z-28 makes me feel bad

[brittken]

I decided to take my turbo t for a friday night drive after a long week of work. I have only been in a couple of street races against some mustangs since I bought my car. I won those two however this race was different. I am cruising down the highway at about 50 mph when i spot a new model z28 in the distance. I catch up with him at the red light. It was some young guy looked to be about 17. I am not big on street racing but I admit I was tempted. Well I notice him rolling his window down and he asks me what is in my car. I tell him a turbocharged 3.8 v-6. He looks at me and sighs. He tells me a 3.8 wont take him. His Z-28 looked to be a special edition. It had a huge hood scoop in front with what looked to be factory badging that said 350 LT or something like that. Well i decide to try him. We both wait impaitently until the light turns green and then we both take off. He quickly jumps out a car length in front of me. As soon as my car hits second gear I catch up with the rear of his passenger side door and then his car shifts again and he stays a full car length in front of me
the rest of the way. When the race was over he took off to the interstate exit and I took off feeling BAD. I am not sure what was in that Z-28 exactly but it gave me a run for my money.

[TurboBuickSix]

Did you spool the turbo up a couple of psi before you launched?

[turbofrank]

Grasshoppr
lesson 1- stock eng slo year 2003 spend money
lesson 2- how fast you want to go how much you got to spend
spend some money wisely
lesson 3- if car stock stick to ricers.

[brittken]

No I did not spool up the turbo because the car has a shift kit and the rear end peels out alot between 1st and 2nd and 2nd and 3rd. The car is all stock and runs very strong. Never abused. I always wanted a turbo regal and i want to be one of the guys down the road that still has an all original turbo regal. Everything that i put on it I want to be able to easily take back off to keep the car original if i ever have to sell it. What newer model automobiles can the turbo regal hang with when it comes to racing? I love the way these cars drive and i know it is not the fastest car out there anymore but to me it still the coolest and the best turbocharged gm car ever produced. And it is also an attention getter every time you see one on the highway.

[whitehot84]

You can make some subtle mods that keep you looking stock but make your performance much better. Good fuel pump, fuel pressure regulator, hot wire kit, adjustable wastegate and a chip come to mind. A little tuning and fear the Z no more.

[matt87]

i know come on! spend some money, not a lot but some. this aint 86-92 any more. our cars were wonders when they were new but 14s aint gonna cut it anymore.

[Russ Merritt]

All stock, it's not the cars fault! If I were you, I wouldn't race anything. Just drive it.

[blackbuick87]

For $1000 in mods, you would have handed him his azz, and you car would still look 100% stock

[The Radius Kid]

Don't feel too bad.You've got too much power for your car to hook up.
Air bags,boxed lowers and some decent tires should give you some much needed help.
Then a pump and AFPR and you're on your way.

[turbojimmy]

Originally posted by matt87
i know come on! spend some money, not a lot but some. this aint 86-92 any more. our cars were wonders when they were new but 14s aint gonna cut it anymore.

Low 14s/high 13s is still quick even by 2003 standards. It would be a driver race between a stock GN and an LS1. The LS1s are all over the board timeslip-wise (my brother's '99 ran low 13s, his '02 runs high-13s), but if you launch right you can stay ahead of one in a stoplight skirmish (if you're willing to go well above the speed limit he'll eventually reel you in, though).

Follow the recipes on gnttype.org. You can make it a very drivable, stock looking 12-second car pretty easily.

Jim

[93t'dZ28]

Nice run! You might want to pick on the LT-1's though. They seem to be more dead even with the GN's. The LS-1's are all over the board timewise but so can GN's very easily. An LS-1 with an average driver should go at worst 13.7 and as low as 13.2 some have claimed 12.9 not to say I actually believe them. My basically stock Z would be more of a race for the GN than a LS-1 with 30-45 more hp depending on model (SS vs Z28)

[blackbuick87]

I have to agree, an LS1 will whoop on most GN's running stock boost levels on stock equipment. It is one helluva powerplant IMO

[ThikStik]

Originally posted by blackbuick87
I have to agree, an LS1 will whoop on most GN's running stock boost levels on stock equipment. It is one helluva powerplant IMO

. Damn good engine, that ls-1. Just in time to be dropped by GM. From CamBirds anyway.

[matt87]

i'll stick by what i said, 14s aint gonna cut it anymore! wrx, srt-4, altima, ls1 camaros, newer stanges and a host of other cars run 14s or better. i wouldnt even bother running my car if it were bone stock, even if i had a bone stock car it would be because it has 20k or less miles and i dont drive it anyways. do some inexspensive/free mods and be prepared!

[getchasum]

My advise is; If your planning on stop light incounters, spend the money. You can still keep the stock look. To look under the hood of my car, most will only see the THDP and boy is it pretty My goal is to look as stock as possible, down to the air box w/ open base lid. Also I've been very anal about keeping stock parts or if I had to mod a stock part buy a replacement so that I do not have to damage mine.

Granted, I've never been on the track, but there's nothing on the street that's going to make me tuck tail and run. Now if your talking something Pro Street, just call in a faster GN.

[littlesixsteve]

Actually considering the AGE difference of the cars & what the Z28 owner spent for his car you did not do to bad for him to be out 1 car length.

As above a few guys mention about 1k in mods will put you even with him.. Spend a bit more & you can whip ARSE!

[brittken]

You have a point there. I love turbo buicks. I may do some modifications as stated in my signature. I just do not alter anything inside the motor itself. I hope that the value of turbo regals will continue to go up but it seems that alot of the newer model cars can keep up with them in stock form. I hope this does not hurt the value of these cars in the long run. By the way when the kid asked me what I had in the car I do not think he knew what a turbo regal was. You could clearly see on the hood scoop what was in the car.

[ghall]

Originally posted by brittken
You have a point there. I love turbo buicks. I may do some modifications as stated in my signature. I just do not alter anything inside the motor itself. I hope that the value of turbo regals will continue to go up but it seems that alot of the newer model cars can keep up with them in stock form. I hope this does not hurt the value of these cars in the long run. By the way when the kid asked me what I had in the car I do not think he knew what a turbo regal was. You could clearly see on the hood scoop what was in the car.

You seem to be more worried about the value of the car than enjoying it.Look at the 18k mile in my sig---absloute ball of fun and i did it my way.These cars are not investments(keep it nice)----but enjoy it.

Geoff

[v8rob]

Brittken,

I'm following the same approach with my '87 GN. I bought the car with 16, 500 orig. miles and it now has a little over 21k miles. I haven't done anything to the car yet that I couldn't "undo" and return the car to showroom stock. Now, that doesn't mean I haven't dome some significant mods, I just haven't doen any cutting or welding. I have all the original parts put away in boxes. So far I've taken the car from somwhat dismal 14.30 timeslips some more respectable high 12 low 13 second time slips with just subtle bolt-ons. As it sits right now, I could return the car to 100% stock in a weekend. The really good news is, there is still *lots* of bolt-on parts I can (and will) add. It's just a matter of money at the moment. My wife and I just had our first child so the Buick budget took a big hit. Forgive me if someone else has already mentioned this, but your best bet is to log onto gnttype.org and follow the "recipes". You *can* hang with the late model cars including LS1's, but it will take some money and tuning. That's the beauty of these cars, they respond unbelievably well to relatively small mods. And if you can spend some dough, you can *bolt-on* a bigger turbo and intercooler, swap injectors, yada, yada and before you know it, you're blowing the doors off nitrous-fed z06 Corvettes! I'm nowhere near that myself yet, but I see it all the time with local turbo Buick guys here in Dallas.

Good luck and don't give up.

rob pinkston
Dallas, TX

[brittken]

I am considering bolt on mods as well. The car runs very strong as it is however it has 80,000 miles on it and the turbo was replaced not too long ago. I will put the bigger injectors,fuel pump, etc into the car when time and money allows. I have noticed that cars with exstensive mods seem to be harder to sell though. I hope to purchase another turbo buick down the road then maybe i will do something major with it. I do want to keep this one as close to stock as possible though. I would love to take a 87 hurst olds 442 or monte ss and build a killer race car since they do not have the resale value or the mystique that turbo regals have. No offense olds and chevy owners.