WOW!! A Buick Grand National Turbo Trans Am!!!

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Yep,

They're real - set up that way for pacing the Indy 500, IIRC.

The heads were also different from the Buick pieces in order to fit the engine compartment of the TA. Rumor has it they flowed better.

 

It was the year that pontiac finally beat the buicks, OH YEA they had to install a BUICK engine to be able to do that tho!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Best Buick Pontiac ever built! And yea it's a Pontiac with a Buick soul. :3gears:

And that reminds me awhile back on Speed channel there was a hour long special on 30 years of the Firebird/Trans Am, it was a good show they started out talking about the 69 of course and then on to the SD 455's in the mid 70's and then it was the Smokey & the Bandit TA, even NightRider got a mention and from that pos straight in to the early 90's. No mention of the TTA at all not even a picture nothing :rant:
I guess there pissed off that the fastest TA had a Buick motor!

And that's why most TTA owners hang out in the Buick crowd, the Pontiac boys treat them like a stepchild. The car is just not welcome.

Just a note I would love to add one to my collection and I bleed Buick blood as much as anyone on this board. :TU:

 

If you go to view other seller junk, he has the same car #233 or whatever it was, in 2 separate auctions, that end about 3/4 hr from each other!! ou:

 

TOp Dog in 89 and no competition till 91 Scyclone GMC? :3gears:

 

I believe it is the same auction, just found under two different headings.

 

It is 2 auctions. I dont think he understands the rules. I wonder how he is going to handle it selling twice !!! ou:

 

why the heck is a thirdgen going for that much.....???

 

It's a great car. I believe 1555 were made, all hard loaded. Lots of people stored them and you can find one in immaculate condition for 15K or less. They are VERY collectible and I would love to have one.

Third gen F bodies are very much underappreciated. When they were built, they were the best handling cars in the WORLD (yes,including Italian and German cars) and mine with the L98 ran pretty good too-- faster than my GS350.

You can buy a nice GTA for around 4K today--- a steal, IMO.

For comprehensive info on these great cars, see http://www.gtasourcepage.com/

Frank :TU:

 

You can buy a nice GTA for around 4K today--- a steal, IMO.


And you can put a 455 BBB in it really looks good!!! :Brow:

 

I was keeping an eye on them for a while after I saw at least one of them running with the Chicagoland GSCA. Over time, sort of forgot and went off the radar screen. But it's true, they're probably very underappreciated cars. Handling of a Firebird with the power of the T.

One thing I never quite understood about them is that they were 1989, and last year of the Buick T engines was 1987. So you think they used 1987 engines Buick had left over that were going obsolete or what? Since 1500 isn't a very big number I'm guessing that's it. And that they figured it'd be less controversial to throw a Buick engine in a Pontiac than into a Chevy. They wouldn't have wanted the Camaro to be faster than the Corvette.

 

yeah that car ran 13.2s bone stock, all day long. Loaded quite nicely with options too. It was an Indy pace car. First car used to pace the pack that was not modified in any way... :3gears:

 

I have a Buick video that talks about this. If memory serves me the moulds etc. were still available and that the Buick guys were involved in the anniversary addition of this car. The video interviewed a couple of Buick engineers being happy that the tooling was being used once again.

So I don't believe that the engines were laying around. I think this was a conscious effort on GM's part. At least that was what I remember about it. I'm sure someone remembers more.

 

The Syclone (sp?) owner's think so until they get stomped. You just don't see that GM truck at the track flying like the turbo powered Buick's. My .02.
:grin:

 

You're exactly right, and that dictum prevails today (although they don't have to fudge numbers anymore!). The TTA was faster than the C3 in 89... so GM did what it always did... lied and understated the performance numbers of the TTA.

Frank

 

What happened to the link to the auction??? o No:

 

Good question, but I dug it up...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=4512315642&category=6427

Frank

 

I like Buicks and Pontiacs, and have one of these. Production of 1555 is right-many are garage queens and many others raced. Fewer probably used as a high speed highway trip car as I do. Exotic drivers are used to playing with GTAs, but the tta surprises-