Buick stuff

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Mon Dec 12, 05 2:22 pm

Nasty! Each one more so than its predecessor.

Never knew Etch - a - Sketch was a GM design tool in the 80's. Wont say owt about the B'Hawk - aint worth the wear n tear on the old finger tips.

Buick used to build gorgeous cars too

Sorry

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Mon Dec 12, 05 2:26 pm

The guy I used to stay with in Indiana moved form building and tuning Turbo Regals, to modifying FWD 3800 supercharged Buick Regal GS's and Pontiac Grand Prix GTP's. We used to head over to the dragstrip in Muncie, Indiana to test and tune there because Kokomo's local track (Bunker Hill) is only an eigth mile strip. We used to travel over there with a US Navy guy who brackert raced his mid 15 second Mazda MX-6, and who, every single time we went with him, won, and left with the $200. He was amazingly consistent in the Mazda, whereas, we were all over the place in the GS as Tom used to reprogram the PCM after every run, trying different combos. These photos were taken after we went out Muncie to work out why, at the GS Nats in Columbus, I lost the final in the fwd class when the car lost boost because the wastegate opened. The wastegate on the supercharger's is a failsafe device, and the only reason Tom could work out why it had opened was if the torque sensing in the gearbox detects over 1000ft-lbs of torque !! I doubt it somehow, but we did win $750 for runner-up. Annoying because at high 12s, we had by far the fastest fwd car at the event. That's racing.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Mon Dec 12, 05 2:30 pm

Muncie again. The race car. With the cold air box for the K&N that I designed and hand built for this car and then went on to sell thousands as everybody else ripped us off.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Mon Dec 12, 05 2:36 pm

A West Coast custom house built this one-off two door pillarless GTP which appeared in various magazine in the US (car Craft, etc) and they sent it to Indiana for an engine rebuild and some tweaking.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Mon Dec 12, 05 2:38 pm

We took the engine out and rebuilt it.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Mon Dec 12, 05 2:42 pm

Tom put the engine back in this car and took it to Lingenfelter in Decatur and got just short of 400hp at the front wheels on their dyno. The big limiting factor was the transaxle, even using Volvo S80T internals (the S80 used the GM autobox, with beefed up bits) they didn't last long.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Mon Dec 12, 05 2:48 pm

I used to go to Kokomo a lot (three or four times a year) to visit and work on cars, but that was when I had money. I nearly took a job with Delphi in Kokomo back in 2000, but now pretty glad I didn't.

They had three big shows in Kokomo, one in the park, another right in the town centre when they shut off town centre streets, and the third at the Johanning centre where there is a car museum and it has Haynes Number One, the first American car ever, buit in Kokomo.

Always got a good selection of cars as Kokomo is/was a big GM town, and still is a big Daimler-Chrysler town.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Mon Dec 12, 05 2:50 pm

"You know the rest of the story"

Here we are, trying to recreate the infamous GTO ad

And failing.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Fri Dec 30, 05 2:49 pm

Some more Buick stuff.

The 1970 Buick GSX prototype.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Fri Dec 30, 05 2:52 pm

The prototype in 1999 after restoration.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Fri Dec 30, 05 2:54 pm

65 Riviera, 425 nailvalve, dual quads

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Fri Dec 30, 05 2:56 pm

The 1967 Buick GS (both Skylark and Riviera models) air cleaner, which, in retrospect, became known as the 'Star Wars' air cleaner.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Fri Dec 30, 05 2:59 pm

If I could have walked into any American showroom in 1970 to buy any car, it would have been this one. This is the same as the one magazine tested back in 1970.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Fri Dec 30, 05 3:02 pm

The only black GSX ever made (a 1971) and alongside it the only GSX ever made with a vinyl roof (also a 1971). The vinyl roof car was bought new by a schoolteacher and she used to teach her kids by day and go racing them in the evening.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Fri Dec 30, 05 3:05 pm