When was the buick grand national made

In , it returned. This time it had a horsepower, turbo, V6 that moved the car to comparable performance numbers to the Corvette. In fact, the Grand National and the Corvette were both putting down 15 second times in the quarter-mile at the track. In , Buick became the fastest American production car thanks in part to the turbo V6 receiving updates. Those updates pushed horsepower to horsepower. Quarter-mile times dropped under 14 seconds.

For , the final year of production for the Buick Regal Grand National, the performance house, McLaren, worked with the manufacturer to create the ultimate beast. A bigger turbo, tweaked suspension, a bigger exhaust, and a refined computer brought quarter-mile times under 13 seconds, bettering the performance of the Porsche and Ferrari F40 of the day. The only car in the world that was faster was the Lamborghini Countach. All in all, my research blew my mind.

The same year, Chevrolet's flagship performance car, the more expensive Corvette, was producing only five more horsepower than the Buick Grand National and ten fewer foot-pounds of torque, with the Corvette only eight-tenths of a second faster than the Buick in the quarter mile.

This shot over Chevy's bow would set off a horsepower rivalry between the engineers of the Corvette and the Grand National that would last until the mighty Buick Regal GNX served as the Grand National model's swan song.

It was the first time the Buick Grand National bested the base-model Corvette in horsepower, producing five more ponies than the 'Vette. With the deeper-breathing turbo and intercooler, the Regal Grand National had a time of 4. As Car and Driver noted in their review, their testing further showed the Buick Regal Grand National was quicker in the quarter mile than all buy a handful of the most powerful Ferrari and Porsche street cars, and even faster than the legendary Lamborghini Countach.

The apex in the lineup came in with a limited-edition, specially prepared, Grand National Experimental or GNX—the ultimate development and fitting end to the line which included more of what made the turbo Buicks great. Improvements included a Garrett T3 turbocharger with ceramic impeller and GNX heat sheild, larger capacity intercooler, reprogrammed engine management and performance suspension with torque bar and GNX-only rear differential cover.

They supposably had only horsepower pound feet of torque - but that was an underrated figure. What was different? The GNX had a special Garrett T-3 turbocharger and a much larger intercooler, dual exhaust with improved flow, reprogrammed computer and transmission, a custom torque converter, a transmission cooler and high performance differential setup for increased traction.

There were also a few minor exterior upgrades. The quarter mile came in It only took 4. And THAT was right off the showroom floor Same engine as Sport Coupe.