I had a 2.5 Turbo Dodge Shadow. It was astounding fast off the line for what it was. Well, until it blew the transmission, though.
GN Another kind of Grand National Buick
- Thread starter Ribbedroof
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There was nothing good about any K car. The Turbo cars were usually just blown up. I worked on way too many of the regular ones. We seriously had 7 in a 8 car shop, all with major problems. Horrible engines and horrible cars. The 5 spd did make the base cars almost driveable, the vast majority were autos. I said I hate the early GM EFI fwd cars, driveability issues that were hard to diagnose etc, compared to any K car, they were the best cars ever.
My buddy had a CSX and was quick, but the ‘80s sucked from a performance standpoint. I had a ‘70 455 Skylark and spent my teenage career proving that point. Even a real GN sucked by the ‘60s-‘70s standard, and by today’s standard. Yea, I know about a Turbo T running in the 13s and all the BS everybody was trying to get excited about, but any legitimate street car with M&H Racemasters would a$$hone a stock-ish GN by many carlengths. They were what the rich kids had that didn’t hang around my blue collar (built not bought) crew. The GN owners don’t act much different now. Try to speak to one of them at a car show. But I digress..............
Out of 7,000+ TC's made, only 501 ('89 only) had the maserati motor. 200HP, 3,000 lb front wheel drive cars in the 1990s didn't really exist Those were fast. The others were not.
The seats were like a lazyboy recliner without armrests, so I wouldn't know how well it handled, but Banging gears (not recommended) it pulled hard for a K-ish-car.
K cars did some what save Chrysler in the '80's & brought us the mini van revolution. Then again it wasn't a good thing.
It wasn't until the GN's/T-types got out of the hands of their middle aged, wife + 2 kids, original owners and got into the hands of 20 somethings did they start getting fast. By '91 GN's they were running high 12's with stock injectors/turbos in DFW with just a Dump pipe & Chip & Tires. Sure race cars were faster, but they didn't get 20 mpg and have A/C and were daily driven.
With a better launch & 28" tall drag radial, my car could have cracked an 11.9@112 with ALL STOCK unopened Motor, Turbo, Intercooler, injectors, transmission (with shift kit), Rear Axle, wheels, Full weight Body/Interior, driving 100 miles each way to the track with the A/C on.
This was at Atlanta Dragway in the late 1990's. It was exactly 99 miles from my house. I drove there getting 24 mpg. pumped the street gas out thru the schrader valve, poured in 5 gallons of race gas, opened the dump, made seven low 12 second passes, Drained 4 gallons of race gas out, poured the street gas back in and drove 99 miles back home with the dump open, just because:
Later I found this video posted on the internet, so I snagged it. After evaluating my data, I found out my 26" tall 275/50's were holding me back & switched to 275/60's. 60fts dropped .15 seconds & trap speed went up over 2 mph with no other changes, which could have made a 12.20 run an 11.
Mods were downpipe/exhaust Dump ($200), new Fuel Pump ($100), Chip ($25), Homemade adjustable wastegate ($3), Junkyard 237 FPR ($5), 5 Gallons of 118 Octane leaded Race gas & BFGDR's.
Most Show Car '87 GN owners have NEVER been to a track and their cars are really slow (even the ones with $5K in chrome bolt on "mods"). I challenged a big mouthed one to a race with my '93 318 5 speed Club Cab Dakota pickup and he barely beat me best 2 out of 3. '93 Dakota 5 Speeds could not be ordered with limited slip (I tried) and that was the ONLY reason he didn't lose all three races as I was pulling to his bumper at the big end, but couldn't get there before the traps. My stock '89 5.0L Mustang Convert would have have beat him by 5+ car lengths, but he had had enough. It was the first & last time I saw him at the local track with his GN.
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The first person I ever met that had bought a Chrysler Minivan was Mark Headrick (Eventually the owner of Goodmark industries and Hemi/AAR/TA expert but he still had a 9-5 day job). He was like Patient Zero. We went to Nashville to buy a '71 'Cuda340 convert he had for sale in Hemmings and he actually bought the mini van everyone had been making fun of. We all piled into it to go to the bank to cash the check. It dawned on us it made a lot of practical sense.
Probably based on his positive first impression, my dad bought at least 4 of them over the years. He would wear one completely out, give it away and buy another. They still make way more sense than tall car SUV's.
I hate to say it but a good friend’s mom had a Spirit ES 2.5 Turbo. It was a blast. We were to stupid at the time to appreciate the speed vs. mpg ratio that thing had.
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