It's Everyday.........

Y

Yankee John

Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2008
...That someone gives me a thumbs-up, waves, or tells me how cool my Grand National is :D . I have been daily driving my car since April 1st.

The day before yesterday, I pulled into the parking lot of my local liquor store to buy a 12 pack (Ok, a case :) ) of beer. A younger girl in her early twenties is a passenger in a new Lincoln that is idling by, and she says as they drive past my car as I was getting out of it; "OMG it's a real Grand Nation...... I turn around and look at her as she was saying this and she looked at me and says; "Sorry, I'm just admiring your car." I wave and said thank you. What I thought was so cool about this is that someone so young knew what a Buick Grand National was.

I was gassing up at Kwik Trip last week and one of the employees came out of the building and said that he just had to come and take a look at my car.

Just today, I drive the Buick to a business meeting in Minneapolis. As I was leaving town after the meeting, A yellow import with a big wing is next to me at a stoplight. I look over and he is smiling and giving me a big thumbs-up. I waved back at him.

Every single time I am gassing up my car, SOMEBODY comes over and asks me about the GN. NO EXCEPTIONS!

I admit, It is quite the ego boost for me. I have never had a car that has attracted as much attention as this car has -And I have owned a few heavy hitters.

I am loving this attention! It is a whole new experience for me.

What has been the reaction to your car from the general public?

:) John
 
Thats why I drive one without the GN badges on the side everyday. In the WE4 they say is that a GN, and I say nope, just a Regal, and go on about my business.

Reason being................. attention is nice.............. if its the right kind. I hope you dont get any bad attention............ these cars tend to draw it at times. I have been fortunate in almost 10 yrs of owning a Turbo Buick not to have any real negative attention.

Not trying to burst your bubble, just a fair warning.

Every now and then somebody surprises me on my daily commute and says, "hey, nice Turbo Regal" and I give them the nod and smile. :D

But Ill tell you what........ every dang time I take out my GN, my day ends up like your post above. Be careful, have fun!
 
Thanks for the warning Neil! I have heard about how these cars can draw the negative attention......

John
 
I took mine out for a ride today for the first time since May.

I wasn't 5 minutes from the house before two young froggy dudes in a supercharged 2003 SVT Mustang wanted to horse around...

I couldn't afford to pop a head gasket after just getting the motor back in the car so I kinda just blew them off...

15 minutes later on my return trip, I just happen to catch up to them in traffic again... I got up alongside them and told them to pull off up ahead to BS.

Turns out they were two very nice young gentlemen, just out looking for victims. :D

I told them... just be careful... you might just bite off more than you can chew... We BS'd for a little while, popped hoods, talked shop, etc...

I told them about a car show Saturday afternoon and some possible street racing later in the night... so tomorrow I need to get all my **** together and make sure I can show them what a GN can do Saturday night. :D
 
The GN is always gonna get more thumbs ups then other TR's.

I'm sure I will get some looks with my car when it's finished but no where near as many as GN's.

Good stories as well. Strange a girl so young would be familiar with ur car. She must know it from F&F. I guess that movie wasn't a total loss then.
 
I've even gotten a few looks with my rusted T-Type, but then again i've been laughed at too :tongue:.
 
I get way more looks and thumbs up in my GN.. But I enjoy it more when my T get a thumbs up.
 
It's rare to not get attention when I drive the T. Always somebody coming over at a gas station etc. The last time I drove the car it was after dark and two guy's in some kind of import rolled up beside me tooted the horn, turned on the interior light and gave me thumbs up. I had a backhalved narrowed rear pro street 76 stingray for a toy before the T and the T gets as much and at times more attention than the 'ray ever did. A while back two young college age girls stopped beside me at a light and wanted to know what the tag meant... it kinda embarassed me for a minute. ( Justasix ) :D
 
I live in a small town and have been daily driving mine for 20 years now so the new has just about worn off. :( Just about. :smile:
But if I ever see anybody while I'm not in my car they ask if I've still got that black car.
 
I've been to a few local shows this year. More and more people are interested in my T. I've been surprised a few times that they actually know what it is. I was a show a couple weeks ago at Hooters. A guy with very clean newer Corvette walked over and told me how much he liked my car.
 
My 87 GN always, and I mean always, got looks. It had 275/60s and I put adjustable read air shocks on the back, that raked the car literally an extra 5", and the only exhaust was a 3"THDP...so it was loud and looked mean. It more struck fear into the hearts of small children, and people just gave me that "what the...." look.

With my Limited, I don't get as many looks, but people seem to appreciate the rarity of it more. When I do get nods or compliments I think I appreciate them a lot more than with the GN.

The GN is a gangsters car. My Limited is the Mob Boss's car.

(its an 87 2-tone grey on charcoal with t-tops)
 
I have people come up to me all the time as well. This car gets more attention than any other I have had as well.

Some memorable instances off hand...

Shortly after I got the car, I was still in Durant, OK on a job. I was filling up with gas when this young guy (probably 17-ish) came over and asked if he could look over the car.. That he had always heard about GNs and read all kinds of stuff on them, but had never seen one in-person. He looked over the car for a while. We talked shop. He had a pretty spiced up Neon SRT4, but bowed to the 3.8 Turbo, "the REAL turbo cars" as he put it. LOL!


Shortly after the car came out of paint, I pulled through the drive-thru line at Raising Cane's. The girl handing out the food was 18-ish. "Here's your food sir, have a nice... Oh my GOD that Grand National is bad ass! :D". I was really taken off guard with that one.

A couple of days after that, I had met up with a friend of mine at a local car wash. While there, this hottie (mid-20s I would guess) rolled up in a brand new Challenger R/T and just stopped next to the car. She looked it over for a few minutes and said "I just had to stop and look at it. Haven't seen one in years and that thing is awesome!"

When I first arrived in Cameron, MO a few months ago, I pulled into the gas station for some fuel. Literally, within minutes, a crowd of people pulled up. It started with 3 guys & 2 girls, still highschool age I figure. 3 of them had cameras and asked if I minded if they took pics. I told them to go right ahead. Popped the hood, opened the doors, etc. Started talking to them. A couple of the guys knew these dars well. One of the girls did. They educated their unknowing friends as they took pics. More people started pulling up. One older guy who works at the local Buick dealership looked over the car and talked about how he hadn't seen one in years and how much he liked it. Other locals gathered and talked for a while. This was probably the most odd occurrence simply due to the number of people stopping to look at one car at a local small town gas station.

I was driving through town the other day and saw a guy grab his cell phone and start taking pics of the car. He almost took out some people in traffic. :eek: Luckily I was going the opposite direction. LOL

Those are just a few times people have approached me. It happens pretty much every time I take the car out. It's cool, though. I am surprised at the number of people out there who still know the cars well. And I get a chuckle out of the ones who only think they know and start spouting off outrageous specs. Case in point, at a car show a couple of weeks ago, I was asked why mine didn't have the factory twin-trubo V8 setup it was supposed to have. :eek:
 
Are you sure she didn't want you to buy her some brewskis since she was underage?

Your Lucky. We have ANGRY MISERABLE LIBS UP here. I always GET How do you like filling up that V-8 Gas Guzzler :mad: ..... Then I say You mean V-6 with Alchol injection that gets 19mpg around town & 27 mpg on the hiway The LIBBY face drops to a stunned look.::eek:
 
Little6pack said:
Are you sure she didn't want you to buy her some brewskis since she was underage?

Your Lucky. We have ANGRY MISERABLE LIBS UP here. I always GET How do you like filling up that V-8 Gas Guzzler :mad: ..... Then I say You mean V-6 with Alchol injection that gets 19mpg around town & 27 mpg on the hiway The LIBBY face drops to a stunned look.::eek:
Click to expand...

and then you turn on Fox news and throw Bill O Reilys book at them.

STUPID HIPPIES!!

Out here in CA we get liberals that drive H2s and smoke cigs. "You know that car destroys the ozone layer" to which I reply "you know smoking will kill you soon enough so I don't have to listen to you anymore"

They usually get pissed.
 
Get a few thumbs up here and there with my GN. My 66 Chevelle used to actually cause accidents.:D True!
 
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