I have an 87 base Regal with turbo option. It has no badging on it and I've never seen another one. Does any know that badging/emblems it should have? According to what little I've found about this car, they made 4,400 of them in 87 only. Some people refer to it as a "light weight GN" since it weighs 300 pounds less. It has crank windows a 60/40 split bench seat no PDL and column shift . The Old Car Price Guide says it's worth 30% more than a GN. Has anyone ever seen one of these?
I would think you have a T-Type, but you say it has no badges. I'm trying to remember if they put that motor in regular Regals. If they did it was definitely a rare thing.
I don't have your answer. Here are some turbo sites http://gnttype.org/ http://www.turbobuicks.com http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/ Allen
You know what, I do remember seeing Regal Limiteds with the Turbo motor so your car is legit. I have never heard about this light weight GN thing though. Does the car have aluminum drums and the aluminum bumper brackets? That's the only options I can think of that would make a Regal lighter, though not by 300 lbs.
I believe an aluminum hood could have been installed on them also. Should have the turbo emblem on the front fender unless it was owned by someone that didn't want it known they had a slightly faster than usual Buick.
I think what makes it lighter is the lack of power options, no power windows, locks, seats and it has a 60/40 split front bench seat which is lighter than two buckets and a console. The main structure of the bumpers are aluminum, the brackets and skin are steel, the hood is also steel. Someone did a color change from midnight blue to black and never put the emblems back-on. It is a VIN "7" car. It's not a Regal limited car, they were loaded. I will check out the recommended turbo sites. Thanks guys!
The '87 had a 'turbo package', option code WE4. It could be added to a plain Regal in which case the car would have the base chrome bumpers and polished trim. If you wanted the black out exterior trim, you had to also specify the 'exterior sport package'. What is confusing is that the 'sport package' code Y56, which is also referred to as the 'T package, could be put on a Regal with the base V6 or V8 engines, without turbo. This car would have 'T' emblems, and would look similar to a 'T-Type' turbo car but wouldn't have the hood bulge. Another great resource for the turbo Regals is www.kirbanperformance.com Edited: 'T' package= code Y56= ride/handling package with alloy wheels and 'T' emblems. 'Exterior Sport package' = code W04= blackout trim
Sometime during 87 production all T-types started getting the blacked out trim as standard. When I was ordering mine I had to specify an option to return the trim to the shiny trim used on non T-types. I just wanted a granny looking car, not something that looked like a street racer.
JR responded PM with the 87 production numbers. BTW, theses are the figures for 87: 1035 T-Type Limiteds. 547 GNX 20,193 GN/WE2 1547 Turbo-Ts 4268 Base Turbo Regals 4905 WO2s 8547 T-packages So there were 4268 base Regals with turbo option.
The turbo drivetrain was an option for any 87 Regal. The name "T Type" was dropped, and they were simply called Turbo Ts. The blackout package was also an option available on any Regal, turbo or not. A WE4 was often referred to as "the poor man's Grand National." It was basically a Regal Turbo T that was all black with the blackout package and black bumpers. They had the aluminum turbine wheels, aluminum bumper supports, and solid grey interior. There were 1547 WE4s produced. All this is what makes 87 cars so special and unique. Any color, options, and trim package could be had. I have seen a few with no power options and a bench seat, but they are uncommon. Post up some pics if you can. I'd love to see it. I have an 87 Turbo T Limited. It's rosewood with grey leather seats. It's one of 1035 limiteds, but I'd really love to know how many came in this color combo.
The emblems that a NON Grand National SHOULD have a "T" emblem on the front fenders, "3.8 SFI TURBO" chrome faced, black based emblems on both sides of the STEEL turbo hood (rpo T47), "REGAL" emblems on the rear quarters parallel to the brake light bezels; "3.8 SFI TURBO" total chrome emblem on driver side of trunk, "BUICK" emblem on passenger side of trunk. Depending on trim and other options, it MAY or MAY NOT have the 'square with diagonal slash on blue background' on the side of the passenger compartment, behind the rear quarter window. ALL, I repeat ALL 1987 NON GN Turbo cars will have rpo Y56 and LC2; All 1987 GN's will have WE2 and LC2. Actually, they were NOT called Turbo-T's by GM; they had no particular name. The Turbo-T was only applicable to the 1547 specific package cars: turbo engine black paint, grey bucket seats and console, with blackout trim and black bumpers. Any other turbo car had no specific name; it just had the turbo option package LC2, and the Y56 option. Additionally, You could NOT get the exterior sport option (rpo WO2) on a turbo car (rpo LC2) with black paint (rpo 19L) after early December 1986 due to the upcoming release of the TurboT WE4... And the confusion goes on. http://www.buickwe4.com/story.htm Go to the bottom and look at the references. Should clear up the mud.
Looks like there were three turbo Regal variations avail in 1987? WE2: Grand National LC2: Regal with turbo V6 WE4: Regal with turbo V6 and an option package including the blackout trim, handling package/alloy wheels, and grey bucket seat interior. More production numbers for 87 and earlier: http://www.tctc.com/~avblefty/trprod.htm Buick made a lot more turbo Regals/GN's in 1987 compared to 1986, 27,590 vs 7,896. I'll guess the Old Car price guide that says the base Regal turbo is worth 30% more than a GN is wrong....
Well, I'll try to post some pictures but there's not much to see. Someone tried to make it look like a GN by painting it black (it was midnight blue) and they painted the bumpers and trim. Your picture answers my question, mine would have the same badging as the one you show without the "limited" badge. I have all the emblems except the "Regal" new in the box. Bummer about the 30%, why would they say if it's not true? That's a lot of information! Thanks to all for your input.
WE4 was an option package like the WE2(grand National). The Grand National was intended to be a limited thing(it didnt work out that was) and the we4 was suppose to mimic the gn to keep production down. http://www.buickwe4.com/faq.htm http://www.buickwe4.com/story.htm View attachment we4carorderguide.pdf Call em what ever you want but according to GM publications the WE4 is the Turbo T package. The Y56 "T" package was available on any Regal(including the Limited) but to get the turbo v6(LC2) you had to get the Y56. This is what the OP has. A base Regal with the Y56 and the LC2. The black out trim was code WO2 and was also optional on any regal(with or with out the y56 or LC2). When the WE4 was introduced, the code 19(black) and WO2 became unavailable. I haven't seen any black cars with the chrome with a build date(the tag in the jam of the drivers door) after the we4 was introduced either but I still keep looking. OP if you could put up a pic of the spid label (on the underside of the deck lid near the jacking instruction, we could see how this car came from GM.
Thanks Rich! I'll see if that sheet is in the trunk. Like I said, someone did a color change and may have removed it. It's up on a lift and I'll need to move three cars to get it down, but now I'm really curious. I've owned this car for 13 years and I go to a lot of shows and auctions (Hershey, Carlisle, Daytona) and I've never seen another one. What makes it unique is the column shift, if I had to replace the dash cluster I doubt that I could find one. The face of the dash cluster has all the turbo stuff on it plus the shift indicator, you can't fake that! If I'm reading your information sheet correctly, it says Y56 is N/A with the WE2 or WE4 option. Does that mean it's implicitly included? I'll try to get some pictures.
I'm gonna say yes, the blackout trim is already included on the WE2 (GN) and WE4 (turbo Regal) packages. I previously mentioned contacting Kirban Performance. While there isn't much info posted on their website, Dennis Kirban is a wealth of information concerning all the particulars of these cars. It's worth giving him a call to discuss. There's a lot of info in his 'Inside Circle' newsletters as well. You should subscribe. http://www.kirbanperformance.com/inner_circle.php?csik=332
I have an 87 Turbo T Limited. It's rosewood with grey leather seats. It's one of 1035 limiteds, but I'd really love to know how many came in this color combo.[/QUOTE] Tim, from one Pennsylvanian to another that is a sweet Turbo T you have. I don't see many in my area.
You don't see many in that color. I've only seen one like that on Ebay in the past ten years. There's probably less than ten on the planet.
Call em what ever you want but according to GM publications the WE4 is the Turbo T package. The Y56 "T" package was available on any Regal(including the Limited) but to get the turbo v6(LC2) you had to get the Y56. This is what the OP has. A base Regal with the Y56 and the LC2. The black out trim was code WO2 and was also optional on any regal(with or with out the y56 or LC2). When the WE4 was introduced, the code 19(black) and WO2 became unavailable. I haven't seen any black cars with the chrome with a build date(the tag in the jam of the drivers door) after the we4 was introduced either but I still keep looking. I've known both extremes on the black cars. There was a 1987 Base Regal (J47) with turbo package (LC2) with black paint (19L) with exterior sport package (WO2) with grey bucket seat interior(82B and AR9), with chrome bumpers ; It belonged to a US Navy Fire Control Technician or Gunner's Mate living in Chesapeake, VA back in the mid 90's. He also owned an 87 GN ! While I was working as a field service tech near Kerr Lake, Virginia in 2000/ 2001 I saw a Base Regal (J47) with turbo package (LC2) with T package (Y56) with black paint (19L) with chrome (standard) trim.
