I had a '79 as my first car and have always loved these cars…they seem to be about the only 80’s vintage worth collecting, so I snapped this one up off EBay a few weeks ago. He did a terrible job of prepping and shooting the photos, so I think I got a good deal and love the way it cleaned up after just a bit of elbow grease and detailing magic (at least under the hood, so far) It has less than 33K original miles, all original and stock/untouched. It needs some paint polish (has never been detailed, but in great shape) but the rubber, wheels, chrome, trim and interior are all spotless!
This is an '87 “Turbo T”. 265 hp and 355 ft/lbs torque stock. Same running gear and suspension as a Grand National, but it could be ordered in any interior color wanted in it’s final-run year. It really scoots!
Frankly I think all things “classic American Redneck” are starting to gain some collector value and hype these days, with the craze over Duck Dynasty, Nascars continual popularity, etc, so I predict these cars (and the Grand Nationals and of course GNXs ) will be some of the few from the 80s that gain value…plus, I just plain love them and enjoy re-living my youth of course. I had a buddy in college that had an '85 T type and that thing just blew my mind the way it effortlessly flew…has been a bit of a secret passion ever since.
I can get a mullet grown out by the end of October just in time for the Halloween parties
Brian I think that’s a nice car. I have fond memories of my best friends T type, it was a sleeper. It used to give my 86 Mustang SVO fits until I put a variable waste gate on the SVO . Enjoy the ride!
Steven
Nice score! I had a buddy that had a Grand National. He scared the pants off me with that thing. Crazy fast, and he liked driving it crazy fast. I think those Buicks and the Mustang GTs were the first glimmers of hope that the Dark Ages were over. Let’s hope they don’t return.
I was looking at Regal T-types back in '85, but the insurance was too high (the Grand national was worse) since mid-size GMs were the most stolen cars at the time. I got my '85-1/2 T-bird TurboCoupe instead. I say 85-1/2 because it not only had the late '85 water-cooled turbo bearing (which partially eliminated the oil coking in the turbo on shutdown), but it even had some '86 stamping numbers on some of the body parts. Pop the hood and there was an E6SE stamping number right on the cowl panel/firewall!
T-bird was OK, but had some quality issues… The front swaybar bracket broke off the frame at less than 500 miles, the turbo went at 45k (thankfully under the extended warranty!), rear axles twice (bearings ride directly on the axle shaft, not in a race), trans was getting noisy, clutch ‘dogbone cable’ broke three times (it is only 1-1/2" long!) which one time made me rear-end the car ahead of mine at 3mph at a traffic light when it broke and the car lurched forward, headliner fabric fell down off the backer board… Then the final straw was an engine issue - it’d run on one or two cylinders until it warmed up. I changed injectors, distributor, plugs, plug wires… and even took it to a shop and they didn’t fix it either - they said they did, but I suspect it ran fine if they kept in in their heated shop overnight. Oh, and it needed front struts, all four rear shocks and tires. I gave the car away to a co-worker.
Neat car!
In '87 I stopped at a Buick dealer in OKC to look at Grand Nationals. (Not that I could afford one, although I did buy a used '86 some years later.) Wound up test driving a Regal Limited with the turbo 6. Chromed out exterior, half vinyl top, column-shift, and mouse-fur velour bench seat. I’ve never seen another like it. Aside from the engine, it didn’t appeal to me then. Would be a neat car to own now though. Total sleeper mobile.
. Enjoy the ride! 
