|
A Story Of
True American Steel! Home - Buick "Muscle" History - Buick Parts Directory - Grand Sport - Harley Earl
Clasic Buick Photos - Jay Leno's Garage - Plant Cures
The Buick Grand Sport is a "Dirty Little Secret" and a piece of history that has been continuously swept under the rug for decades by MOPAR, Ford, and Chevrolet!
Lots of hate mail poured in to the magazine and the editor at the time Donald Farr (no dummy) saw the chance to stage a shootout against these two cars. So, the invitiation was put out to one of the biggest Buick bashers, a man named Roy Badie who offered up his Hemi GTX, and Richard Lasseter of GS Club of America fame with his 70 Stage 1.
When the smoke cleared, the Buick
busted the Hemi twice to take the best two out of three win. This
made the cries even louder with the Hemi camp calling the Buick a ringer,
etc, etc. So, a new Hemi verses Stage 1 race was planned, this time a
black 70 Stage 1 and a black Hemi Roadrunner. This took place
in 1987, while the original race took place in 1984. The black Hemi
Roadrunner took race number two, and this time the BUICK community
was the one outraged, calling the Hemi car a ringer! So, that set the
stage for race number 3. Race number three took place in
This time, a yellow
Buick GSX took on a sublime green Hemicuda. Magazines were there in force with this being the final showdown, best out of three series. All bragging rights for both marques hinged on the outcome of this race. However, it was not meant to be. The first round, the Hemicuda red-lighted. Rather than just wait until the next round to race all out, the Buick owner let go with an all-out pass, PASSING the Hemicuda even though it had a very good head start. The Hemicuda owner, armed with the knowledge now that the Buick was obviously faster, refused to make another pass, loaded his car on the trailer and left the track, never looking back. Want to see the official list with all the times and speed? Click here!
Ok! impressive for a pretty little stock Buick stage 1 GS car, but what happens when you tweak them up a little with aluminum heads and a high lift cam and a few other goodies? Well the boys at TA Performance have kind of picked up where Buick left off just before the smog crunch.
It is estimated that only about 75 stage II GS cars ever hit the streets from a Buick dealer. However 100’s of Stage 2,3,4 and yes even Stage 5 engines are proving over and over again that without the use of blowers or nitrous, the 455 can be tweaked to close to a thousand horsepower with ease!
Best Time: 8.99 |
The 50 fastest list was published
by Car Review magazine way back in 1984. It was compiled from
car magazines during the days when these cars were new and these
various magazines tested them to see what they would run at the dragstrip.
It was and is a very controversial list. Back in 1984 when this list was
published, some of the Chrysler Hemi faithful became very put-out to see
that a Buick GS Stage 1 was rated way up there in 3rd place, however
it was the Fastest Car With a Back Seat, beaten only by a 427 Cobra
and a 427 Corvette, faster than all of their cars. 
Oh, and by the way, why shell out the money for a genuine GSX when you can clean up an ol’ Scrapyard Skylark like this one, slide in a Big Bad 455 (Left) and get over 138 MPH in the ¼ mile.