Century Turbo SEDAN, ever see one?

[troGNman]

The year was 86 or 87 and I saw it for sale at the Englishtown Raceway Park Fall Car Show and Swap Meet. It was light blue and had the standard Century full hub caps on it. The only giveaway was the wide power bulge hood. The car was in really decent shape for a 6/7 year old car.

A sign in the window stated that it was 1 of 50 built......I don't know how they established that figure. The seller was a well-known name at the time and maybe some of you have heard of him. It was Pat Barrett of Level 10 transmissions back when they had the shop in Hamburg, NJ.

I'd be curious to know if anybody else had ever seen or heard of such a car.
A short mention is made in the Buick brochure but I'm not certain if it's the 1979 or 1980 booklet.

 

[usetaboost]

My aunt and uncle had one loooong ago

 

[charlief1]

I've not only seen 1 I worked on a few when I was younger. For some reason these cars sold well in DFW.

 

[novaderrik]

i tried to buy one a few years ago from a used car lot- the owner's kid was just letting it sit there and rot away. the body was rough, but fixable without too much effort. paint was faded, interior worn out. i never heard it run. he wouldnt' take less than $10k for it. i offered $2500.
it was parked next to a Grand Prix 2+2 that was really rotted away and barely ran. the back window was cracked and the rear spoiler was all messed up. again, the guy thought he was sitting on a gold mine and wouldnt take less than $15k for that one. i also offered $2500 for that car..

 

[troGNman]

Do any of you recall there being any badging on the car that would identify it as a turbo-powered car? Did the car have the large power-bulge hood like the Century Turbo Coupe? Just curious.

It's been a long time since I've seen one and I should have taken a picture of it when I had the chance.

 

[turbofish38]

Saw a 79 sitting in the boneyard many years ago. The only external badging I saw was the 3.8 Turbo on the hood bulge. I don't recall if there was anything on the rear hatch as far as turbo goes. All that stuff got smuggled out in my toolbox of course.

Kind of a neat but weird car. It had buckets and floor shift along with the gauge cluster and all of the power options. Oh and it was a two-tone blue with the Buick Hawk decals on the fenders. Kind of like a 4 door version of the Century Turbo Coupe only it had a chrome grille. If I read the books right you could also get painted bumpers along with the CTC grille and header panel on these cars. Some where I have a picture of a Century Sport Wagon that shows the painted bumpers. And I'm assuming you could get the turbo V-6 in any Century and Regal model. Never seen a turbo'd wagon though.

 

[troGNman]

Thanks for your input Eric. I figured if anyone had seen one or known of one, it would be you. Your vast knowledge of these older turbo cars is greatly appreciated.

This is the weird part about the one that I saw. It was the 4-door with trunk, not the hatch-style trunk. It also did not resemble the Century Sport Coupe (non-turbo) or Sport Wagon that was popular at the time. This looked like a plain old Century 4-door sedan with hubcaps. I think there is a board member here named Brad from MN that may have had a similar car. I'll shoot him a pm.

IIRC, those year Centurys had engine callouts on the fender behind the wheel; 4.3, 4.9, 5.0 etc. Could there have been a small version of the 3.8 Turbo badge there? I'll have to dig out my "prestige" Buick brochure of '79 or '80 and post a scan.

 

[GrnNatlFan]

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