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The Beginnings of Buick’s Turbo V6 Performance Era Buick began a new corporate performance orientation when it re-acquired its V6 from Jeep, with development work that led to a non-production, turbocharged 3.8 liter (231 cubic inch) V6 Century coupe being selected as the 1976 Indy 500 Pace Car. In 1981, a naturally aspirated version of the 4.1 Liter V6 Regal Coupe was Buick’s second Indy Pace Car. And on May 29, 1983, a Buick Riviera convertible powered by a sophisticated twin turbocharged 4.1 Liter V6 developing 450 horsepower paced the 67th running of the Indy 500. In the mid 1980’s Buick made serious efforts to compete and win the Indy 500 using its development work on the turbocharged V6 engines. The Buick Indy engines were acknowledged to be at or above the top of the class at the Speedway as far as raw horsepower was concerned. Its “stock-block” turbocharged V6 Indy cars won the pole position and second spot in qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 in 1985, the first time since mighty Duesenberg in 1931, that an American production based car had won the Indy Pole. Where the Buick turbo V6’s encountered difficulty was in reliability over the long haul of the 500 mile race, something that turbocharged engines of other race car builders have also encountered over the years. It is now very apparent that Buick’s 3.8 Liter turbocharged V6 engine is better suited for relatively short bursts of extreme power production rather than extended periods of sustained high power production. But the Indy efforts made one thing very clear: these Buick high tech V6 engines were highly competitive on the most prestigious racetracks of America. We now examine how this and other corporate racing experiences influenced the design, production and sales of Buick cars. As early as 1978 Buick began to bring their Indy Turbocharged V6 racing development work into the showroom. The company introduced the 3.8L V6 Turbo in two production cars. One of these was the well-known 1978 Regal Turbo Sport Coupe; the second was the 1978 LeSabre Turbo Sport Coupe. The latter is rarely even mentioned even by Buick Turbo fans and enthusiasts and it is difficult to estimate the production totals for this car. Most of the LeSabre Sport Coupes were produced with the normally aspirated 3.8L V6; separate figures apparently were not kept and the total number of V6 LeSabre Coupes was 29,408. In any case, the 1978 turbocharged V6 LeSabre Sport Coupe was a rare car. The same problem is faced in estimating specific production totals for the Regal Turbo Sport Coupe but the total number of Regals sold was 236,652 and the Turbo Sport Coupe was certainly not a rare model. In 1979, the total number of Regals produced climbed to 273,365 of which 21, 389 were the V6 Turbo Sport Coupes (or about 8%). Extrapolating backwards, if approximately 8% of Regals produced in 1978 were Turbo Sport Coupes, their production total was about 19,000. The LeSabre Turbo Sport Coupe continued to be available in 1979, and 3,582 were produced. Two other models of Buick became available in 1979 with the V6 Turbo engine, the Century Turbo Coupe and the Riviera S-Type Turbo. The Riviera was an all-new model year in 1979 while the Century was essentially identical to the Century Sport Coupe introduced in 1978 but without the V6 Turbo. The Riviera S-Type was Motor Trend magazine’s Car of the Year and a sales success with 14,300 being produced (of which 2,067 were ordered with the V6 Turbo), but the Century Turbo Coupe became another rare car, with an estimated 1000 - 1200 produced. Thus, altogether in 1979, one could walk into a Buick dealer and order any of four completely different types of cars powered by the 3.8L Turbo V6, the LeSabre Turbo Sport Coupe, Century Turbo Coupe, Regal Turbo Sport Coupe, and Riviera S-Type Turbo, bringing total production of Buick V6 Turbo vehicles to over 27,000 units. At the turn of the 1980’s, specifically, model years 1980 and 1981, production was down a bit across the board at Buick as inflation gripped the US. Buick dropped availability of the V6 Turbo in the LeSabres, and the production number of the Century Turbo Aerodynamic Coupe was only 1,074. The total Regal production dropped to 214,735, of which the Sport Coupes can be estimated to be about 15,000. The Turbo Riviera became the T-Type instead of S-Type, with both the 4.1L N/A V6 and the 5.7L V8 being optional engines to the TurboV6. However, Turbo Riviera production rose to a healthy 7,217 cars. In 1981, the general downtrend worsened significantly with prices rising as rapidly as production was dropping. Total Regal production was down to 123,848. While there are no specific production figures on the Regal Turbo Sport Coupes, they probably numbered between 5,000 to 8.000 cars. The Century coupes were dropped altogether, but the Turbo Riviera T-Type production fell to 3,990 (but this was still a strong figure by later Riviera standards).
These two model years (1981 and 1982) marked another period
of change for Buick that was influenced by racing of an altogether
different brand than Indianapolis, stock car racing sponsored by
NASCAR. This story began in
1981 when Buick re-designed the bodies of its popular Regal model.
This car dominated NASCAR’S Grand National racing series from 1981
through 1983, winning the Manufacturers Championships in 1981 and
‘82, the Grand National Championships in “81, ’82 and “83,
and the Daytona 500 in “81, and ’82. As difficult as it is for
us to believe today, their successes were based more on the
comparatively superior aerodynamics of the Regal body design rather
than better engine design.
Beginnings of the Grand National Concept Buick celebrated its racing success in this arena in the spring of 1982 by introducing a special Regal to the showrooms called the "Grand National". This was a well-planned event. Earlier, in February of 1982, Buick had run this limited edition Regal at a Daytona press event. The car sported a charcoal and silver-gray paint scheme with red accents; no black cars were to be found. The production power plant of this first Grand National was the 4.1 Liter, non-turbocharged V6 with a four-barrel carburetor, a move initiated perhaps out of quality control concerns with the 3.8L V6 Turbo. In fact, sales of the Regal Turbo Sport Coupes were severely flagging, with only 2,022 produced in 1982 – a huge drop from the high of 21,389 in 1979. Another clue that difficulties were being addressed, or that changes were in the works regarding the 3.8L Turbo V6 engine in 1982, was its complete absence from availability in the Riviera line for six months of this model year. It is estimated that fewer than 1000 Riviera Turbo T-Types were produced in 1982. Despite the strong promotional campaign, only 215 of the Regal Grand Nationals were produced in 1982. From today’s perspective, without considering the other signs that were available regarding issues with the 3.8L Turbo, it might seem strange that this first Grand National did not include in its specified options Buick’s best performing, turbocharged engine. But clearly, Buick was having quality issues or other difficulties with their V6 Turbo engine. However, the company eventually produced about twenty-five turbocharged 1982 Grand Nationals - with the added name of “Sport Coupe”. One could also view these twenty-five cars as Regal Turbo Sport Coupes with the Grand National paint scheme and emblems. At any rate, the turbocharged 1982 Grand Nationals were the only ones ever designated as Grand National Sport Coupes. They were probably specially ordered cars whose availability was not generally known by the public, or whose combination of Regal options was not readily known. As noted above they did not come in what everyone now regards as “Grand National clothing”, that striking all black color scheme. This story has been told in several places, with variations. Rich George’s account of the ’82 GN Sport Coupe is a reliable interpretation of these events (see the web site “Before Black”).
Another transition year at Buick occurred in 1983, especially
for those of us who are Turbo V6 enthusiasts. The turbocharged Sport
Coupes were gone and in their place was the Regal T-Type, the first
time in the Buick line-up that the T-Type designation and logo was
attached to the Regal name. As for the V6 Turbo engine, 1983 was the
last year for the carbureted version. A combination of factors
including better quality control measures at Buick, especially with
the V6 Turbo engine, rising visibility of Buick’s racing prowess
in both NASCAR and Indy, and a national mood that was much improved,
led to rising sales across the board. Sales of the turbocharged
Regal T-Types nearly doubled (to 3,732) that of the prior year’s
Regal Turbo Sport Coupe sales. Riviera T-Type production stayed
relatively flat at 1,331 cars. Also, note that the 1983 Twin Turbo
INDY Pace Car utilized a Buick 4.1 block, there were only two made,
one went to the winner of that years race and the other to the SLOAN
Museum exhibit. It was a SFI (Sequential Fuel Injected) prototype.
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Web Site Build Date: January 2002 |