Story by Phil

“One day a car carrier pulled up with nothing but Grand Nationals on it…”

In 1984 Donald Hackworth was general manager of Buick Motor Division. He was into performance cars and decided Buick should be also. Buick had two Indy 500 cars powered by the 4.1 liter V-6 racing version. He also decided to make the 3.8 Turbo Regal a real performance car.

The first Buick turbocharged model was the Regal Sport Coupe in 1978 later to be called the Regal T-Type. The first Grand National came out in 1982 but it was nothing but an appearance package added to the Regal T-Type. Starting in 1984 fuel injection was added to the Grand National along with a drastic appearance change.

Like the Model T Ford it only came in black. Two-tone black and gray interior was the only choice. It had lots of power once you got the rpm up but from a standing start it was sluggish. 1985 didn’t change from the ’84. All GM divisions have an experimental lab. Buick called theirs “The Hobby Shop”. In 1985 the guys that worked there asked Hackworth if they could make the Grand National a REAL performance car. He gave the go ahead and the 1986 model was drastically changed.

A larger front mounted Garrett brand turbo, intercooler, larger exhaust and many other small changes. A regular production car that would run the quarter in under 14 seconds and the Buick class to go along with it. Affordable too, with a window sticker on a fully loaded one around $18000. Two versions of this were built. The Grand National and for those that didn’t like black the Regal T-Type.

The T-Type could be had in any color you wanted both interior and exterior. It also could be built with leather seats and a column shift. Mechanically the cars were the same. You don’t see too many 86 models because they got delayed in the emissions testing lab for about 6 months. The same two cars were built in 1987 and are considered collector cars.

The dealer network was also the cause of low sales in 1986 and the first half of 1987. At that time most Buick dealers were up there in age and had been in business a long time. Mine for example was 60 years old at the time and had been in the same location since 1946. The Buick customer tended to be of the older generation also. Dealing with the younger generation wasn’t something the dealers were used to or liked. Test drives were a real problem, my dealer wouldn’t allow it. After 1978 and 79 most Buick dealers had had it with turbocharged models because of customer complaints. Starting in 1980 at my dealership they became a special order car only with a warning to the customer and a large deposit.

We weren’t the only dealership that felt this way. From 1980 to 1985 we sold around two per year. In 1986 sold one Grand National and two Regal T-Types. In 1987 due to several magazine articles about the 1986 and early 87 Buick turbo cars the word got out about how fast and nice they were. The show room was flooded with customers wanting to see them. The customer was different than before. Most were male between 30 and 45 years old. They knew all about the car before coming in, didn’t want a test drive, and had the money to pay for it.

Most dealers love cars that make them money and the 1987 Grand National became one of them. We started stocking lots of them, fully loaded with exception of the T bar roof with removable glass panels. The Regal T-Type also was in demand. At our dealership the “Limited” model with leather seats was the most popular. Because of dealer demand for the car GM ran the assembly line on the 87 Regal till late December. An additional 10,000 Grand Nationals were built between September and December 1987. One day a car carrier pulled up with nothing but Grand Nationals on it. I should have taken a picture of it but didn’t have a camera.

1987 was to be the last year for the rear wheel drive Regal, T-Type and Grand National. The assembly plant in Pontiac Michigan was getting old and was one of the few remaining rear wheel drive plants GM had. Sales had slowed down on the model as a whole and the car didn’t have the popular “Euro” look. The name Regal was carried into 1988 but it would be a smaller front wheel drive car powered by the Chevrolet 2.8 V-6.

The engineers in the Buick hobby shop wanted the Grand National to go out in great style. The plan was to pull only 547 of them off the assembly line at random. Two companies outside of Buick would modify these cars. ASC and McLaren were selected to do the modifications. The car would be called the GNX. It stands for Grand National Experimental. Both appearance and performance changes would be made to the GNX. Each car would bare its own number on the right side of the dash. The project, headed up by Mike Doble, started mid 1986 and the cars to be released in late 1987 and 88.

August of 1986 saw a change for Buick. Donald Hackworth left and Ed Mertz took over as general manager. With the departure of Hackworth gone was the Indy 500 car and the hopes of a Buick performance car in the future. Surveys were taken and it was learned Buick owners weren’t interested in racing and 80% of them were golfers. Hence the Buick marriage to the game of golf. Mertz almost stopped the GNX, as he didn’t see the need for it. It was learned he loved the portholes on the older Buicks. At the last minute portholes were added to the GNX before it was shown to Mertz. It was hoped this would help in obtaining permission to complete the project. Whether it helped or not, is unknown but Mertz gave his approval.

After the GNX project the Buick “Hobby Shop” was renamed the “Craft Center” and built the 1988 Reatta. Ed Mertz did find the GNX useful as a marketing tool for dealers. There was more then 547 Buick dealers in the USA in 1987-88 and not enough cars for all the dealers. Dealers had to qualify to get one. The 1988 FWD Regal had a 6-month early release. Mertz wanted to get a jump on the new design 1988 Ford Thunderbird. It was thought the T-Bird was its biggest competitor. Qualifying for the GNX was based on how many 1988 Regals the dealer sold. Two my knowledge only one dealer got two.

There are a lot of good web sites out there with GNX information about the car along with some very good books. It was truly the “Grand National to End All Grand Nationals”.

Phil