Thanks 4 posting. I love all things Hemmings + any stories like this one.
wouldn't you love to see an "instant replay" of that in slow motion!? I know I would.believe I saw one, downtown Seattle, 1987 or so. It barreled down a steep Seattle hill, then just about vaulted an intersection, it was a green light, the thing kinda of bottomed out at the base of the hill, at the pedestrian crossing, then it hit boost and just floated over the intersection & hit the now closed Seattle Viaduct (gone for four+ years now,) to get to I-5, in a serious hurry. Never saw anything do that before or since. >>WHOOSH had to be a complete maniac, or a cop, to operate like that. Perfect timing on the throttle too.
ME TOO. But, they were totally out of my stratosphere on price. If I recall when they were around / selling at Dealers, I was putting two sons thru private school plus paying for the wife to go back to college for her second career! Funds were quite limited. I was lucky in those days to be able to pay for a house + hang onto all of our vehicles.... the 1972 Chevelle Malibu, 1972 Cutlass Supreme, my 1982 GMC truck and our 1986 Chevy Monte Carlo SS. The insurance man really loved me in those days. One son was drving too.There was A Buick Grand National at Skyline College Auto program that was used to use for diagnosing problems. They are really super cars when they were produced. It is the only vehicle I wished that I purchased.
Oh yeah. Those T-Types are no slouches either. Luxury / Sport stlye if you ask me. I have seen some in amazing condion for sale over the last few years and it would be just as neat to own one of those. A lot less worry taking it out on the highway for sure. Some cars get to the point its too costly / dangerous to enjoy them.I know the GN would be worth more, but i wish i had bought the dark blue T-Type.
What you have to remember is that in this era they literally had chips, i may even still had a prom pulling tool, frequently a drivability TSB would generate a special "PROM" you'd order it and put it in, you literally had to make sure you got all the legs of the chip in the socket. pull the ECU, take the little door off and change the prom. Later they had "CalPacks" which was just a big prom in a plastic case with some releases on each end. I changed them with regularity, but always for some specific problem.
I recall with G.M.C. that they even put some turbo engines in some small cui Pontiacs at the end of the muscle car era and going into the de-tunedIf you're an important enough customer, GM will definitely make you a special package, it's just usually more mundane than an FBI turbo Buick. I see RPO codes for things like "Enterprise - daily rental" and stuff like that. It would be funny to put Z71 style RPO code decals on an ex-rental.
Oh yeah. I read a story in a magazine some years back about how a customer got the CEO of G.M.C. to agree that he could be on the line and purchase the very last BUICK GNX to come off the assembly line. I was never able to find out what exactly the man ended up paying for that car. But I just recently found the story on the internet - he is now in line to get a paycheck for it somewhere north of $500,000 for the car he has protected and kept in brand new condition. Less than 50 original miles on the Buick to this day. Wow.If you're an important enough customer, GM will definitely make you a special package, it's just usually more mundane than an FBI turbo Buick. I see RPO codes for things like "Enterprise - daily rental" and stuff like that. It would be funny to put Z71 style RPO code decals on an ex-rental.
GMCI recall with G.M.C. that they even put some turbo engines in some small cui Pontiacs at the end of the muscle car era and going into the de-tuned
smog era low cui / horsepower years. So that was the turbo Pontiac Trans Ams + the turbo V6 Buick GN and GNXs. I do not recall ever hearing of the G.M.C. brands of Chevy or Oldsmobile selling any turbo vehicles. Seems possible the Olds Toranado could have slipped a few thru with a COPO order? Not aware of any factory Chevrolet turbo cars at all.