Buicks Vs. Mustangs.

1BADWE4T

Member
Joined
Apr 21, 2005
I'm just curious, back when the rivalry was big, when they had the big shootouts, what was usually the outcome? Some ignorant mustang owner on another board says the Buicks got their a**es handed to them every time 12 years in a row. I remember seing videos of the ANS car and a few others against the stangs but I don't remember seeing them lose very often. He also says automatic transmissions are junk and he could take two Buicks put a manual trans in one and leave the other an auto, and continues to tell me the manual trans will beat the auto no problem? I think he's a nutbag mustang owner.
 
He also says automatic transmissions are junk and he could take two Buicks put a manual trans in one and leave the other an auto, and continues to tell me the manual trans will beat the auto no problem? I think he's a nutbag mustang owner.

Yeah, because a manual transmission wasting boost pressure on every shift will really haul butt. :rolleyes:

That's why Buick knew automatic transmissions were the perfect partner for a turbo because you can maintain boost pressure the entire time. Spooling a turbo once per race is a lot more efficient than having to spool it all over every gear. This pal of yours sounds like a moron. :wink:

But anyways good question about the shootouts, I've never really been aware of who wins most of the time.
 
I think that overall Mustangs had the win but they also usually had the numbers too. For every really fast Buick there were probably 10 well sorted out Mustangs (Very conservative guess, probably more like a 100 to 1) so some of the races were won by a Mustang because a faster Buick broke and there was not another one at that same level that could step in and take it's place. But when the Buicks were running well it was look out Mustang.
 
I had been to a few back in 2000 and 2001 at Englishtown for the shootouts. Those two years the Mustangs won by a Buick redlighting, but both years the Buicks had better E.T.s. Both times I was there it came down to the few fastest of each bunch and the Buicks were almost always considerably faster, but the Stangs got lucky and the Buicks would get DQ'd. That's just the stuff I've seen, it was pretty cool though for sure! The Buicks being outnumbered big time is very true too. The last time I was there there were a bunch of companies Mustangs with the company money into them and most of the Buicks were personally owned and payed for by individuals. Still gave em a run though.
 
Yeah, because a manual transmission wasting boost pressure on every shift will really haul butt. :rolleyes:

That's why Buick knew automatic transmissions were the perfect partner for a turbo because you can maintain boost pressure the entire time. Spooling a turbo once per race is a lot more efficient than having to spool it all over every gear. This pal of yours sounds like a moron. :wink:

But anyways good question about the shootouts, I've never really been aware of who wins most of the time.

No pal of mine LOL, this is an idiot off the chitown board btw. Typical die hard Ford guy who has an attitude of "everything GM is garbage".
 
What does HE have to run? 90% of the time the big mouths have a genuine POStang. Those that have a real runner don't have to shoot their mouth off. In fact they will respect what you have.
 
Tell them to come down to Noble this month. I think this year there will be a fairly large showing of Buicks. Spankings will be handed out liberally.

Even if Ford takes the pot, it won't change what's sitting in my garage. You can take a tax return, go out and buy a mustang....You need a loan to get a TR. Eventually Ford will force us all to build 8 second daily drivers....oh well, I can live with that.
 
The Mustangs were winning the series hands down (maybe 3-4 in row, not 12) at Noble until they went to Pro Tree, and now it usually goes down to the last couple races and could go either way.
 
It's been mentioned but this isn't apples to apples, there were what, less than 50K total Turbo (intercooled) Buicks made (86-87)? And there were what, several MILLION foxbody stangs made? It's irrelevant, a foxbody stang in GOOD shape is worth what, 4 or 5K at most, a ragged out GN will bring 6 or 7K (add a 1 if it's in good shape) because it's rare.

If I want to go fast cheaply I'll sell my GN and get a foxbody mustang, those babies are hard as hell to beat in the "go fast cheaply" market. If I want to go fast AND draw a crowd whenever I pull into a parking lot, or a car show, or anywhere else, I'll take a Grand National. There's no argument, the amount of technical expertise out there for a foxbody is way way way more than there is for a turbo Buick, there's probably 100 TIMES as many of them on the roads as "us". Since I bought my GN (in July or late June forget which) I've seen -3- other turbo Buicks, 2 at the 2007 Ardmore car show and the GN that Frank Gordon owns that he got from Nguyen, the one from Pinks. Foxbody stangs? I dunno I don't PAY ATTENTION to them on the road, do you? There's my point I guess. I've not seen another one, on the road, period, in 3 months. I can't count how many foxbodies I've seen, because I don't pay attention to them when I do see them.

Those Mustangs are very hard to beat when it comes to going fast in a straight line dollar for dollar, for the price I paid for my GN I could buy a Mustang, mod it, tune it, and get it way faster than I even HOPE to get my GN before I even spend as much as I paid for my GN to bring it home.

Some comparisons are best left uncompared. If you DO go faster than a foxbody they'll just pull out the "yeah but how much did you spend to go that fast?" argument. There's simply no Mustang (pre 1974) on the road that'll make me feel like I feel when I drive my Buick, even if it isn't that fast. I like my Buick, I wouldn't trade it for a half dozen Mustangs from the same era.
 
The Mustangs were winning the series hands down (maybe 3-4 in row, not 12) at Noble until they went to Pro Tree, and now it usually goes down to the last couple races and could go either way.

Why is that? I'd think the Sportsman tree would be better for turbo cars?

Jim
 
Ive never been to one but i was reading in some old articles , pretty much what the fellas here was saying. If i remember correctly as Duttweiler put it when he went to Englishtown when they were having the shootout , If everyone had the same amount of buicks compared to mustangs with all of the technology & parts , pre-years of research that the mustangs have, buicks would be faster. out of the

10 races that qualified and all

i think 2 buicks won and as the fastest car that day: Duttweiler won that year. But broke or something the following year but i think he or conley lost (I'd have to go back & read)

allot of the buicks were runnin 11s the 2 that won i think 1 ran a 11 the other a 10.
But that was then very few was runnin 9's or 10's even . but technology has changed since then but the mustangs still more R&D out there & a bunch was 8 sec hulled out race cars.

So for me i think race car all out yeah mustangs have too much support out there to out run them all... but occasionally it can be done.


Now STREET car however as far as riding A/c grocery getter runnin 11s or even 10s like grumpy & melissas.
Buick Cannot be beat, it'd take a Race or Trailer car to beat it,

now thats just my opinion & besides
"Wouldnt you rather drive a Buick?":D
 
I also havn't been to a "Buick vs Ford" event but I know alot of the guys from texas that have gone and it usually comes down to not having enough buicks there and were beat by being moreless out numbered thats all.

As far as grumpy & melissa's car goes (I agree on the street driving).

I live in the Smokey Mountians of TN and I have a 10sec daily driven street car that handles the turns VERY well. It's Autocrossed & Dragraced. On the street Iv'e NEVER been beat YET!!! buy anything.. The imports, corvette's, and mustangs will be on a twistie back road and when I get close to them with the GN they like to do there normal " Watch this, I'll loose this guy!" routine. So they get on it and to there surprise my black brick stays right on there arse ;) Iv'e even passed a few of them in the starightaways!! :biggrin:
 
Why is that? I'd think the Sportsman tree would be better for turbo cars?

Jim

A sportsman tree favors the mustangs big time.

Besides the fact that it's mostly seasoned Mustang drag racers that show up with Mustang drag cars, when most of the buicks that show are street cars driven to the race.

The year before they went to pro-tree we lost about 15 races due to red lights, from spooled up turbo cars pushing through the lights.

You can't give away 15 races and expect to win.

For a street car on street tires with a manual transmission, the pro tree is much harder to master.

An auto turbo car builds as much boost as it can and when the lights flash, you mash the gas... almost a complete no brainer.
 
Either way, there WILL be a couple of pony scalps hanging off the rear bumper.

We will not go quietly into the night!
 
An auto turbo car builds as much boost as it can and when the lights flash, you mash the gas... almost a complete no brainer.

I get it now. I guess that's why I subconsciously (or not) have gravitated toward our Friday Night Street Legal Drags - they run a pro tree to simulate a stoplight.

Jim
 
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