Black Angel of Death..., What do you think of Grand Nationals? Options

[bigjiggy81]

Thinking about selling my 1g awd project and my 90 300zx and getting an 86 Buick Grand National, the black angel of death as some call them, and also picking up a decent small pickup for daily driving, have any of you guys ran into any GN's or raced any? There are 2 i am looking at, both around 8k and both with about 125k miles, I really want one, to take out to the track every once in a while and also take to car shows and all that, some people love em some people hate em, i kinda like the "joe dirt" look of them, how about ou?

[wortdog]

www.gnttype.org is a wonderful archive of information on the cars.

While they are fast, nowadays they're also a bit rare(only 35,000 Intercooled ones were ever made, 20,000 of which were '87 GNs), which makes parts for them increasingly expensive. GM no longer makes any parts for them at all. Aftermarket aluminum short blocks including alumnium heads are available, but a fully built one will cost $15,000 at a minimum (which isn't bad for a 1500hp capable setup). A small block or a DSM will give you a much better dollar to performance ratio.

If you're willing to forgo the Grand National name, you can save $1000-$2000 by getting a T-Type or Turbo 'T'. The T-Types and Turbo T's are the same car except for being available in any color and they don't have the two-tone GN interior or the GN wheels. They're also about 50lbs lighter due to aluminum wheels and aluminum bumper supports as well as being 4 times rarer than the relatively common '87 GN.

I bet you can find a better deal than 8k for a car with 125k miles on it. My 87 Turbo 'T' w/ 118k on it has a rebuilt motor(around 18,000 on it), a few mods, an almost brand new transmission (maybe 14,000 on it), and pretty decent paint. I doubt I could get much more than 7 for it. I originally purchased it for 3k needing minor bodywork and exceedingly minor powertrain work with 83k miles on it. Now I have about 6,500-7,000 in it total.

I doubt that the 406ci engine described isn't very streetable in reality, and if it is, its not making 600whp. I bet its closer to 450-500whp unless he's revving the shit out of it (doubtful unless he's got solid lifters) or it has a really high compression ratio forcing him to run race gas all the time. You're talking less than 10mpg on the highway with that thing, and there's nothing street legal about those modifications, they're just legal mods for the 'street class' that he runs in. A Turbo Buick can be a practical daily driver(23mpg and pump gas), but you pay for it in initial cost.