Underappreciated and Misunderstood

Have you ever heard of the Buick Grand National? If you’re over thirty years old you probably have, but otherwise, this is a ca that is part of automotive history that’s fun to discuss and one that makes you wonder why there wasn’t more of a desire and following for this car. With so many models that we know date back to well before the Grand National, it seems as though Buick could have made this car survive and allow us to have it as the sports car from this brand that would still be enjoyed today.

The final version, the Grand National Experimental (GNX) model was actually quicker than the C4 Corvette, but GM had Buick keep the performance data quiet to allow the Corvette and Camaro to continue to be the sports cars that you turned to when you thought of a GM branded sports car at the time. This car was used in the early 1980s as a model that entered the NASCAR Grand National series which it won in 1981 and 1982, which is when the name was born and brought to the market for us to enjoy on the road.

The Grand National Turns Laps

The first models of the Grand National were fitted with a V6 engine that made 125 horsepower, but there were also 35 models that make use of a 3.8-liter turbocharged V6 engine in 1982. By 1984, this car offered 200 horsepower and this model was only a few tenths of a second behind the C4 Corvette of the time (keep in mind, the 1980s was not kind to horsepower numbers at all). By 1986, this car has been tuned up to 235 horsepower and 330 lb.-ft. of torque for the power needed to finish a quarter mile in less than 14 seconds. At this level of driving in 1986, the Buick Grand National was faster in the quarter mile than the Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro, and Pontiac Firebird. Finally, in 1987, which would eventually be the final year for this car, the team wanted to make sure this car would be ready to celebrate a fitting sendoff. They sent 547 Grand National models to McLaren to upgrade it more than what it was. By adding larger turbos, a new ECU, better suspension, and other performance items, the car could now give you 276 horsepower and 360 lb.-ft. of torque. What happened with the items that were included on the final version of the Grand National for the drive? The official track testing of this final model saw the car make its way across the quarter-mile stripe in 12.7 seconds at 113 mph. At the time, the Grand National was now faster than the Ferrari F40 by a full 0.3 seconds. This certainly makes it a bit of a question as to why this impressive car didn’t survive to be built in the next decade, but it didn’t. You can still find some of these cars and have a lot of fun with them, but the price is rising quickly for a car that’s becoming a collector’s item.

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