striped with red accents. Later ones, like this one were just black.

There’s an AMC connection to the V-6 used in the car. When AMC bought Jeep in 1970, the V-6 used was a GM product and they wanted it back. At first, they asked AMC to do the retooling but then just ended up doing it themselves and then adding a turbocharger to it.

Then there was the GNX which started with the same 231-cubic-inch V-6 as other Grand National models but received a special Garrett T-3 turbocharger equipped with a ceramic impeller along with a recalibrated engine control unit that permitted 15 PSI of boost resulting in an output of 276 horsepower and 360 pound-feet of torque, a gain of 31 horsepower and five pound-feet of torque over standard Grand National models.

The automotive press loved the GNX, with Car and Driver calling it “an ax-wielding Barbarian laying waste to everything in its path,” while Cars Illustrated called it “The fastest showroom trim Musclecar ever.” Demand quickly outstripped supply, leading to dealer price gouging. MSRP was $29,900, $235,122 today, and convinced that the GNX would be an appreciating classic, buyers eagerly paid whatever price necessary to park one in their garage. 1987 was the only year this iconic ride from Buick was released and only 547 models of the Buick GNX were created making it an instant classic.

Non-turboed cars in good shape now and are affordable. selling for mid-teens however the GNX usually sells for between $50,000 and $150,000. Of course, there are ones going for crazy money. 1987 Buick GNX sold for eBay record of $249,999 in 2021.

Thanks for stopping by and reading about this week’s spot. Be sure to check out my other spots and check back next Friday for another unique car along with its history. Have a great weekend.