The Beginnings of Buick's Turbo V6 Performance Era

Buick began a new corporate performance orientation when it re-acquired its V6 from Jeep, with development work that led to a non-production, turbocharged 3.8 liter (231 cubic inch) V6 Century coupe being selected as the 1976 Indy 500 Pace Car. In 1981, a naturally aspirated version of the 4.1 Liter V6 Regal Coupe was Buick's second Indy Pace Car. And on May 29, 1983, a Buick Riviera convertible powered by a sophisticated twin turbocharged 4.1 Liter V6 developing 450 horsepower paced the 67^th running of the Indy 500. In the mid 1980's Buick made serious efforts to compete and win the Indy 500 using its development work on the turbocharged V6 engines.

The Buick Indy engines were acknowledged to be at or above the top of the class at the Speedway as far as raw horsepower was concerned. Its "stock-block" turbocharged V6 Indy cars won the pole position and second spot in qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 in 1985, the first time since mighty Duesenberg in 1931, that an American production based car had won the Indy Pole. Where the Buick turbo V6's encountered difficulty was in reliability over the long haul of the 500 mile race, something that turbocharged engines of other race car builders have also encountered over the years. It is now very apparent that Buick's 3.8 Liter turbocharged V6 engine is better suited for relatively short bursts of extreme power production rather than extended periods of sustained high power production. But the Indy efforts made one thing very clear: these Buick high tech V6 engines were highly competitive on the most prestigious racetracks of America. We now examine how this and other corporate racing experiences influenced the design, production and sales of Buick cars.

As early as 1978 Buick began to bring their Indy Turbocharged V6 racing development work into the showroom. The company introduced the 3.8L V6 Turbo in two production cars. One of these was the well-known 1978 Regal Turbo Sport Coupe; the second was the 1978 LeSabre Turbo Sport Coupe. The latter is rarely even mentioned even by Buick Turbo fans and enthusiasts and it is difficult to estimate the production totals for this car. Most of the LeSabre Sport Coupes were produced with the normally aspirated 3.8L V6; separate figures apparently were not kept and the total number of V6 LeSabre Coupes was 29,408. In any case, the 1978 turbocharged V6 LeSabre Sport Coupe was a rare car. The same problem is faced in estimating specific production totals for the Regal Turbo Sport Coupe but the total number of Regals sold was 236,652 and the Turbo Sport Coupe was certainly not a rare model.

In 1979, the total number of Regals produced climbed to 273,365 of which 21, 389 were the V6 Turbo Sport Coupes (or about 8%). Extrapolating backwards, if approximately 8% of Regals produced in 1978 were Turbo Sport Coupes, their production total was about 19,000. The LeSabre Turbo Sport Coupe continued to be available in 1979, and 3,582 were produced. Two other models of Buick became available in 1979 with the V6 Turbo engine, the Century Turbo Coupe and the Riviera S-Type Turbo. The Riviera was an all-new model year in 1979 while the Century was essentially identical to the Century Sport Coupe introduced in 1978 but without the V6 Turbo. The Riviera S-Type was Motor Trend magazine's Car of the Year and a sales success with 14,300 being produced (of which 2,067 were ordered with the V6 Turbo), but the Century Turbo Coupe became another rare car, with an estimated 1000 - 1200 produced. Thus, altogether in 1979, one could walk into a Buick dealer and order any of four completely different types of cars powered by the 3.8L Turbo V6, the LeSabre Turbo Sport Coupe, Century Turbo Coupe, Regal Turbo Sport Coupe, and Riviera S-Type Turbo, bringing total production of Buick V6 Turbo vehicles to over 27,000 units.

At the turn of the 1980's, specifically, model years 1980 and 1981, production was down a bit across the board at Buick as inflation gripped the US. Buick dropped availability of the V6 Turbo in the LeSabres, and the production number of the Century Turbo Aerodynamic Coupe was only 1,074. The total Regal production dropped to 214,735, of which the Sport Coupes can be estimated to be about 15,000. The Turbo Riviera became the T-Type instead of S-Type, with both the 4.1L N/A V6 and the 5.7L V8 being optional engines to the TurboV6. However, Turbo Riviera production rose to a healthy 7,217 cars.

 

In 1981, the general downtrend worsened significantly with prices rising as rapidly as production was dropping. Total Regal production was down to 123,848. While there are no specific production figures on the Regal Turbo Sport Coupes, they probably numbered between 5,000 to 8.000 cars. The Century coupes were dropped altogether, but the Turbo Riviera T-Type production fell to 3,990 (but this was still a strong figure by later Riviera standards).

These two model years (1981 and 1982) marked another period of change for Buick that was influenced by racing of an altogether different brand than Indianapolis, stock car racing sponsored by NASCAR. This story began in 1981 when Buick re-designed the bodies of its popular Regal model. This car dominated NASCAR'S Grand National racing series from 1981 through 1983, winning the Manufacturers Championships in 1981 and ?82, the Grand National Championships in "81, '82 and "83, and the Daytona 500 in "81, and '82. As difficult as it is for us to believe today, their successes were based more on the comparatively superior aerodynamics of the Regal body design rather than better engine design.

Beginnings of the Grand National Concept

Buick celebrated its racing success in this arena in the spring of 1982 by introducing a special Regal to the showrooms called the "Grand National". This was a well-planned event. Earlier, in February of 1982, Buick had run this limited edition Regal at a Daytona press event. The car sported a charcoal and silver-gray paint scheme with red accents; no black cars were to be found. The production power plant of this first Grand National was the 4.1 Liter, non-turbocharged V6 with a four-barrel carburetor, a move initiated perhaps out of quality control concerns with the 3.8L V6 Turbo.   In fact, sales of the Regal Turbo Sport Coupes were severely flagging, with only 2,022 produced in 1982 - a huge drop from the high of 21,389 in 1979. Another clue that difficulties were being addressed, or that changes were in the works regarding the 3.8L Turbo V6 engine in 1982, was its complete absence from availability in the Riviera line for six months of this model year. It is estimated that fewer than 1000 Riviera Turbo T-Types were produced in 1982.

Despite the strong promotional campaign, only 215 of the Regal Grand Nationals were produced in 1982. From today's perspective, without considering the other signs that were available regarding issues with the 3.8L Turbo, it might seem strange that this first Grand National did not include in its specified options Buick's best performing, turbocharged engine. But clearly, Buick was having quality issues or other difficulties with their V6 Turbo engine. However, the company eventually produced about twenty-five turbocharged 1982 Grand Nationals - with the added name of "Sport Coupe". One could also view these twenty-five cars as Regal Turbo Sport Coupes with the Grand National paint scheme and emblems. At any rate, the turbocharged 1982 Grand Nationals were the only ones ever designated as Grand National Sport Coupes. They were probably specially ordered cars whose availability was not generally known by the public, or whose combination of Regal options was not readily known. As noted above they did not come in what everyone now regards as "Grand National clothing", that striking all black color scheme. This story has been told in several places, with variations. Rich George's account of the '82 GN Sport Coupe is a reliable interpretation of these events (see the web site "Before Black").

Another transition year at Buick occurred in 1983, especially for those of us who are Turbo V6 enthusiasts. The turbocharged Sport Coupes were gone and in their place was the Regal T-Type, the first time in the Buick line-up that the T-Type designation and logo was attached to the Regal name. As for the V6 Turbo engine, 1983 was the last year for the carbureted version. A combination of factors including better quality control measures at Buick, especially with the V6 Turbo engine, rising visibility of Buick's racing prowess in both NASCAR and Indy, and a national mood that was much improved, led to rising sales across the board. Sales of the turbocharged Regal T-Types nearly doubled (to 3,732) that of the prior year's Regal Turbo Sport Coupe sales. Riviera T-Type production stayed relatively flat at 1,331 cars. Also, note that the 1983 Twin Turbo INDY Pace Car utilized a Buick 4.1 block, there were only two made, one went to the winner of that years race and the other to the SLOAN Museum exhibit. It was a SFI (Sequential Fuel Injected) prototype.

Production Grand Nationals

In 1984, Buick finally put the key elements of its two racing programs together to produce an exciting new Grand National Regal for full production. This helped drive all Regal Turbo V6 sales up even further, with a total of 5,401 turbocharged V6 Regals being sold. Two thousand of these carried that first specifically offered Grand National package, with the remaining 3,401 being T-Types. It appears that Buick took the turbocharged 1982 Grand National Sport Coupe, added fuel injection, a lot of black paint and chrome-plated wheels, and came up with a car that initiated a following among a group of car enthusiasts that became truly remarkable. In fact, it can be said that the Buick Grand National revived the term "Muscle Car", brought this aging concept forward into the eighties, and has kept it alive ever since. When it came along the Grand National was an exceptionally strong-performing, yet very comfortable large American coupe in the tradition of the late '60's muscle cars. Actually, it still fits this description.

It may come as a surprise to many of the Grand National and other Turbo Regal enthusiasts today that neither of the racing success stories at Buick that spawned the Grand National had anything to do with organized drag racing. But equally interesting is that it was the Grand National's prowess at drag strips across the US that eventually propelled this automobile into the lofty position it occupies today.

The first racing success story behind the Grand National began with that Turbocharged Century Indy Pace Car in 1976. The company's development efforts with the turbocharged V6 in this car were so successful that Buick was able to put this engine into a production car in 1978, the Regal Turbo Sport Coupe. Buick continued the development of this wonderful engine until it became competitive at the highest levels of American racing at that time - the Indianapolis 500. It is probably not just coincidence that Buick broke all time previous sales records in 1983 and 1984, with more than one million cars sold worldwide in '84, then had its second best sales record in history in 1985, the year that Buick qualified for the pole position at Indianapolis.

Unfortunately, Buick's involvement with further development of the Turbo V6 engine ceased with the end of production of the Buick Grand National in December of 1987. Fortunately, after-market builders and developers continued to build upon the base engine design primarily by designing and producing add-on performance parts. And the Grand National's status, along with its other Turbo Regal stable mates, continued to grow into their present legendary proportions. For its part, Buick continued to improve the basic design of its subsequent normally aspirated 3.8 Liter engine (some with a supercharger), until its capability and reliability became so obvious that it was adopted by other divisions of General Motors as their "corporate engine", the GM 3800 Series engines.

A number of variations of the 3.8 liter V6 were made over the years, including the 3.0 Liter in some of the early 80s front wheel drive cars, the 4.1 Liter used in some of the larger rear wheel drive cars, and of course, the Turbo 3.8L variations used in the mid-sized Regals beginning with the Regal Sport Coupes in 1978 through the last Regal Grand Nationals in 1987, in some early '80-81 Monte Carlos, and in the Riviera S-Types and T-Types up until 1985. The Turbo Riviera's are an interesting story in their own right with some of the best-built and more rare cars of the Buick turbocharged V6 family. In 1984 only 1,153 Turbo Riviera's were produced, followed by only 1,069 in 1985, the last year for the big, classic front wheel drive models that first appeared in 1979. A convertible T-Type with the Turbo V6 could be ordered in that last year and just forty-seven of them were sold, the rarest Turbo Buick after the twenty-five 1982 Grand National Sport Coupes.

The Grand Nationals and other Turbo Regals from 1984 through 1987 with on-board computer controlled sequential port fuel injection (SFI) are the most relevant Buick Turbo engines to enthusiasts today. These are the cars that made all the noise on both the street and drag strips across America. But, essentially, the basic design for the engine in these models didn't change much from those in the 1978 Regal Turbo Sport Coupes until the 1987 Grand Nationals. The blocks had slight revisions up until 1986, mainly to increase oiling and to revise the deck heights to allow the use of thicker composition head gaskets.

One of the bigger changes was in 1985 when the oil pans went to 20 bolt oil pans instead of 14 bolts. However, it is not our intention to go into detail about the design and engineering of this magnificent engine, especially about the relatively minor changes that occurred in the production versions between 1984 and 1987. These topics have been covered extensively in many places. One of the best sources of ready information, especially on the 1986-1987 engine, can be found on the gnttype.org website, especially the technical articles by Ken Mosher; coverage includes pictures of engine blocks, heads, and accessories, found in the most relevant models.

Summary
The forgoing demonstrates that there was a profusion of Buick vehicles that were produced with the 3.8L Turbocharged V6 beginning in 1978 and continuing through the end of production of the Grand Nationals in 1987 (about 145,000). The stated reasons for discontinuing the highly successful Regal Grand Nationals and the Turbo V6 was that Buick had committed to an all front wheel drive line-up in 1988 and there was no front transaxle around that could handle the torque and power of the Turbo motor. The Pontiac Motor Division, however, did have such a platform with their trustworthy rear wheel drive Trans Am. A deal was stuck that allowed Pontiac to "borrow" the 3.8L Turbo for their 1989 Indy Pace Car, and the 1,555 limited production run of the 1989 Pontiac Turbo Trans Am (TTA). This, and a few 1981 Chevrolet Monte Carlos were the only General Motors vehicles that were produced with an available 3.8L Buick Turbo V6 engine, other than the numerous Buick models reviewed above. The Buick vehicles that were produced with this engine are summarized in the following Table.

Epilogue

We discovered a number of surprising things in our review of the lengthy history of Buick. These include the fact that Buick was the progenitor of General Motors itself, that GM would probably not exist today but for Buick, and that Buick went through several periods where it faltered so badly that it came close to closing. But the company always came back strongly. In fact, at the turn of the 1940's Buick was so much stronger than other GM divisions that some thought it would take over all of GM. The major lesson, though, was that Buick's resurgences were always coincident with making better performing cars than their competitors were making - both internal and external to GM.

Another revelation was how important organized racing was to Buick and its cars. Racing shaped the history of Buick from its beginnings right up to the development of the Grand National. Most interesting was how the Grand National's concept evolved out of two entirely different racing enterprises: Buick's developmental engine work for its Indy cars, and the company's success in NASCAR stock car racing. Most surprising was that the Grand National did not spring out of any great corporate interest in organized drag racing. Certainly, the GN's reputation with the public was built at least in part from its successes in drag racing but its renowned and well-deserved capabilities in that arena did not come about from related corporate goals. The key point is, however, that the company was involved in organized racing at the highest levels and this had a great influence on the performance of the cars that it was selling to the public. The corporate vision and commitment that this required paid off handsomely in sales. There must be a lesson here for Buick and GM today.

Finally, the significance of this historical perspective of Buick performance automobiles relates not only to understanding how the Buick Turbo Regals came about, but to questions regarding which of them remain very attractive to a significant segment of the public, and have held their value in the free market compared to other vehicles of the same period. In other words, of the many Buick models that were produced with the 3.8L Turbo V6 engine between 1978 and 1987 that are reviewed in this article, which vehicles should be able to be registered as collector vehicles on GNregistry.org? Our decision on that question is provided by the six categories of cars listed on the Registration page. We now wait to see how the Buick Turbo V6 enthusiasts respond to this effort both by registering their vehicles, and by their comments.