Lots A Hot Air Bashin Lately! WHAT IS GOING ON!!!

[Turbo Riviera]

The truth is upon us... As we speak, the motor in my Riviera is coming out for the first time since 1984. I have a very special agenda for this car... Not sure if it will or will not be legal for stock eliminator, but what the hell, it will be fun!

 

[FWD turbo]

Originally posted by Turbo Riviera
The truth is upon us... As we speak, the motor in my Riviera is coming out for the first time since 1984. I have a very special agenda for this car... Not sure if it will or will not be legal for stock eliminator, but what the hell, it will be fun!

That's so cool............................
I can hardly wait to see this one!

 

[BRAD_PADGETT]

My response is to the first post by Racemybuick. I have to apologize for bashing our cars. I have a totally restored 85GN which runs great. You can see a pic and mod at the Hot Air Registry under owner 901001. This car will never see an intercooler, bigger injectors, adj. fuel press. reg and the 86/87 computer. It does break the tires loose quite easily.

The only reason I bashed our cars id because of the cost to get my car running perfect. The high cost is a result of my lack of knowledge about these cars and my stupidity. I will always support the site and never sway an newbie into the 87/87. My apologies. Brad

 

[Jerryl]

Originally posted by Turbo Riviera
... As we speak, the motor in my Riviera is coming out for the first time since 1984. I have a very special agenda for this car...

Scott,
Good to see you working on your new project!
Want to thank you for all your assistance over the past months as I continue searching and learning about Turbo Buicks.

I just hope to learn a lot more from the boards, and hopefully, through my trials and investments (Some of these as a result of my own stupidity) I can assist a fellow TB Brethren/ Sistern in lowering their frustration level.

 

[racemybuick]

Originally posted by BRAD_PADGETT
My response is to the first post by Racemybuick. I have to apologize for bashing our cars. I have a totally restored 85GN which runs great. You can see a pic and mod at the Hot Air Registry under owner 901001. This car will never see an intercooler, bigger injectors, adj. fuel press. reg and the 86/87 computer. It does break the tires loose quite easily.

The only reason I bashed our cars id because of the cost to get my car running perfect. The high cost is a result of my lack of knowledge about these cars and my stupidity. I will always support the site and never sway an newbie into the 87/87. My apologies. Brad

I never expect anyone to apologize about how they feel! Everyone is entitles to an opinion. I just felt strongly that more recently, it's been hard hitting. I am probably one of the most proud owners of a Hot Air, and I never expect anyone to understand how much these cars meant to me or why I feel the way I do, but I just want people to know, I am not in love with my car like some, but I will never give this car up, because I need money or something else. I can make other sacrifices, as I have done just to get this car in the first place!!! lol...I can give up a million other things, and the Buick will never be on that list! lol. Dont apologize for saying your piece, just think about everyone else before you do! a disclaimer shoudl be added...like the generic type..." For those who love their non-intercooled turbo buick, please do not read this post unless you are prepared to enter a dark place...A buick bashing place....For all others, welcome!" lol...something like that...hahahahaha...I just dont want people to look at my car and ask me, why would I sink so much cash into it when it is not worth it....But i will not sink 20,000 into it....not to get 11's! So far, 5000 in motor work, 2500 transmission, and electrics, and a repaint 5000 ( a high estimate)

So, long story short, for under the cost of a pristine stock intercooled GN, or an 11 sec IC gn with mods and decent paint, I have a perfect 11 sec, 84 T.

I love it...I cant wait!

John

 

[JBIRD85]

HEY ALL YOU GUYS HAVE GIVEN ME A BETTER FEELING ABOUT THIS WHOLE ISSUE. UP UNTIL NOW, I ONLY BELONGED TO, AND POSTED ON THE (OTHER SITE) YOU PROBABLY KNOW WHICH ONE I AM REFERING TO. EVERYTIME I ASK FOR HELP, I WOULD GET THE SAME CRAP, AND IT DOES SEEM LIKE EVERY GUY OUT THERE IS SWAPPING OVER TO THE 87 SET UP! WHICH ONLY HAS GOTTEN ME SOME EXTRA PARTS, WE ALL KNOW HOW HARD THEY ARE TO GET! ONCE I WAS TOLD TO CHECK OUT YOUR GUYS POSTS, I WAS SOLD, AND SWITCHED OVER HERE!
SURE MY 85 GN HAS BEEN KICKIN MY BUT LATELY, BUT WHEN SHE'S GOOD, IT ONLY MAKES YOU THAT MUCH MORE PROUD THAT YOU CAN DO, WHAT THEY ALL SAY YOUR WASTING YOUR TIME, AND MONEY! I ACTUALLY USED TO OWN THE 89 TTA, AND DUE TO HEALTH AND FINANCIAL REASONS, HAD TO SELL IT. SO I DECIDED TO PICK UP MY 85, TO STILL HAVE THE FUN, WITH THE LOWER COST. YOU SHOULD HERE HOW MANY TIMES I GET BASHED FOR THAT MOVE, EVERYONE THINKS I'M CRAZY, WHICH MIGHT BE TRUE, BUT WHEN IGET MINE JUST RIGHT, I'LL BE HAPPIER KNOWING WHAT IT TAKES, AND THE CHALLENGE, RATHER THAN BUYING INTO ALL THE IC GUYS BS!
SO, AMEN BROTHERS, AND THANKS FOR STICKIN IN THERE, SO I KNOW I'M NOT ALONE!

 

[FWD turbo]

Originally posted by racemybuick

So, long story short, for under the cost of a pristine stock intercooled GN, or an 11 sec IC gn with mods and decent paint, I have a perfect 11 sec, 84 T.

John

 

[turbo6x2]

I guess I don't really care if someone likes my hot air or not. It's not like most people even know what it is and they're usually Grand National owners. I had plenty of negative response when I set out on this project and rather then believe what everyone would love to tell you, I went ahead and did it anyway. Once I met Lee Thompson the rest is history. Anyone can make an intercooled car go fast, but a select few do it in a hot air. I think it's funny that it supposedly takes all this $$$ and small fortunes, when it fact it takes time to research and doing a lot of work yourself and tuning. Just like anything you want to go fast. I think intercooled GN's are great too, heck were all buicks and last I checked it was "Going fast with Class" Not going fast being an ass...

 

[broke1]

Why does Lee's car always have to be mentioned??

Its got a Stage block,274 ci,and his car ingests more methanol than Razor.

His car is about as much of a hot air as my 85 GN thats had the 86-87 conversion.

ps,why dont we ask the only 11 second HA replying here how much they have in there setup.turbo6x2,how much do you have invested??

 

[Turbo Riviera]

um yeah... Lets show a little respect. Shall we?

It may be that combo now (not sure if it is or not), but Lee was running WAY fast before alcohol, and was using production blocks.

 

[esinger]

Kirban

I haven't seen Dennis Kirban openly bash hotairs, but it seems pretty clear in his newsletters that he only associates with IC cars. I've very rarely seen him even mention that there's a turbo regal before 1986.

 

[cool 84]

Originally posted by broke1
Why does Lee's car always have to be mentioned??

Its got a Stage block,274 ci,and his car ingests more methanol than Razor.

His car is about as much of a hot air as my 85 GN thats had the 86-87 conversion.

ps,why dont we ask the only 11 second HA replying here how much they have in there setup.turbo6x2,how much do you have invested??

While I'm not positive on the numbers, I believe Lee was deep in the 11s if not a high high 10 with his stock block motor. I remember a post where the stageII was more for reliability. I'm sure Lee will chime in on his times and with what motor.

Mine would've been one of the faster 84s but I've only been to the track once with any real mods and had a plugged catalytic convertor (smog the previous day). I couldn't build boost off the line (with the little TA49) and even though it spiked to 18 for a second or two it held at 13psi most of the run. I still ran in the 12s at 110mph.That's a worst case scenario pump gas time. It had potential but we'll never know how much because a boost spike past 30psi on 87 octane killed it.

There are other hotairs in the 11s and some other ones like WFO that trapped over 110mph but didn't have a good 60'.

The power potential is there for hotairs but most owners don't put the money into them like the IC cars. The IC setup is a more efficient design for sure. Not only that but they're much easier to work on and parts are readily available for them. Nearly everything I've bought for the hotair, I've had to make fit. Not only that but there's not nearly as much tech support. A lot of my stuff is through trial and error. If I had it to do over again I would go with an 86-87 but I've pretty much got this hotair thing naild down and wouldn't trade if for an IC car.

 

[TType84]

Originally posted by broke1
Why does Lee's car always have to be mentioned??

Its got a Stage block,274 ci,and his car ingests more methanol than Razor.

His car is about as much of a hot air as my 85 GN thats had the 86-87 conversion.

ps,why dont we ask the only 11 second HA replying here how much they have in there setup.turbo6x2,how much do you have invested??

drew carlton has been running 11's for like 3 years now with a HOT AIR, no alcohol, no intercooler, no excuses...

his car should be running again any day now. he just got a nice 3" downpipe made and got rid of that sorry ass stock elbow he was running...

the only "special" thing he has is a v3 intake.



and, if i ever get my piece running... i'll work on some hot-air 11s for you... shouldnt be too hard.

 

[turbo6x2]

Well for your information less then you think it takes and less then 15000.00 all together and that's with a ground up restro. But then I did a lot of my own work and a lot of research and last time I checked Lee's car is still a true hot air, no intercooler and lets talk about alcohol shall we. Show of hands of intercooled cars using alcohol, oh yeah a whole hell of a lot . If you have nothing positve to contribute to this section why are you here. Just cause you owned a hot air once? Because from what I see you have absolutely nothing to contribute to this section but negative. It's called going fast with class you might want to practice that.

 

[turbo6x2]

Lee made it to the low 11's on a well tuned motor before adding alcohol or going with a beefier block, which I'm sure we all would do if we could find one. Why not it makes sense and isn't that the point. I've ran my personal best pure hot air and I don't care what the so called experts think or say. Usually they're the ones who don't have a clue.

 

[at7we2]

I can't speak for anyone but myself, so FWIW, here's my $0.02 (ok, maybe more than that )...

I currently only own one turbo Buick. Yes, it's an '87, so I don't usually read through the "hot-air" fourum, but it's not because I'm not interested, it's because I'm usually looking for something in particular to help me with my particular car. With that in mind, I haven't seen any "hot-air bashing" and I'm really not aware of any "animosity" or disrespect towards the non-intercooled cars or their owners. I'm not saying it's not out there, I just haven't seen or heard it.

It doens't really surprise me though simply because that's the "nature of the beast". As "car guys" or "gear heads" I think most of us tend to be a little on the competitive side, right? Well, I know for a fact that if you go to just about *ANY* vehicle enthusiast forum, you will find some "bashing" and competition between owners of different variations of the same vehicle. He'res a few examples I've seen first hand....

Jeep forums: these guys are at least as tight-knit as Buick guys, yet on their forums there's bashing between the TJ and CJ owners and YJ owners. TJ's and CJ's have round headlights and YJ's (built from '87 to '95) have rectangular headlights. The CJ and TJ owners have a saying, "Real Jeeps have round headlights!" Well, as you can imagine, that doesn't sit well with the YJ owners! The different Jeep models have different suspension and drive-train designs that give each vehicle different on and off-road characteristics and give their owners a lot to be competitive about.

Corvette forums: us Buick guys can have lots of fun bashing these guys, but I know the 'Vette guys do some bashing amongst themselves too. From what I've heard there's general bashing between the different body revisions and engine types - LT1 vs. LS1, etc. And I've heard the Z06 guys are frequently accused of the same kind of arrogance towards the non-Z06 guys as the intercooled Buick guys are toward the hot-air guys. It's the same kind of deal, but it's *usually* just in fun.

Mustang forums: more of the same here, you've got bashing between the 302 guys and the 4.6 guys, and of course you've got bashing and competition between the Cobra guys and everyone else.

anyway, my point is, anytime there's a perceivable difference between two vehicles, no matter how subtle, there's a basis for comparision, competition, and for some people, trash talking. I believe most of the time the trash talking is in fun, but obviously it really pisses off some people. Just like everywhere else, there's guys here in the turbo Buick community that take their trash talking more seriously than others. I personally have never been into it, I'd rather hang out and enjoy my Buick and talk shop with other Buick guys with the same mentality.

And as for the hot-air Buicks, like I said, I currently only own one turbo Buick, but I've got a "shopping list" of other turbo Buicks I'd like to own someday and you better believe there's some hot-airs on that list! Now all I have to do is win the lottery!

Rob

 

[Turbo Riviera]

^^^^^

How true...

I do still get really tired of two questions from Buick owners & non buick owners alike.

Non Buick owners:
"You should put a 350 in there, you'd go faster right?"

My response: "Well a V8 IS the next best thing to a turbo V6, so maybe when the world runs out of V6's..."

And...

"When are you going to sell that hot air and get an '87?"

My response: "Already had one. Sold it."

People usually have a hard time understanding both of those answers, but it's great fun watching their face wrinkle up as they try!! Don't get me wrong, I loved my '87. It was WAY hard to sell... But, my true love is with the hot air cars. Call it stupid if you will, but it's what I like.

I'll never bash the intercooled cars themselves. But some of the owners think that turbo buick history begins in 1986 and ends in 1987 with a brief ressurection in 1989. Last I checked 1978 was the year it began...

 

[BuickTV6]

Wow this is getting pretty heated! Pretty well I agree with this fact. We all have our own cars, and everyone has their own things to contribute to them. I think its pretty sad when we get to the point where turbo buicks are bashing other turbo buicks. I have owned a taste of it all. And what has to be remembered is that everything started out simple, and worked its way up. Back in 78 when the turbo buicks were born, it was unbelievable to see a lil 3.8L evenfire V6 buick motor put out around 170-175 HP. Those were impressive numbers since the beginning. Not to mention the progress of the motors throughout the years. The Carbed hotairs from 83 were putting out more HP then your stock 305 or 350 of the days. The SFI hotairs were still one of the fastest things on the road from 84/85 built By GM. I had an 82 Buick Regal Sport Coupe (hotair carbed turbo) which i had running low 14's with just research and major tuning. By far I enjoy that car more then my current 85 T. We had to have SFI Hotairs to have an Intercooled Turbo Buick in 86/87, and we had to have Carbed Hotair turbo's to have SFI Turbo Buicks in 84/85. I dont see why this has to be turned into a big competition. We all have turbo buicks, and we should all respect eachothers rides, no matter how fast or slow they are. I myself have converted to intercooled using the turbomotion intake and intercooler kit, however, I ran that TM kit hotair with a TA33 as well as stock turbo for awhile just to see what kind of difference there was. And What I discovered is that the intake gave the majority of the performance agins. The intercooler helped a great deal in cold whether. I was just experimenting is all, which is what most people do here. and THAT is how most of these guys get so fast. I love IC cars, even had the chance to buy one before I bought my hotair. But I decided on the hotair, mostly cause it was the first one I had ever seen, low miles, mint condition and wanted to be the underdog. And let me tell you, I have had much more fun with my car hotair with 18 psi boost on stock turbo racing cars then now running 17 psi on my TA33 and TM kit(plus other go fast mods). Sometimes its fun being the underdog
It's like 5.0L guys. They know their cars are cheap to buy and easy and cheap to mod. So what if you spend more money modding your car? So what if it took more time? That is that persons time and money to spend, and I dont think its another persons place to comment on that. Anyways, its just my 2 cents. Lets just all relax and enjoy these cars for what they are!

 

[turbo6x2]

Like I pointed out , this should remain positive for information and sharing of ideas. If someone doesn't like hot airs or understand them why come here and be negative? What have you accomplished, other then a disagreement, which I'm thinking for some of you that's the point. They are all Buicks and as Buick owners we should treat each other with mutal respect. If you have nothing nice to say say nothing at all. Didn't your mommy teach you anything. Hey can't we all just get a long.

 

[Jerryl]

Ok, I had to share my $0.02.

Once you realize this, and mostly with age ;
"You really have nothing to prove to anyone" , then it no longer matters what the rest of the world thinks. Unless of course you do this for a living and your family depends on your 1/4 mile performance times.

You can learn and adjust your personal HP/time goals if you have the need, but, anyone can go from 16 to 8 seconds in the 1/4.
IT IS JUST GOING TO REQUIRE LOTS AND LOTS MORE MONEY!

If your going to compete in any way (street or strip), it will cost you time and money. If you are just proving to yourself what you can do, then "Who cares what other people think of your ride?".

One really ought to feel sorry for people who's only bragging right in life is "My car is faster then yours ......... "
Be cool and ENJOY YOUR ride and journey!