Do Grand Nationals get too much credit for the greatness of the G-Body?

[ck80]

I think people forget how ridiculously slow the average car was in the 1980's. Take a super common Buick Century with the 2.5, it's 1 barrel throttle body and 3 speed transmission. Holy hell was that slow, and that was common. In today's traffic that car would get you killed for not being able to get out of everyone's way.

You want slow? How about that same 2.5 in a 4wd s10 with the 700r4 auto and 3.42 gearing? Those things were SLOW and HEAVY! You might get to 60 in a 1/4 mile, downhill, with a tailwind...

 

[GP403]

yes (/thread)

 

[oldmansmonte]

You want slow? How about that same 2.5 in a 4wd s10 with the 700r4 auto and 3.42 gearing? Those things were SLOW and HEAVY! You might get to 60 in a 1/4 mile, downhill, with a tailwind...

Ha! Be thankful for the 3.42's!

 

[Turbolq4]

Ha! Be thankful for the 3.42's!

And the super aggressive first gear in that 700r4.

 

[My86R3gal]

I received my catalog a couple months ago (pre-ordered mid last year) even though there is really not too much I need to finish my Regal there is a lot of stuff in it and some restoration items that I didn't know were made, plus it is kind of cool to just flip through a catalog dedicated to my Regal.
View attachment 87710

Here is another catalog, been driving me crazy since I couldn’t find it til now.

 

[UNGN]

yes (/thread)

You need animated smiley that drops the mike and walks off.

 

[Michael Watts]

The Grand National and GNX was more of an Street car ,And the Monte Carlo SS and the other G bodies got more from racing in NASCAR ,The Malibu a drag racer ,Being one of last full frame cars.

 

[pontiacgp]

I don't think the Grand National was anything special. The Grand National and GNX had the same frame and sheet metal body as all the other G bodies. With basic tools I can transplant the drivetrain from a Grand National or the GNX into my GP. The G bodies that were special was the Monte SS Areocoupe and the GP 2+2 Aerocoupe because of the rear window package and on the GP 2+2 the nose on it. It would take alot more work to turn my GP into a GP 2+2 than it would to drop a Grand National drivetrain into my GP or to drop my GP body onto a Grand National frame and drivetrain.

 

[Texas82GP]

I sure wish I knew somebody with a stock GN so I could experience this incredibly awesome car, since the only one I ever drove (an 86 that belonged to a former employer) was a total dog. I had heard all the raving about them and was looking forward to being impressed. I was not.

I'm assuming it was the miles (in the mid 80s) or poor state of tune (seemed OK, but who knows), but for the 7K he paid (circa 2000) I expected a lot more, given that the car badly needed paint and bumper fillers (which we did).

I don't discount other people's claims about the awesomeness of the GN, but that was not my experience....especially given all the bragging about being a corvette killer and the fastest production car of 1987. I think he wore that "we brake for corvettes" t shirt every other day for a solid month.

Brian,

I feel compelled to respond to this. I'm not surprised you were underwhelmed in 2000. I think if you had ridden in the car 8-10 years earlier then you would have been more impressed. Like many on here, I grew up in the era of gutless cars. When I started driving, Dad had an 84 F150 (gutless), his 62 Ford Galaxie (no where near running) and a 63 Ford Galaxie survivor. The 63 had a 352 with a 2-barrel and single exhaust. It was rated at 220 HP. The car felt really good compared to anything else I had driven or ridden in.

Fast forward a few years, circa 1993. I'm driving an 84 S10 Blazer with a 2.8 V-6 and a 5 speed (gutless, but seemed 'sporty' with the stick at the time). My step-dad is driving the hand-me-down family car, an 84 Buick Century with a carbed 2.8 V-6 with an automatic overdrive (even worse than gutless). Dad is driving an 88 Suburban with a 6.2 diesel. Gutless but economical. Mom had a 91 Pontiac Sunbird with the 3.1 V-6. That car felt pretty good. This was the beginning for me of the feeling that cars were coming back. Most of my friends have hand-me-down throw away import cars (those few lucky enough or hard-working enough to have a car). They were all gutless. This is when I first rode in a Grand National. It was an 86-87 because it was a cold air car. I've never been enthusiastic about a V-6. I'm just a V-8 guy. Still, that car really impressed me. I was really surprised at how it ran, especially considering it was 6 or 7 years old by then. I was a little too young when the cold air cars were new to really 'get it' and nobody we knew had one. Riding in Charlie's put them on the radar for me. Would I have been as impressed with Charlie's car if I was comparing it to an LS1 F-body in 2000? I don't think so.

I don't think I would ever buy a GN or a T-Type because I wouldn't really want the V-6 (not knocking it, just not my cup of tea), but I still think they are cool cars and I still think it is impressive how well they ran for the time. I still marvel at the fact that those cars somehow got built in that dark era of American cars.

 

[Texas82GP]

When I bought my '86 T-type in 1995, it was a solid 12 second car... in the 1/8th mile. Right after the 1-2 shift it would shut off and didn't come back until the boost had dropped to zero. It still had the factory fuel pump that could not provide any volume at 16 more psi above Atmospheric and it just gave up trying.

I got a new fuel pump and managed to run a bunch of high 9's in the 1/8 with a best of a 9.35. A broken aftermarket sway bar was letting the wheels hop excessively. Next time at the track, after a blistering 9.2 run, the 11 year old Tank to body fuel line split and nearly burned the car to the ground.

About 2 years later, thru incremental tuning and fixing one broken thing at a time during/after weekly trips to the track, I was able to get the car to run 7.7's@89 mph (equivalent to 12.1's @111 in the 1/4) with the following stock parts:

100% untouched 90K mile long block
Stock Turbo
Stock Fuel Injectors
Stock complete fuel system (except pump and a FPR from a '90's grand am at the junkyard)
Stock intercooler
Stock Transmission
Stock Torque converter
Stock Rear axle
Stock Wheels
Full Stock interior
Stock suspension (With lowered springs and bigger swaybars added for better handling)
Stock Body with No lightweight body parts
Through full exhaust (dual cat back ultraflow mufflers)

Here were basically the mods the cars had:

Cone K&N air filter
Racing chip (I would add a couple gallons of race gas to the tank at the track)
Adjustable wastegate (DIY $6) with boost set to about 20 psi
Low backpressure exhaust
Test Pipe instead of Cat
Drag Radials
Right Side airbag
S10 Pickup rear wheel cylinders
I later welded a Big neck on stock intercooler, but ran 7.7's without it.

I added a $400 turbo and 36# injectors from an '89 Ford Supercoupe and went 7.30's in the 1/8 and 11.50's in the 1/4. Literally 100's of drag strip passed, never blew a headgasket, never hurt the transmission and never really broke anything except old hoses.

The closest 1/4 mile track was 100 miles away, so I drove it there and back on the drag radials. If anyone remembers the 1990's, you couldn't go to a dealer and buy an 11 second car FOR ANY PRICE, so you can see where the GN guys got their "superior attitude" from.

This summer I'm going to ty to get my T-type back to the track and see how it does, now that you CAN go buy a 11 second cars at the dealer... but not for $5,300 (what I paid for mine).
View attachment 87733
Hopefully going back to the track, soon.

That's a really nice looking car. I really like the white with black rims. It just pops.