Hello there and welcome to my Buick Regal T-type page. As you can see I own a 1984 Buick Regal T-type. How did I get such a car and why? I'm glad you asked :> In 1988 after my high school graduation I was given a 1982 Oldsmobile. It had the 4.3 liter or 263 cid engine in it with a compression ratio of 21 to 1. It had power windows, power locks, power seats, but it didn't have any power in the engine. The engine was a diesel. Talk about one of the worse engines of all time. I would have to wait a minute for the glow plugs to warm up, in the winter the water in the fuel would freeze up and the car wouldn't start, the car needed two batteries to start up, and there was enough smoke behind my car that when I would floor it, I would create this black fog from my car. It would cover my street block up with soot. This 6 cylinder engine was rated at 85 horsepower at 3600 rpms. I know mine was putting out a lot less because I would be at a stop light and a Ford Escort or a V.W. Bug would pull up to me and when the light turned green they would always dust me. Sometimes a few of my friends would be with me and they would always laugh, the only come back I would give them is at least I had a car.

Around this time my other friends started to get cars. One would get a 1988 Chevy truck with a 350 cid. He would always say, nothing beats cubic inches. He also had a 1969 Nova with a 396 cid engine and he would say that he never did lost a race; when I was with him in his car he never did lose a street race. At times it looked like he would lose but then he would hit the NOS button and the extra 125 hp would kick in and he would pull ahead. Another friend of mine bought a 1968 Mustang with a 289 cid engine with a three speed standard. This car was fast. It was faster than his 1970 Mustang with a 351 cid engine in it. As you can see my friends liked Chevys and Fords. After being in these cars I felt the need for speed. We were going to go to a quarter mile strip by the airport and see whose cars would be the fastest. At this time my other friend was into Pontiacs and said he would have his car there to race as well and I could race his car as well.

Saturday came and there were about 50 cars around! We called a few friends and expected about 10 cars but I guess people talk and the next thing you know everybody wanted to race. Also this wasn't at a professional track, this was a track were a couple of guys one day found a place a few miles from the airport, measured 1320 feet and marked it with a long line across the road with white paint plus they added two poles in the ground on each side, and had a couple of other guys that would ride with you with their stopwatches. At the beginning of the track there would be a person who would raise their hands in the air and count to three and drop their hand. Cars would take off and at the end of the track, the two guys would give you your times when the race was over. This way was not an accurate way to race but you had a rough estimate on how quick you went. Also this was kind of dangerous because this was a two lane road with traffic coming and going. One of the cars would have to drive in the wrong lane. Even though it was a road that hardly anyone drove on, once in a while, a car would be coming and they would freak out at all the cars on the side of the roadway. The funny thing is that when you crossed the finish line you would have to look at your speedometer to see how fast you were going. This wouldn't work for some cars because their speedometer only went to 85 mph.

My friend that was into Pontiacs brought his new car and guess what, it was a Pontiac T1000. It's like one of those Chevy Chevette's. I thought he was going to buy a Trans-am or something... oh well. For fun I raced him in my diesel olds and of course I lost. I was pretty upset, not because I lost but because I ran the 1/4 mile in 20.5 seconds at 58 mph. My car wouldn't run 0-60 in the 1/4 mile. My friends time was 19.5 at 61mph. I didn't want to race but seeing a big cloud of smoke behind me, kind of looked cool... to bad it didn't smell good. After about an hour and 6 cars left I noticed two of my friends were going to race. I don't know how we ended up with 6 cars but we weren't racing for money or anything so they drew numbers which decided who would race first. My friends 1968 Mustang was racing a 1986 Mustang. A 289cid vs. a 302cid. My friend ran a 14.60 at 90 mph and the 1986 Mustang ran 14.70 at 89 mph. Next was my other friends Nova and he was racing a 1981 Corvette. The Nova ran at 15.00 at 85 mph and the Corvette ran at 15.51 at 80 mph, both leaving a lot of wheel spin. So much for cubic inches. I know what you guys are thinking...pretty slow... but in 1988, being 18, and not knowing much about how to modify your car...we actually thought these times were pretty good, especially at an attitude of about 3900 feet.

Wow I thought, now we are going to see who is the fastest, the Nova or the Mustang, but without thinking there were two other cars that had to race. I was paying so much attention to my friends cars that I forgot about the other two cars. People told me that they were a black Monte Carlo SS and a Gold Monte Carlo SS. We saw them pull up and I saw Buick symbols on both of them. One of them had the words Buick GNX on the front grill and the other one was a Turbo-T. They were both 1987's and I said hey those are Buicks not Monte Carlo SS's. I remember one of the guys that was writing the 1/4 times down saying, "can't be Buick's because Buick's don't go that fast." They were running mid 13's. Both of them staged and they both ran low 13's but the GNX won at the end. I can remember that these cars sounded different. Kind of like airplanes instead of cars.

It was getting really cold and I decided to turn on my car so I could use the heater. Two of my friends were saying how they were going to win against each other and that their cars were faster. My friend in the 68 Mustang found out the one of the fuel pump wires burnt on the exhaust system and his car runs faster now. With a best time of 14.06 he said he could break into the 13's easy and no way a Chevy was going to beat him. The Nova ran a best time of 14.49 but he never touched the NOS bottle so I didn't know who would win. With three cars left how were they going to figure it out who was going to race who? Well the GNX pulled out and this girl came out. She must of been around 18 years old we thought but she said she was 16. We asked her how much a car like that costed and she said around $35,000. She also said that she kind of borrowed it from her dad that night since her parents were out of town. Must be nice we all said out loud. About this time the Turbo T pulled up and it was one of her friends. I don't know if it was a full moon that day but again a said that it must be nice to be borrowing your parents cars. She said not bad for a V-6 huh! A V-6, no way we thought. Anywho, the three finalist drew numbers and the GNX was first, the Mustang was second, and the Nova would race the winner. The GNX was power braking it and the Mustang had the revs up. Neither car smoked the tires, we all just heard a light chirp of the tires and they took off....The Mustang ran a 13.26 and he forgot to look at the speedometer...A personal best...The GNX ran a 12.94 and she also forgot to look up at the speedometer. The GNX won...next was the Nova...they both staged and then I noticed something...in my rear view mirror their were red and blue flashing lights...everybody started their cars and started to leave. At this time the GNX took off, the Nova took off with about 40 cars following behind them. As luck would have it, I would follow them but my car was barely moving, I know my car was slow but not this slow. I was stuck in some soft dirt and I was barely moving. I started to slow down even more so I punched it and I speed up, even though my speedometer said 25 mph, I was probably moving at about 5 mph. I saw about every car past me and it took me a minute to get out. Now there was another problem. I couldn't see anything, my car produced so much smoke, plus all the other cars peeling out on the street and in the dirt, that I didn't even know where the road was. Well I got out of the smoke and the first thing I see is cops. Going about 100 mph (the police) and passing by me into the smoke. Stupid I thought but when they entered I saw their brake lights turn on so I floored it, thinking they might come around to follow me. When I reached 50 mph. I put the car in neutral and floored it near redline (3500 rpms) and put out this black smoke screen. I made it to the main highway and reached 80 mph (my top speed) and after a couple of minutes...a GNX passes me like I was standing still, then a Nova, then a Mustang, then the rest of the guys, like it was a cannonball run or something. I was last again and thought I would get caught but there were no cops in sight.

The next morning I called to see who won. Nova's time 12.99 with NOS. Didn't know the GNX's time though. We didn't know the other girls phone number but we knew it had to be faster because when a person wins, you say it like, "yeah a 12.99!", not like, "damn only a 12.99." He lost by a car length.

That same day I went car shopping and called a few places about the GNX's and the Turbo T's. Nobody knew anything about these cars. I told them that they were Buicks. I would go to different car lots and they would show me Buicks and I thought I found one but it was a regular Buick regal. It had the 3.8 liter engine but no turbo. Then at one of the dealerships I told him I was looking for a GNX or a Turbo T. He looked at me funny and I said you know, a Buick with a turbo V-6. He wasn't listening to me and suggested that I look at a 1985 Century T-Type. I said is it a turbo and he said no, I took it for a spin anyways and said, "No thank you," and left. I went to some other car lots and I asked the same questions and they said, "Yes we have what you're looking for, we have two T-types." I remember getting mad and saying, " T-Types aren't turbos, I'm looking for a turbo." He looked at me funny, opened the hood and said, "It sure looks like a turbo." DOH. I test drove the 1986 and then the 1985. The 1986 was faster than the 1985 but the 1986 was $10,000 and the 1985 was $6000. I was looking for a price range around $5000 and I said I'd have to think about it. I didn't want to buy a car and have it taken away because I couldn't afford it, I had to buy smart (working at 3.25 an hour (1988) out of high school can kill a guy.) I figured $200 a month at 30 months was all I could afford and that a $5000 to $6000 (max) dollar car was my limit. I decided to get the 1985 one, so I went down the next day and both cars were sold. I didn't see another one until I was at a stop light and this black car pulls up to me at a street light and I thought wow a GNX. I saw him pull into a restaurant and decided to start a conversation. "Hey nice GNX," I said; he said, "Nope sorry, it's a Grand National." A Grand National, how many cars did they make I wondered and why give them all different names and if they have all these names...why can't I find one to buy? Anyways he told me that he didn't know much about these cars and that he liked how it drove and that he just bought it at this car lot. He said they had about 6 or 7 turbo regals there. I went down there and I saw a 1987 Grand National, 1984, 1983, and a 1982 Buick Regal T-type. The prices were $12,000, $5995, $4000, and $2000. I drove them all and being a teenager for the need for speed I picked the fastest one. The 1984 Buick Regal T-type. I know what you guys are thinking, A 1987 Grand National is faster than a 1984 Buick Regal T-type but it wasn't. I don't think the Grand Nationals Turbo was working in it because the boost gauge only showed about 1 or 2 pounds of boost, where as the 1984 Buick T-type boost gauge went to 15 to 16 pounds of boost. Even if the Grand National ran right I couldn't afford it anyways. So the only thing left was to get it checked out by another mechanic and see if everything was legite. Well I got a list back on what was wrong with it. Brake lights don't work, and the high beam headlights don't work. Something you really don't think about during the day when driving. No wonder people were honking at me when I test drove it, I thought they were being friendly (brake lights weren't working). I got those things fixed for free (by law) and they gave me a whopping $700 dollars on my old car for a down payment. They told me if it was unleaded instead of diesel they would have giving me $3000. I asked them what they were going to do with it and they said crush it, I wonder if they were joking? Anyways I got a 1984 Buick Regal T-type and being the crazy teenager I was...I had to buy new tires the next week.