...because I've just bought a new Harley, and it's now wearing these S&S Cycle ''Grand National'' slip-on mufflers. I was quite surprised by the name. Makes the bike sound almost as good as the 430 in my Wildcat!
NASCAR used the GRAN NATIONAL term for racing for a few years, The Buick V6 was part of it, put out 455 Horse Power if I remember right.
...Buick borrowed it from NASCAR in '82 to capitalize on its '81-'82 Grand National racing successes...
Everybody copies off of Buick these days! Have you ever noticed how that putrid Chevy orange engine paint has morphed into more of a Buick Red?!?! Many performance companies have Stage 1 as their entry level upgrade, and then Stage 2, 3, 4, etc. It's a regular tin foil hat conspiracy.
Just an update a year on: S&S Cycle has added to this range with a slightly bigger diameter slip-on muffler than the Grand National, this new one is called the...wait for it.....GNX! Definitely a Buick fan at S&S....
You know, sometimes stuff like this is just a coincidence, but in this case I think not. If you wait another year and they give up on performance and only deal with front-wheel drive motorcycles, well, that'll be a slam dunk.
Man you got that right! Buicks "Ventiports" or its a "3 holer" or "4 holer" It was a Buick trademark since 1949 IIRC when they first appeared on the bigger Buicks. Now nearly EVERY manufacturer is using some form of fender "ports" "vents" "louvers" "holes" from Jaguar, to Fords Fusion, to KIA, and many others. Whats funny is most people don't know the origin of that idea.
yeah, we all know about the year 49 otherwise youre not a true buick enthousiast (too bad that the idea of the amber lights was never adopted by buick) “The idea for VentiPorts grew out of a modification Buick styling chief Ned Nickles had added to his own 1948 Roadmaster. Four amber lights were installed on each side of the car’s hood which were wired to the distributor. The lights flashed on and off as each piston fired which was supposed to simulate the flames from the exhaust stack of a fighter airplane. Combined with the bombsight mascot, VentiPorts put the driver at the controls of an imaginary fighter airplane. Buick chief Harlow Curtice was so impressed with this styling feature that he ordered that non-lighting VentiPorts be installed on all 1949 Buicks, with the number of VentiPorts (three or four) corresponding to the relative displacement of the straight-eight engine installed.” and also: 1949 model year: Four ventiports identify the Roadmaster with its 320-cubic-inch inline-eight. Three ventiports mean it's the Super with a 263-cube I-8. Production of the Special model doesn't revive until summer 1949. It has the same wheelbase as the Super, a shorter body, a 248 I-8, and three ventiports. from an article in LIFE magazine (january 1954) also very interesting fact about the "hard top":
I talked to someone from GM along time ago. I was told that Buick used the grand national name in 82 without permission from the folks who owned it. That’s why there were no 83 grand nationals. General Motors was in some sort of legal/professional debate with grand national. Apparently Jim Lore figured out that all you have To do is separate the two names grand and National and stack them rather than have them on one line. Trivia for the day!
Hearing you on the Ventiports! Fellow member Brian In St Louis and I met up in LasVegas. We both saw a Maserati and remarked 'Must be the entry level- only 3 vents/portholes per side"
THANK YOU!!!! I remembered either my Dad told me or I read about it in one of my Buick history books about some kind of lights in the ports, but couldn't remember the "hows or whys" Im glad Buick didn't use the lights, it would have looked goofy
HAHAHA, makes yah wonder how much influence Buick styling had on other makes and models. I still believe some of the engineering of the LS heads was taken from Buick, mostly the tall narrow intake ports.
Buick should have someone like Trump running it, MAKE BUICK GREAT AGAIN! Stop using corporate bodies and just adding more sound insulation, marsh mellow springs, plastic chrome/woodgrain, and that STUPID big plain chrome tri shield. The tri shield was the Buick family's crest, a bucks head, checkered diagonal, and a pierced cross, have some pride GM!
