Stange Question: Good Handling Buicks

Get a G-Body Buick (Or Olds, Chevy, Pontiac). Find a base model or one with a blown engine and buy the car for $500 or get it for free (like mine).

Strip it down and build up a new V8 (or drop in LT1 or LSx), manual trans, beef up the rear axle, upgrade the front brakes, and finally the suspension on one of these is just about skies the limit now, you can buy complete Pro Touring style kits for the suspension these days that can really help you tear things up on the autocross tracks.

Oh and remember to stiffen the chassis with factory parts (found on various models) or aftermarket copies (frame ties front and rear, various cross bracing, under hood bracing). Oh and to add a bit of lightness to the mix dig up the various factory aluminum parts.

pres589 wrote: In reply to 96DXCivic: I give you ideas for how to assemble an L67/T5/Vega and this is how I am repaid? Questions of FWD?! Insolence! I can't think of any FWD 3800 applications available with a manual trans. Who would have purchased one new?

Pontiac 6000STE?????

Oh Noes, I just brainstormed an all wheel drive supercharged REATTA!

Not that I want to throw gasoline on the campfire, or anything, but this will link you to an ad from last month offering a Challenge-priced manual-trans 81 Malibu "Iraqi Taxi" sedan in Manitoba. (No affiliation whatsoever.)

The whole "Iraqi Taxi" story is great in itself, but not for this thread.

GM High Tech Performance detailed a Hotchkis suspension installation on a '96 Impala SS. I am thinking about a similar setup for my '96 Roadmaster. Pretty much anything from any B-body seems to go on any other B-body, so I have all the 9C1 and Impala parts available.

Or were you specifically looking at FWD cars? Because I have wanted to do a transplanted 3800SC Century for a long time. Something along these lines:

I was just wondering about the FWD cars because I think those would make much better sleepers then the RWD cars from the '80s. A lot of car people know a G-body can be made to handle and be fast but a FWD Buick is another story.

How much does a Buick Skylark weigh?

MSN Autos says an '88 Skylark sedan weighs 2,638lbs. A '92 sedan is 2,846.

Buddy of mine has a 3.8 GTP, he's in the low 14's on 500$ of parts. Thye are nice comfy cars, plenty of room inside, and at the low end of depreciation right now....too bad that the transmissions suck bigtime though.......personally I like the sleeper image better of the GS !

Another old time friend, used to run a Skyhawk with a 350 Chevy and 4 speed , the little hatch was probably one of the quickest cars on our local late-night industrial park scene back in the day.......

I always had a soft spot for the 'bu taxi's , since they were built just north of where I live....there used to be quite a few that found homes in the neighbourhood, but now have mostly vanished

silverseven wrote: Buddy of mine has a 3.8 GTP, he's in the low 14's on 500$ of parts. Thye are nice comfy cars, plenty of room inside, and at the low end of depreciation right now....too bad that the transmissions suck bigtime though.......personally I like the sleeper image better of the GS !

i met a guy in ohio at a dragstrip that was turning 11s if i recall correctly with a bonneville ssei. it sounded totally evil too. he said he was on something like the 9th iteration of the transmission.

In reply to WilberM3:

You sure he wasn't on his 9th obliteration of the transmission?

In reply to WilberM3:

I like challenges but not challenges wrapped in corrugated plastic. Still, he probably knows more about putting power down with that platform as anyone, and that I can respect.

I saw a mention about using a fiero transmission to swap behind (well, next to) the 3.8L. Has this swap been documented on a W-body car anywhere? Im curious.

I do know they early w-bodies had a factory 5-spd option but I believe it was only behind the 60* sixes.

I am under the impression that the 5-speed Getrag from the Beretta will work, too. I don't think it's the same unit as the Fiero, but I could be wrong.

Lets see if I can help with this since I am using a 3800 from a 91 Regal GS and a Fiero 5 speed from an 86 GT (Getrag) They do bolt up together. Even the starter bolts right in. You need the fly wheel from the Fiero and that has to be re drilled to mount it to the 3800. The flex plate on the 3800 is set up for 8 bolts the Fiero has six. On the 91 the pilot bearing for some reason is already installed so you don't need one. The problems that I ran into installing this combination on a Saturn SC is that because the half shafts run inboard, I had to mount the engine cradle 4" forward of the fire wall to clear the rack and pinion steering that is mounted outboard of the engine cradle. Make sure that the half shafts come with the Fiero tranny you will need them. also check to make sure that the half shafts do not end up being too short or to long, otherwise you will have steering issues, or problems mounting the struts. I fabricated some brackets to get the struts in the right position. Hope some of this helps.

How much power can the Fiero 5-speed take before it goes pop?

Just curious but hows about a 5spd equipped Z34 Chevy Lumina?

A Getrag 5 speed in a fiero wil handle up to 350 ponies. Any more and the trans will have to be rebuilt with stronger guts. There is a guy north of Chicago called V8 Archie that does V8 Fiero conversions and also sells a kit to do your own.

neon4891 wrote: But I would like to see what an N platform car can do.

Can you even buy performance parts for an N car? Besides a "cold air" intake of course?

How about hanging a Buick grill on a E30 or..miata? Actually, make that a sky/solstice:

Not exactly "sleeper" per se, but it would be fun.

In reply to klipless:

Man it is a shame they didn't do that

pinchvalve wrote: Or do you need a Skyhawk for that? I think some Z24 or Sunbird turbo parts would swap in. The late 70's "Road Hawk" would certainly be a bit rare on the roads!

Gaaa! My mother bought a Skyhawk exactly like that one, same color, trim pkg, everything brand new. Total, complete POS.

And my first car that was all mine and not shared with my b!tch twin sister was a red '79 Pontiac Sunbird - body twin to that Buick. Good first car in that I beat the crap outta it daily and it lived for 3 years. The 4 cyl was a wheezer though, especially compared to my buddy's Chevy Monza V8 version. The V6 I had swapped in when the barfed trans killed the motor wasn't any faster. But if I wanted a Buick that handled that's the chassis I'd start with, throw a built 350 under the hood and then do a custom suspension.

WAAAAAY back in the early '80s I went to a divisional Solo event at Big Spring, Texas. This was run on a gigantic airport track, and most of the course was 3rd gear for my SP Rabbit - the course was fast. We had around 90 cars entered, including some nationally competitive drivers from the Ft. Worth and Houston areas.

Anyhow FTD and 2nd overall went (as expected) to two guys driving a Crossle 35F Formula Ford - but third OVERALL was a guy (can't remember his name) in a street-licensed CP Buick GS 455 on slicks. A big, circa 1970 tank, but boy, was it quick (and boy, could that guy drive).

Gearheadotaku wrote: The Achevia could be improved, Firehawk series stuff if you can find it...

The Achieva is an Olds. I'm just saying.

klipless wrote:

neon4891 wrote: But I would like to see what an N platform car can do.

Can you even buy performance parts for an N car? Besides a "cold air" intake of course? How about hanging a Buick grill on a E30 or..miata? Actually, make that a sky/solstice: Not exactly "sleeper" per se, but it would be fun.

Someone call Buick, I would break my rule of not buying a new car if they built this.

klipless wrote:

neon4891 wrote: But I would like to see what an N platform car can do.

Can you even buy performance parts for an N car? Besides a "cold air" intake of course? How about hanging a Buick grill on a E30 or..miata? Actually, make that a sky/solstice: Not exactly "sleeper" per se, but it would be fun.

Yes, the Solstice with the Riviera-esque back window is cool!
What is the other car? Is that a Buick version of the new Camaro?

We entered two fresh off the showroom floor, Buick Grand Nationals in the La Carrera Mexican Road Race a number of years ago. Other than better tires and a chip, they were stock. With a factory six cylinder(somewhat set back), fairly light weight, beefy sway bars, quicker steering and better shocks the handling was pretty good. Ran them both over 145 mph on the straights and slid them through the mountain sections with no issues. One car finished in the top 15 and the other was also doing well until it shredded a tire at 120mph-there is a picture in one of the mags of the car sitting by the side of the road with an essentially bare rim.