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The most exciting news to make headline in our LS and late-model GM performance publication was brought to us by our own expert of everything turbo Regal, Rick Seitz. A few days ago, Seitz excitedly reported to the LSX enthusiast community that Buick has not only recently renewed their trademark on the Grand National/GNX nameplate, but that new runs of the T-Type, GN and GNX may be a reality within the next few sales years.
Seitz says that the turbo Regal fanbase has been awaiting the return of the high-performance Regal fleet for a long time, but hopes of the turbo-6 cars ever returning to the GM assembly line were never too much more than speculative, “We’ve heard rumors of a GN/GNX returning for years, so it’s tough to say exactly how legit these rumors are” says Seitz.
Whether or not a new generation of T-Types, GNs and GNXs are really in the cards has yet to be seen, but word of mouth says that the new T-Types and Grand Nationals are to be powered by an all-new, twin-turbo V6 while the beefier GNX is to be powered by the latest generation of LT1 small-block.
Introduced in 1982 mostly as a naturally-aspirated model, the Grand National was brought in mostly as a cosmetic package, but by '84 the GN combined the stealth look of the all black paint and bumpers with the turbo V6 performance package of the T-Type, all of which was complimented by the GN's grey-on-black interior scheme.
The difference during the 1980s was that it was the decade that followed the ’70s, which meant that now-primitive pollution controls on all cars became an industry standard. It sucked for those who were old enough to remember the ’60s, but it also opened the doors for a new means of building horsepower that involved turbocharging small-cube motors that had cylinders missing from them.
Fuel-saving tactics during the ’70s had caused the age of big-block performance to dwindle, and Buick was the homesoil automaker who knew better than anybody that it wasn’t coming back. They and others had to find more environmentally-conscious ways of building performance while sticking to small motor protocol.
Buick’s solution was to bolt a turbo on to the 231ci V6 that they had in fact revived from the ’60s, and in ’78 the turbo Regal Sport coupe was offered with a two-barrel carburetor option that was rated at 150 horses while the 4-barrel option put out 165.
In our featured video from Edmunds.com, Chris Walton tests the road handling capabilities of the now legendary ’87 GN, a car that offers little in the way of aerodynamics but much in the way of straight-line performance. Walton talks about his Buick GN slalom driving experience while comparing it to Edmunds’ last GN track test, “The big surprise was on the squiggly bits; it was much better handling, a lot more compliant [and] a lot more predictable,” says Walton.
Turbo Regals have never been known as road cars, as their purpose was to reinforce the stoplight, door-slammer tradition. Nevertheless, Walton celebrates the overall look, feel and performance of the Grand National, “We’ve got a good handler but not such a fast one, but it’s still a bitchin’ car!” Walton exclaims.
The “bitchin'” factor was most definitely there with the T-Types, GNs and especially GNXs of the ’80s, and looking back to this phase of Buick and GM’s history is to look back to a fairly recent time when the General tried to combine the straight, square lines of the ’60s with the 1980s’ promise of high-tech gadgetry that would truly blossom into the ’90s, evolving even many steps further into the new Millenium.
