for sale - 1987 Buick Grand National - 26k miles - Survivor - sold 11/30/24

[mark p]

I'll throw this out there... no way to know who likes what. I do know that Kiwi loved his Turbo-T.
It's time for me to move on from this car, I'm simply not enjoying it for various reasons.
I have it listed on the AACA forum, but no where else (due to my low tolerance for bologna).
https://forums.aaca.org/topic/415988-for-sale-1987-buick-grand-national-survivor-hpof-candidate-more-pix-added-plus-wheels/#comment-2683524
Let me know if any interest or questions. I also have a Dropbox folder with more pix.

[FL SAAC Team Leader]

Love those GN and GNXs !

If I had the storage

Best of luck with your sale

[Grumpy]

Nice.. First time for me not having my own Buick and a CSX 4000 Cobra. Just didn't use them enuff. Maybe try BAT ? Bring a trailer .  

[mark p]

Nice.. First time for me not having my own Buick and a CSX 4000 Cobra. Just didn't use them enuff. Maybe try BAT ? Bring a trailer .  

Thanks Dan.

[shelbymann1970]

I bought a new 87 3/4s GN in Oct 1987. We called them that(us GM workers) because they were built the end of 87 and the new 88 FWD models were out. Mine was a T-top and built in Oct of 87. Was told it was the fastest one the tech had driven(kept blowing turbo hoses). I was not aware they varied in performance. Loved dusting 5.0 Mustangs back in my 20s. I torqued the B pillars thanks to being a T-top car as to where the paint started cracking. Hind site would have been adding a Monte Carlo "X" brace. Sold it in 1992 with 50K miles on it. Wife wouldn't drive it-too fast for her. 

[Grumpy]

Die hard Ford guy back in the day. Got out of cars in the 80's except for the 66 Shelby convert. In the late 80's till 2000 we had a fleet of them. A few mods an you were in the 11s. The 89 TTA was one of my best fun cars we owned. Great sleeper.  Or a lot of mods an run 8.8's @ 152. Was just another sickness with cars.
    I think Marks car should sell quick . Great history an stock. I remember all the Buick racing events back then. Now everyone selling them for good $$$ will say NEVER RACED  Thats like all Shelbys were rust free.
 

[FL SAAC Team Leader]

Die hard Ford guy back in the day. Got out of cars in the 80's except for the 66 Shelby convert. In the late 80's till 2000 we had a fleet of them. A few mods an you were in the 11s. The 89 TTA was one of my best fun cars we owned. Great sleeper.  Or a lot of mods an run 8.8's @ 152. Was just another sickness with cars.
    I think Marks car should sell quick . Great history an stock. I remember all the Buick racing events back then. Now everyone selling them for good $$$ will say NEVER RACED  Thats like all Shelbys were rust free.
 

nothing like  a GN/GNX pulling up next to you .... game over

[shelbymann1970]

Great pics Grumpy. A work colleague was running mid 12s without going into the engine or modifying the chassis on his 86. I knew all the trial and error mods he did to get there. Wasted money on an exhaust then went to a dump tube. It really didn't cost that much back then to run 12s in a GN.

[Side-Oilers]

I was at Popular Hot Rodding in those days, and we drove/tested several GNs each year...just because they were so fun and badazz for the day. 

I shot a giant GN  burnout photo up in the canyons one afternoon that plumed so high, we though people would think there's a brush fire, so we split that scene pronto.

E.Ts that I recall running at our beloved OCIR track were 15.5s at right about 90 mph. Give or take, depending on the heat. Considered quick for the day. Good enough to beat a 5.0 Mustang if you did everything right. You needed to shift the transmission manually, or it got all FUBAR'd with the boost schedule (more on that below.)

Random stuff I remember about the GNs:
The turbo made great power when everything was cool in temp (including ambient) but once heat soak took over, it was a stuttering stumbling on-boost/boost-dumping boost ride. Thus, the popularity of the Kenne Bell stuff like an intercooler (factory installed on the GNX.)

That ribbon dotted-line tach was next to worthless. As was the 85 mph speedo. Didn't the Grand National get a proper 120 mph speedometer?

The doors seemed long and heavy.

The Lear/Siegler seats were a big improvement over the base seats, but still were very flat and not all that comfortable for a long trip.

The "H-point" (driver/seat/steering wheel orientation) of the car seemed a bit off to me. I never really could settle into a comfortable driving position. This wan't just a GN problem for me. I felt the same in the other A-Body hot GM cars then...Olds 442 and Monte Carlo SS. I just fit into the F-bodies better. Might have been just me.

The automatic (700R4?) was a POS in terms of dealing with the boost application curve.  That added to the stutter-step of acceleration unless everything was perfect.  And this was with every GN we ever tested. Not just a fluke.

The car handled pretty well, and I liked the GN's chassis tuning the best of all the hot A-bodies. Adding big anti-roll bars and sticky rubber could make them quite good in the twisties.

When the 300 hp GNX came out, it was considered beyond the holy grail. More power, super-badazz appearance, and better performance than the Vette (which Buick must have snuck through the GM system sort of like DeLorean did with the original '64 GTO.)

I spent quite a bit of time with the Buick engineers in those years (as well those of the other domestic car makers) and understand how good those 3.8 V6s were. They stayed in production a long time, including being supercharged in some of the early '90s Buck Park Avenues. And the Pontiac SSEi too. That was a cool sedan.  But with more buttons than a coat factory.

Fond memories of the GN and the turbo 3.8 V6. Good luck with your sale, even though that beauty will sell itself. Price is very reasonable.   

[Grumpy]

Sounds like an 84/85 hot air car ya had with those seats. They all came with a 200R4. 86/87s were a completely different animal. I went from die hard FE Ford guy till 1980. Stayed clean off cars that all were slugs till 1986. Friend had a GN an let me take it for a ride . 2 weeks later I had one. Few months later got another one. Wife had the 3rd gen Camaro's an TA's. OMG what slugs. Then the 89 Turbo Trans Am V6 Turbo came out. 1550 of them . Wife bought one new. Raced it 2/3 days a week at the drags. One of the most fun cars we ever owned. Did you ever get to try one ?? To this day my old die hard Ford guys carry a grudge. Take em for a ride an they just scratched their head. Must have been a blast testing cars back then. 

[mark p]

Thanks guys.
Dan updated all of the "specs"... 86/87s with the intercooler were a "whole other animal" vs the earlier "hot air" cars.
This car has a 9/11 build date... so if I had worked for GM I guess that I would have known it was an 87-3/4 
I think that Grumpy forgot to mention that his daughter is still out there kicking butt with a GN.
I bought the "X-brace" for behind the rear seat but never installed it. This had a different chip in it when I got it (now has TurboTweak), but otherwise it's very stock. I was lucky to have a local buddy help me find a survivor-type car back when I bought this.
In my current mental state, I don't believe that I could handle the "B.S." from tire kickers (etc) to sell this myself.
I'm planning to consign it with Gateway late this week. Obviously the "asking price" will jump up considerably.

[Bigfoot]

Thnx for remembering Kiwi. He had one sitting in his backyard the last time I was there.

[Grumpy]

Kiwi is laughing looking down at us talking about a Buick V6 Turbo on a Shelby site   

[mark p]

^^^ Kiwi was supposed to send me a "prize" for the closest guess on hp (or something  ) when he built that one engine (all details and messages lost in forum crash). I think it was going to be a bannana - but we had doubts about the cross-continent shipping 
During our various "conversations" about non-Ford stuff... he was trying to convince me to get a Typhoon as my next ride   

[mark p]

Closing the loop - car is SOLD (by Gateway Classic Cars) and is with its new owner somewhere.
Thanks for the positive feedback and stories.

note to Dan(Grumpy) - the TTA is staying right here.