'75 Riviera vs '83 944

This last April me and my buddy drove out to Calgary basically on a whim to check out this 944. Thing had new suspension, rebuilt transmission and engine with some mods done bringing the HP up from around 150 to close to 200 (alleged by the last owner). He brought me with him because he didn't know how to drive stick yet, so I had to bear the burden (shucks) of driving it back 3 hours. I don't think I went below 80mph very often on that drive, and somehow my buddy was the one who ended up with a speeding ticket.

Anyways, he picked up on driving stick pretty quickly, or as quickly as you'd expect somebody with a classic sports car waiting for them would. Let me tell you, this car was fun. Sticks to the road like glue, loves ploughing through the power band, and it was pretty quick. Rowing through the gears with the windows down and the top off on a summer day was a great time to be had. Naturally with both of us having fun cars we're sorta obligated to race them.

So, when we were cruising around we'd line up as much as we could. Specifically one night where we went light to light 3 or 4 times after flying up and down some backroads. Coming back into the city it was just past sunset and not too many people were around. I'm following him and see the light turn yellow ahead so I swap to the right lane and give him a stupid grin as I stop next to him, he knows what I'm doing. Nobody crosses the intersection the other way and we see the opposite light turn yellow so we get ready. He revs the engine up a bit and I wait patiently for the green light. On green I try to get on the gas just enough to not break traction, and I don't hear much tire squealing from my buddy so I know there won't be any excuses here. I keep giving it gas and start pulling away from him quickly. We both get up to speed easily and I got to see both popups in my rearview mirror before we start to slow down for the next red. We keep this up for 2 or 3 more lights with more or less the same result, minus one where he broke the rear end loose a bit off the line, that one doesn't really count. Big grins on both of our faces as you'd expect. Always a good time racing a buddy.

Light to light I always beat him, which I expected. It takes a fair amount to beat the torque off the line a big block can put out, even if it's a smog era engine. Rolling, he pulls on me juuust enough to get in front of me. He would definitely beat me in a full 1/4 mile which really shouldn't be surprising. The Riviera keeps up at speed but not quite enough. Granted this is a stock(ish?) '75 we're talking about too, so I wasn't expecting miracles in roll races. I have made a few tuning tweaks that I can tell the engine is much happier with, but wasn't able to see if it's made a difference when racing the 944. We spent a lot of time this last summer burning around and having a great time. Unfortunately one of those times as we were both hanging around 90mph the dreaded white smoke started coming out his tailpipe. Sure enough it gets worse as we pull into a gas station, and pulling cylinder 1's spark plug vented steam out the top of the engine. As things like this usually go, what should've been an "easy" head gasket replacement has turned into a rebuild while my buddy's out east for school. Hopefully all is well for next summer because it's been fun having someone else as eager to drive their car as I am .

And who knows, maybe I'll scrounge up the money to rebuild my engine too before next summer and make it much more one sided

 

Good stuff! Greetings from Edmonton! Keep an eye out for my Buick’s around Calgary. I often drive my 75 Regal down to Calgary. The turbo Skylark gets trailered anything that far away. I wonder if TA headers fit that chassis? Headers and exhaust would make a big difference. Also swapping on earlier year heads would help a lot. The 75 heads aren’t the optimal setup.

 

For sure will keep an eye out. Not too many Buicks around here so I try to keep a list of them in my head. I have to say it's a lot of fun cruising highways in these cars. Took mine out to Jasper in August to go camping, which is where I took my profile picture. Campsite was on the way up to Miette. Gas kinda hurt, I got around 15mpg which isn't terrible but man if it wasn't a comfortable drive. I know TA sells shorty's they say will fit a Riviera, I'll make sure to do some more looking into that if I end up swapping the heads out. I'll probably look into pistons as well since the heads are only half the battle. Once that's done though, oh boy.

 

Absolutely, so much fun with these big cars!