What got you hooked on TR's, and why.

[RobsIron]

Then you woke up.

 

[PaCemkr86]

I have always loved the way the headlights look in my rearview mirror. They are just beautiful. Especially GN's. They are awesome.

typical mustang owner.. he prolly just jealous

 

[Walker231T]

As much as I could!!!!! There also was a huge gathering on Military Highway I still have a sign from at home, I'll get back with what they called it when I look at the sign.
Raced Suffolk all the time. Got my butt handed to me by Vic G. and his record setting T-type within weeks of getting my GN and taking it out for the first time.

I'm sure our paths must have crossed then. I use to hang out at 8th Street and Genro's all the time. And use to race at Suffolk just about every Friday night. Had a 86 GN for a few years, sold that when the TTA's came out and bought one of those. I remember when Vic came down for the Little Guy Nationals at Suffolk. First time I ever saw a TR in the 12's. Man those were the days!!! I miss them.

 

[TurboDave]

I'm sure our paths must have crossed then. I use to hang out at 8th Street and Genro's all the time. And use to race at Suffolk just about every Friday night. Had a 86 GN for a few years, sold that when the TTA's came out and bought one of those. I remember when Vic came down for the Little Guy Nationals at Suffolk. First time I ever saw a TR in the 12's. Man those were the days!!! I miss them.

That's the race I was at!! We were both running K/PSA. Of course he was running in the LOW12's, and my brand new, right off the showroom floor GN could only manage a 13.11 (I still have that time slip!) which I thought was phenominal, till we ran side by side that is.
I was at Genro's every chance I got.

 

[Turbo6Smackdown]

Hey turbo V6joe, what did ya do in afsoc. weather, cct, pj?

 

[SVT F15O]

Man this might bring a tear drop or 2 to my eyes.
I grew up in one basically! My dad bought my current GN brand new. It was his pride and joy. He held on to it through some rough times we had. I remember choking on a lifesaver in the back seat going down RT111. I remember me asking him: "Hey dad how fast can this car go." Well a blown motor later I found out! I remember all of the old Kirban shows my father used to win with the car. Taking the family vactions there and seeing rows of Turbo Buicks! Taking all the trips out to Dennis' house to bring him a car. I remember getting a ride to the bus station in Dennis' Typhoon at the time. Man my dad and me made that trip down there a few times. I remember all the Regals that would come and go around the house and shop. But that one Black GN always stayed. All the trips to Englishtown for Labor Day weekend. The trips to Cecil county in October. The events in Ohio. The event in TN. Can't forget the Nationals which I still go to. The countless trips to his Buicks friends' houses. Watching him wax that perfect black paint with a tub of Zymol, again and again and again.

Yeah, I guess you could say all that got my hooked on TR's! Wish my dad was still here to see the GN run now. -Mat-

 

[turbov6joe]

Hey turbo V6joe, what did ya do in afsoc. weather, cct, pj?

Spec Op SP

 

[Turbo6Smackdown]

never heard of it.

 

[scottyb]

I was 18 in 1986. I was a muscle car fan and wanted a Skylark or Cutlass (60's). My friend had a 68 Road Runner 383 that was impressivley fast. I certainly couldn't afford a new Buick, but I knew what they were. One night at the street races, that Road Runner got smoked by a GN, and I was hooked even more. To me they were the re-birth of muscle cars and the baddest car made for over a decade. Unfortunately, I never serious considered buying one until 2001. I bought my T, and now they'll have to bury me in this car.

 

[lxlaw]

typical mustang owner.. he prolly just jealous

You know I am baby, and one day I will own my one. But as for not seeing some in my rearview mirror, PACE you know what I have owned and am not exaggerating, LOL (granted I couldn't beat all GN's, but if it didn't run low 10's, don't bother). But as for GN's, I had a Monte SS, and always wanted a GN. I really don't want a TT. I love the black mysterious look of the GN's, and the silent death. When you hear the whoosh, it is too late baby. GN's are by far one of the sexiest cars there are, and I hope one day I have the money to put one in my stable.

 

[salvageV6]

I just needed a new car, my old rotting Olds. Cutlass had 175K on it and not much metal.

Had the down payment so I bought the fastest GM car there was and it just happened to be the right size, color, and shape. :biggrin:

Also needed trunk room for da golf clubs.

Plus my boss owned a Corvette 1986 that needed a beatin'. :smile:

 

[V6RACER]

Early 90s, seeing 5-6 of them out where we went street racing with ice all over the top of the engines and seeing all that piping and wondering what the heck is all that stuff.. Then watching them pick off every fast V8 car out there I was intrigued.

Fast forward a year or so later, I came home from college to hang out with my brother and his room mate who had a GN. I got in late friday night and they were putting slicks on the car. I asked for a ride when we finished, he said sure. Went around the block, he did a short burnout, the left at 10psi. My head snapped back and I was hooked. Went street racing and cleaned house that night and several times after that..

One month later I found/bought a stocker from a 75 year old man that owned three of them.

Been downhill ever since.lol

 

[2QUIK6]

Long story short...a chick driving a GN kicked my azz in my '79 Z28 back in '86....

Was cruising down the local strip/hangout cruising location in my '79 Z28 that I was proud of and had built the motor in between my junior and sr. year in hs. Alot of times at the red lights you would get into a drag race..one night a chick pulled up next to me at a light and my friend bragged about how bad azz those new turbo Buicks were (this was fall of '86) and they just had a 6-cyl in them. I said yeah right lets see if this chick can drive it then..
Light turned green and we lit 'em up...I was ahead for about 5 seconds and the chick went blowin' past me in her GN....so I had to test drive one to beleive it..
It was about 2 years later while in college I saw one in the used car section of the local dealer and finally stoped and test drove one..it was bad azz but not the one I wanted..had already been modified and the salesman knew nothing about the car...started watching the paper and found one in the Auto Trader with 10k miles and original owner in '91 and bought it...
Its still the GN I have today....15 years later...

 

[turbov6joe]

never heard of it.

We were assigned to AFSOC as special operations security police unit (13 men). Basically we were assigned to CCT and PJ's. To give ya an example of what we did...in Desert Storm we were deployed over the northern no-fly zone when a friendly was shot down that had very sensitive/important "stuff" on board. The PJ's went in and extracted the injured pilots, the CCT called in close air support to keep the Iraqi's off our 6's, and we went in to secure the resource until CE could get in and remove what we were gaurding. That's just one example of what we did. In peacetime we were EST (emergency Services Team)...same thing as civilian SWAT.

 

[SouthernCal GN]

I was stationed in Hawaii back in '86, and was getting into the racing scene on Oahu; had just bought a 1970 340 Duster, and was doing pretty well at Campbell Raceway Park. I ran into some cops that were racing Buicks, watched them just destroying the competition!

I ended up selling the Duster, and bought a 1982 carbed TR from a police officer. Traded that on a 1984 T-Type, and the rest is history! Been playing with these cars since then, and can't shake the disease!

 

[Epitome]

I graduated high school in 1984. Growing up I was always a Corvette/Camaro guy and my friend and his dad were the mopar guys. I used to jab at him and say "you know why it's called Mopar right?.....because it needs Mo Power". And of course they would tease me too. Sometime in 86/87 I started getting really mad about all the magazine articles saying "V-6 Buick Beats Corvette" and such. I was mostly annoyed that the Corvette guys would let a crappy V6 Buick run faster than the Vette. I looked at it more like the vette guys were slacking, rather than the buick guys making something good...I mean how good could it be? It was V6 lol. Some time in 88/89 I went to my Mopar friend's house and spoke to him and his dad. They couldn't stop raving about how they had been to the track and these black Grand Nationals were just destroying everything in the stock classes and beyond. I was unmoved and criticized them for even thinking about liking them....heck they were Mopar/440/426 Hemi guys, why would they get google eyed over a stupid Buick V6? In 1990, this same friend knocked on my door and said he wanted me to come outside and show me something, it was a black 87 Turbo T he had just bought. I immediately made fun of him and acted sarcastically scared when he said I needed to go for a ride with him. I was about to be re-educated. He took me down my street in the biggest, smokiest burn out I had ever been a part of. Then on the return trip he pinned me back in me seat like I hadn't ever experienced before. Years of disdain turned into respect in those few minutes. I turned to him at the end of that pull and and said "I HAVE to get one of these".....he looked over at me smugly, shrugged his shoulders and simply said "I've been trying to tell you".

 

[JM_in_TX]

I found my '86 T in the Thrifty Nickel used car listings a couple of years ago while hunting for a hot rod car. My kids are grown & gone, so it's just the wife and me (although we do have some grandkids now) and I wanted to get back to rodding again. I looked at it 4 different times over the course of a month, kept seeing it listed at a lower price. The 3rd time I was there, the owner said to take it out for a drive and of course, I was hooked. I took my wife for a ride the 4th time and she told me, "Honey I like this car, you better buy it". So, I offered the guy a few hundred less than he was asking and he took it. Got it at a very good price. Besides, I always liked the GN's and was kind of looking for something unique, not run of the mill, but didn't know much about the T-Types. I got educated real fast, though. The car is gunmetal gray with the blackout trim. I like the chrome pieces on the T's better than the all black GN's and is a great sleeper since most folks don't know how fast it really is. Has only 57,000 miles on it now, but a former owner had raced it and fried the engine, so when I got it, it had a crappy rebuild and only lasted about 4500 miles (I put 600 miles on it before the crank gave up). Ended up putting a new '87 109 short block in, just finished it about 3 months ago and I have put 800 miles on the car since then. I get a lot of thumbs up when we're in town with it and absolutely love the car. :biggrin: Fastest car I've ever owned and I've had a couple of fairly decent ones, many years ago, ('64 Nova and a '64 Falcon Sprint). I plan to keep it in the family and have already had a couple of good offers for it, but is most definitely not for sale. Since my wife has driven LeSabre's for many, many years now, we are certainly in the BUICK camp. BUICK's RULE!!

John

 

[Whut]

My first car was a 1979 Cutlass Supreme that was a theft recovery. Although the car was a complete pile I still liked the G-body styling. This was around 1991 and the Monte SS was all the rage for a G-body car back then. I knew a kid with a Plymouth GTX and he claimed to have the fasted car at school. Me, being a complete dumbass told him when I got my Monte SS I would run him and de-throne his Mopar as the fastest car at school. He laughed and life went on.

Just before I turned 17 (back in 92) my father asked me what I wanted for my birthday. Just like any kid would do I said "I want a new car" and got the normal "no, not happening" response. Something clicked though, my father figured this could be a good experience for me and came back with an offer I couldnt refuse. The offer was my mother would get the loan, he would pay the down payment and then I would take over the monthly payments for the length of the loan. Great, so now he asked what kind of car I wanted. I said "I want a Monte Carlo SS" and to my suprise he just asked where he could find one.

I figured I had this in the bag since I remembered catching the rear fender of what appeared to be a burgandy SS sitting on a small car lot in a close suburb. He went to look at it and put money down on it and then told me it wasnt a Monte Carlo but that is was a very nice Regal and that it had a V6 in it so it would be better on insurance and gas.

Needless to say I was pissed that I wouldnt be driving that 305 cubic inches of power and took back my offer of racing the GTX with the excuse of my new car will be slower than my old one.

Anyways, my birthday came, deep down I was excited about getting a new car with no rust, good suspension, no holes in the dashboard, etc... and most importantly, it was all one color.

As I came down the stairs I was greeted by my parents, my mother had a worried look on her face and my father had a grin from ear to ear. He handed me the keys and told me to be careful because the car was "special", my mother just told me to stay alive.

I didnt have a clue what they were talking about and simply agreed with what they asked and walked outside to this,

Once I got seated and adjusted the seat how I wanted (at this point I was pumped because I had power seats) I started it up. I pulled away from the curb and slowly made my way out of my parents sight. As I putzed around I started playing with the radio and then I noticed it, WTF?!??!?! Turbo Boost???? Is this knight rider? So I headed to the closest freeway onramp to see if it worked or if it was just some BS the previous owner put in the car.

As I sat at the red light I started two footing it to see how well it launched. When the light went green I hammered it to the floor and was promptly shoved into the seat. As the whistle from the turbo grew so did my smile. At that precise moment I fell in love with these cars and completely dismissed the Monte SS as a "slow car".

Its been 14 years since I first learned about these cars. I still have the turbo six fender emblem from that car on my keychain with the keys to my Grand National hanging right next to it.

 

[Just a Six??]

I dont really know why I wanted it exactly except I saw the GN & the Monte in the showrooms & actually liked the Monte. Then I did some research & figured out the Buick was better. I took a Loaded LTD for a ride & bought it that week. All I know is that I have had lots of fun, spents TONS of $$ & would never trade it away! I have had Darts, a Super Bee, 64 GTO Ragtop (resto project I never drove!) & a very fast New Yorker with the Push Button Tranny but the LTD is TOPS!! Speed & Comfort is the way to go! Cheers!

 

[gofstbuick]

I was always intrigued with GNs, but never thought I'd own one. Then I rolled my porsche (after a very long 16 hour work day). So I needed a car the replace the porsche. I started test driving GNs, found one I liked and bought it with the insurance money. I never thought I would ever modify the car until I stumbled onto the TR boards . I really never thought I would ever be a moderator, let alone an admin. I have met so many wonderful members on this board, that I'm hoping this ride will last for a long time to come:biggrin: .