Hello. New Here

[T Bone]

Hello,

New here. My lease on a Porsche Cayenne (my daily driver) is up in March and I have been scratching my head on what to pick next for a daily driver. Then I went back to what really captured my attention when I was a kid.

The Grand National and of course, the GNX.

I will be lurking on these forums, reading and learning from the collective wisdom here.

Thanks,

T Bone.

 

[king kong]

T-Type , Turbo-T , Grand National , or GNX are all great choices to buy.... Pick your poison ! and welcome to the Dark Side

 

[Ktbregal]

Good luck T Bone. Best advice is, do you homework with these cars.

 

[kandc7]

Make sure its an 86/87 models

 

[Phoneguy]

Welcome aboard !

Patience will pay off.... Before you buy one of these cars , ask one of the locals to check it out for you or with you. You do not want to buy someone else's problem. Good luck !

Bryan

 

[bpman1234]

Welcome. Great people on this and the Vendors are all also great stand behind there products and will help withtrouble shooting and anything about these buicks out of all these vendors on this I have. Only had the pleasure to deal with and hand full. Razor Alky control. Julio.. and Bob bailey at bailey Engineering And Eric Marshall at Turbo tweak turbotweak .And there Customer service is AAA plus Phone of via asked they will get you straight. And not only vendors but a lot of other guys on this site that knows there shit will take there time to help also.

 

[T Bone]

Thanks Guys....

I have watched Turbo Tom's videos and Black Air....and a few videos to push me away from blow off valves. So glad to see a community that loves this car!!

My thinking right now is to go for a 50k mile or below and do a full engine rebuild with goodies. Freshen up suspension, in particular new bushings, ball joints, new brakes....

I also looked at new tires for the GN and it seems not too many tire choices for a 15" / 50 profile tire.

What are some good wheel choices to get better rubber and better brakes (bigger calipers)

Thanks!!

 

[dynoman]

If you want a great handling GN , call Scot @ GNS Performance . He is one of our vendors here . Sam
http://www.gnsperformance.com/

 

[NY Twin Turbo]

Thanks Guys....

I have watched Turbo Tom's videos and Black Air....and a few videos to push me away from blow off valves. So glad to see a community that loves this car!!

My thinking right now is to go for a 50k mile or below and do a full engine rebuild with goodies. Freshen up suspension, in particular new bushings, ball joints, new brakes....

I also looked at new tires for the GN and it seems not too many tire choices for a 15" / 50 profile tire.

What are some good wheel choices to get better rubber and better brakes (bigger calipers)

Thanks!!

Depends.

There are a lot of choices out there. Are you going to build an all around street car? Chances are, if you do it right, your going to need drag radials on the back and some Bear brakes on the front to stop a 3600 pound car that will accelerate to 60 MPH in about 2 seconds!

Life is good in a Turbo Buick!

 

[John Larkin]

I wouldn't recommend one for a daily driver. Some do but a 28-ish year old car is subject to unexpected albeit usually simple failures. Turbo Regals can be full of electrical gremlins that appear from no where, not to mention the G-Body attraction to the hoodlum crowd. Park it at the airport, mall or movie theater and you'll be lucky if it's there when you return. On the other hand they are tremendously fun hobby cars.

 

[NY Twin Turbo]

I wouldn't recommend one for a daily driver. Some do but a 28-ish year old car is subject to unexpected albeit usually simple failures. Turbo Regals can be full of electrical gremlins that appear from no where, not to mention the G-Body attraction to the hoodlum crowd. Park it at the airport, mall or movie theater and you'll be lucky if it's there when you return. On the other hand they are tremendously fun hobby cars.

I kinda disagree. If you update the issues we all know about during you build there should be no troubles worse then owning any other modern performance car. I would say it was unlikely many of us would use it as a daily driver if given a choice though. Just like..... I wouldn't use a Corvette in a snow storm either. Mine was my only daily driver for years. Now that it's all cleaned up and highly transformed, I reserve its use for dry weather days. However, sometimes I spend hours driving it long distances.

 

[gn.87]

T Bone, I personally decided to pick up a reliable commuter car (Camry) for a very very cheap lease deal and have the Grand National as a hobby car. I can get very frustrating to use as a daily driver in my opinion. Once the mods begin you can be down for a few days at a time and it is nice to not worry about how your going to get to work. What every you decide a Turbo Buick is a bad ass choice.

 

[TurboTnZ06]

I had a stock, rebuilt 87 GN, it was totally reliable day in and day out, while at the same time, my heavily modified 87 T, it usually ran, but out of the blue would just have something that needed tweeking with the additional power. Just have to stay on top of the electrical items and cheap GM junk that is getting old. You need a backup car. How else will you get to the parts store to buy more parts when the Buick is under the knife.

 

[salvageV6]

Don't rebuild any motor GM put together until it has at least 300K miles on it.

 

[TurboTnZ06]

Just like..... I wouldn't use a Corvette in a snow storm either.

Corvettes are fun in the snow. I took mine snowboarding when I lived in Colorado, just have to have good tires.

 

[T Bone]

I also have a 2015 Porsche GT3 that I don't want to put too much mileage on. I guess that is my "backup". so I don't want to drive a boring DD so I figure I would prep a GN to make it reliable......

Buy a car for low $20's and spend another $10k to make it feel new and reliable. I mean what kinda car can you get for $30k? Am I being naive or unrealistic?

 

[Gene Van Horn]

You mean 10,000 on the suspension alone correct, new control arms, four wheel baer brakes all new bushings, shocks and more. Another 10,000 if your gonna tear the engine down and rebuild plus all the external go fast parts, 20,000 plus 10,000 plus 10,000, bet you could buy one already done for forty k,just athought.

 

[dynoman]

I see your in Cal/Ariz , you should contact Nick Micale @ http://arizonagn.com/ or Lou Czarnota @ http://www.turbolou.com/Home.html , they can really help you out in your decision . Sam

 

[dynoman]

I'm guessing that your " dislike " was a mistake , because these ARE the 2 best guys to talk to about what you are looking for in your area . Sam

 

[gunzandgearz]

Just curious who put the dislike