Dealer Installed G-body Options/Upgrades

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Oct 14, 2008
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Melville,Saskatchewan
I have seen the manual sun roof installed on my ex BIL 78 Monte. That car went like hell for two barrel, pretty sure it was a 350 with the 2GC carb. I remember a classmate had a red T-Type, remember it being in the school shop puffing black smoke. Maybe it was still a carbed version? He was friends with Jason who's family had a mechanic's shop. They ran 455's in late 70's/80's Cutlass because they got them so cheap,$150 and threw nitrous on them! Also had a 68 Firebird with a 400. They knew GM's otherwise I would have never known about the T-Type.
 

pontiacgp

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Mar 31, 2006
29,270
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Kitchener, Ontario
My 1986 T-type had "Advance Suspension Dynamics Serial No. 6" plaques on it, Flofit bucket seats and a suspension kit that consisted of a non stock rear sway bar (that was broken when I bought the car in 1995), lowering springs and urethane front sway bar bushings. The car has a G80 but is otherwise a stripper with roll up windows and manual door locks.
t-type_interior.jpg


Nobody knows what became of Advance Suspension Dynamics. My car was a February 1986 build so it predated the April 1986 Car and Driver article that put the GN on the map as a 13 second car, so whoever ordered it/built it was ahead of the curve.

Those are nice looking seats. I have never seen them in a G body before
 
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oldmansmonte

G-Body Guru
Oct 29, 2010
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Buffalo, NY
It was probably too subtle to get noticed in 1986. It was a LX5.0 before the LX5.0 came out. - all go with no show. Even into the 1990's, I was shocked how many "muscle car" people didn't even know you could get an intercooled Turbo in a non black Buick and well into the late 1990's a lot of these same people didn't believe a buick could run low 12's on radials nearly 100% stock. I bought a 5.0 new in 1986 and raced them until the mid 1990s, but if I had bought a Buick instead, I could have made $1,000's in racing bets.

I have run across Buick guys that thought the '87 GN was "faster" than a 1986 T-type because it was rated at 10 more HP... maybe the extra 150 pounds in wheels, steel bumper supports, trim and options makes them faster. One of the reasons I have kept my T-type stock appearing was to school GN guys that know their car "run 11's", because a car with similar mods in a magazine "ran 11's". The look on a GN guys face after checking out my motor in the pits after a low 7 second 1/8th mile pass is priceless. First they look for N2O, then they look around the pits for another white Buick with more mods.


I didn't realize how many T-Types were sold. I thought the T-type was actually a more rare care than the GN, but the last 10 years there have just been a slew of them coming through the market place.

I always thought the point of the Turbo Buick was to dress it in all black and market it to the hot rod/specialty buyer like the Typhoon and Cyclone trucks were in the early 90's. Makes me realize that this car was probably sold to a lot of grandma's as a grocery getter. Really ahead of it's time as a 6 cyl turbo. Lighter and likely more efficient(don't have the #'s in front of me) than many of its v8 counterparts.
 

UNGN

Comic Book Super Hero
Sep 6, 2016
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Southlake, TX
I didn't realize how many T-Types were sold. I thought the T-type was actually a more rare care than the GN, but the last 10 years there have just been a slew of them coming through the market place.

In 1986, there were only 1,900 T-types made vs. 5,500 GN's (and about 450 WH1 Designer series Turbos - Two tone gray w/GN rear spoiler)

In 1987, there about 5,500 (base & limited's) vs. 21,500 Black Turbos (GN's, GNX's and Turbo T's).

The vast majority of Intercooled Turbos were black. With the earlier SFI, non-intercooled cars, it was about 50%/50% GN/T-types (about 2,000 each/year)
 
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Kwik_Cutty88

Royal Smart Person
Nov 22, 2011
1,173
662
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Coastal North Carolina
My 1986 T-type had "Advance Suspension Dynamics Serial No. 6" plaques on it, Flofit bucket seats and a suspension kit that consisted of a non stock rear sway bar (that was broken when I bought the car in 1995), lowering springs and urethane front sway bar bushings. The car has a G80 but is otherwise a stripper with roll up windows and manual door locks.
t-type_interior.jpg


Nobody knows what became of Advance Suspension Dynamics. My car was a February 1986 build so it predated the April 1986 Car and Driver article that put the GN on the map as a 13 second car, so whoever ordered it/built it was ahead of the curve.

Those seats look like the Lear Siegler seats my dad has in his T/A. Those are cool with the adjustable leg bolsters, and it looks like an adjustment on the upper part of the seat as well?
 

H2O gbodies

Apprentice
May 2, 2009
96
6
8
Well almost a factory option but was cancelled at the last minute-the "new" 1978 Monte Carlo body style was supposed to have an aluminum hood but GM axed the deal on it with Alcoa due to high costs in forming them. A handful of the production ready prototype hoods ended up in the scrap bin only to have 5 survive from a scrounging employee lol. Late 90's rolled around and 2 ended up on Ebay and the 3 others ended up in the hands of fellow montess.com members- myself included. I think I have the only one still in its raw finish with inspection and engineering scribes all over the underneath skin of it. The only non-aluminum piece is the hood latch catch pin. I also got low tension springs when I went and picked up the hood. For the record, my steel Monte hood weighed in at 32 lbs. and the aluminum one is 19 lbs.
 
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Oct 14, 2008
8,806
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Melville,Saskatchewan
Weird considering the Cutlass got them in those years. Too bad more 81 to 88 Cutlass didn't get them, my 88 weighs a lot more than 32 pounds.
 

axisg

Comic Book Super Hero
Jul 17, 2007
2,685
2,354
113
YYZ
I bought my 80 Calais from the son of the orig owner in 92 or so. Dealer installed AC ( what a hack job ! ) and pop up sunroof. Oh and giant mudflaps with Oldsmobile Script LOL Not sure if the half working power antenna was factory or not
 

Clone TIE Pilot

Comic Book Super Hero
Aug 14, 2011
3,831
2,568
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Galaxy far far away
My Regal had a dealer installed radio delete, the dealer just pulled the radio fuse out I kid you not.
 
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