Dealer Installed G-body Options/Upgrades

[olds307 and 403]

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]

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.

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

 

[oldmansmonte]

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]

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)

 

[Kwik_Cutty88]

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.

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]

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.

 

[olds307 and 403]

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]

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]

My Regal had a dealer installed radio delete, the dealer just pulled the radio fuse out I kid you not.

 

[foxtrot]

Lots of cool tidbits guys! Let's keep it going!