Buick GNX – Pulpaddict

BUICK GNX #002

Scott Oldham blogs about driving BUICK GNX #002, the first GNX to be involved in a traffic accident!

Scott Oldham blogs about driving BUICK GNX #002, the first GNX to be involved in a traffic accident!

In 1987, I was handling East Coast media relations for Buick Motor Division, wrote the BUICK GNX book that went with each of the 547 GNXs, and had the second production GNX (#002) in my New York City press fleet for a few months.

The first media loan went to Joe Oldham at Popular Mechanics magazine, and son, Scott, later to become a respected member of the automotive media community, borrowed it to drive to a friend’s house. In the process, he got rear-ended while stopped at a traffic light. It was the first GNX to be involved in an accident, and both his late Dad, Joe, he and I have never forgotten about it.

Read Scott Oldham’s BUICK GNX #002 story @ https://www.hagerty.com/media/archived/crashing-a-brand-new-buick-gnx/

BUICK GNX & PONTIAC 20th ANNIVERSARY TRANS AM

Both the BUICK GNX & PONTIAC 20^th ANNIVERSARY TRANS AM are powered by turbocharged Buick V-6 engines and deliver similar performance. But the Trans-Am, unlike the very limited production GNX, is much more available and affordable, blogs Hagerty’s Eddy Eckart.

Nicola Bulgari’s heavily-modified 4.1-liter Buick Grand National and Pontiac 20th Anniversary Turbo Trans Am. Photographed in Rome, Italy in 1997.

Can a substitute ever be as satisfying as the real thing? It’s a question with which we all seem to struggle from a young age. It’s not always broccoli versus ice cream, either—often, the comparison is much closer, like Matchbox versus Hot Wheels. Each has its high points, and though you may prefer one, and all the hype tells you that it’s superior, the other just might impress if you give it a chance.

Take the 1987 Buick GNX & 1989 Pontiac Trans Am 20^th Anniversary Edition, they’re the protagonists in what might be the ultimate 1980s domestic-substitution challenge. Since the Black Buick’s prices remain stratospheric, could it be that the best alternative comes from cross-town Pontiac?

We can see the furrowed brows of the Buick faithful through the screen. Yes, you’ve got a point – despite nearly identical drivetrains, the differences between the BUICK GNX & PONTIAC 20^th ANNIVERSARY TRANS AM are black and white, much like the sole color choice offered on each car. Besides, wouldn’t a lesser-trim Regal scratch that GNX itch without the GNX price tag? Buick built thousands of the turbo Regal variants between 1978 and 1987, from the super-niche 1987 Turbo Regal Limited (1035 produced) to the more garden-variety Grand Nationals and T-Types, and they cover a broad price spread, too. But, if you want a range-topping, Ferrari-eating, force-fed piece of 1980s American history, and you like your cars ultra-rare, it’s either the GNX or the ’89 Turbo T/A.

This turbo turf war has its roots in 1978, when Buick made quite the pivot. Hailing from the city that forged the formula for the V-8 muscle car, the Regal Sport Coupe’s fancy turbocharged 3.8-liter V-6 debut signaled a new path to power. Sure, its 165 horsepower and 245 pound-feet of torque did little to evoke the tire-evaporating 455 in Buick’s departed GS, but it was a step in the right direction. (It was also the only turbocharged domestic on the market that year, with Porsche, Saab, and Mercedes-Benz the only others with turbocharged models in the U.S.)

Continue reading about the BUICK GNX & PONTIAC 20^th ANNIVERSARY TRANS AM @ https://www.hagerty.com/media/market-trends/is-a-trans-am-the-best-alternative-to-buicks-gnx/

BUICK GRAND NATIONAL & GNX.

Between 1982 and1987, Buick turned its cosmetic NASCAR Tribute Grand National into the GNX, the Grand National to end all Grand Nationals. They proved that you didn’t need a V-8 to beat a Corvette! Retired GM engineer Gary Witzenburg writes about the history of the BUICK GRAND NATIONAL & GNX.

For 21 years before NASCAR started selling naming rights in 1971, its top stock-car racing championship was known as the Grand National, and the name lingered in public usage long after the series officially became the Winston Cup. Ten years later, Darrell Waltrip raced factory-backed Buick Regals to claim back-to-back championships in 1981 and 1982. So, it was in keeping with division general manager Lloyd Reuss’s thrust to move Buick’s image from a maker of cushy “doctors’ cars” to something more youthful and exciting when it unveiled the first Regal Grand National at NASCAR’s 1982 Daytona 500.

Just 215 first-year GNs were built, but then Reuss’s team launched a run of all-black Regal GN coupes that would culminate with the truly awesome ’87 GNX. “Tom Wallace was the vehicle chief,” recalls then–Buick assistant chief engineer Don Runkle, “and I had the engine side. My message to the group: ‘We have to beat the Corvette.’ ”

The turbo V-6 story goes all the way back to 1973 when Ken Baker, a young engineer in Buick’s test lab (he would later lead General Motors’ electric-vehicle program, then its research labs), started a Boy Scout Explorer program at the Buick engineering department. “I decided that a great project would be to turbocharge the recently revived V-6 with the capability of performance in lighter cars or fuel economy in larger cars,” he relates. “We begged, borrowed, and scrounged parts to build a dyno engine, then got a scrap Skylark and married the two. That project involved many engineers giving seminars to the [Scout] kids regarding their areas of expertise . . . and a car that was a blast to drive.”

Continue reading Gary Witzenburg’s history of the BUICK GRAND NATIONAL & GNX @ https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a23739443/buick-regal-grand-national-gnx-history/?utm_medium=social-media&src=socialflowFBCAD&utm_campaign=socialflowFBCD&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR1MlkQM-WBLuTfePRdzj4a39daha2BtIH-p1QpdDpBlQs8mCCXsvLj4TIk