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Topic: just watched the history channel about 80's muscle cars (Read 3943 times) previous topic - next topic

just watched the history channel about 80's muscle cars

and that grand national looks pretty sweet :D

i would have to say there are a wee bit quicker  :macgun:

them lil 6's sure sounded like a v-8 and with the turbo sefi it ran a high 4 second 0-60?!?!?!?!?!  some of the desigerns were on the show who built them and  back then and they said for a year or two they smoked a corvette.  that wicked crazy.  and i thought buick was  in the 80's  :slap:

my bad!  :banana:

Re: just watched the history channel about 80's muscle cars

Reply #1
buick was... except for those GNXs. ^_^ they are pretty rare around here. i've only seen two... ever. personally i like the g-bodys. i had actually planned on getting one (Cutlass or Monte Carlo) before i got the TBird. I always loved the fact that they had optional t-tops! Plus $200 for Bilsteins at all four corners would be nice too. I may end up getting one as a daily driver and turn DarkThunder into a project car.

 i thought the muscle car died in the 70s??? XD
2005 Subaru WRX STi|daily driver

Re: just watched the history channel about 80's muscle cars

Reply #2
GNX's are very nice, but at over $20k on the low end, I'd stick with a normal Grand National or even a Turbo Regal and go stealth with too much chrome and vynal half roofs (sound familiar?).  I was looking at a few Monte Carlo SS's before I got the Coug, but they just lacked the charachter and I hate 305s.  I'd want a 350 or greater.  I could settle for a while with the Coug's stock 302.  A friend of mine had a '81 Monte that he swapped in a built 307 (Thanks to TC50 a long time ago for pointing out that Chevy made a 307 when I only thought Olds did).  It was a little beat up, but a fun ride.
2000 Jaguar XK8 Convertible - 4.0L DOHC V8 (AJ27)
2018 Ford Explorer - 3.5L DOHC V6 (Duratec 35)
1999 Mercury Grand Marquis - 4.6L SOHC V8 (Modular)
1987 Mercury Cougar LS - 5.0L V8 (Windsor) [SOLD in 2009]

Re: just watched the history channel about 80's muscle cars

Reply #3
I love my TC, but if I could find a reasonably priced GN, I'd trade it in a heartbeat. These things were king of the hill in the day. They were beating Ferrari's in the quarter back then. There still aren't many cars built today that'll haul arse like those turbo sixes.

Re: just watched the history channel about 80's muscle cars

Reply #4
There's ususally at least one or two turbo Buick's at the weekly summer car show around here.  I remember seeing one that was race built with one of the biggest turbo's I've ever seen.  Somethin' off of a diesel truck, it seemed.

Re: just watched the history channel about 80's muscle cars

Reply #5
Heh. Just thought of something. If buddy ever gets that 351 crammed into a '70 Camaro, I think I'll swap a turbo buick six into the TC. :flip: I'll get the speed AND the looks. :giggle:

Re: just watched the history channel about 80's muscle cars

Reply #6
I was pretty disapointed in there quarter mile! they put alot of money into them and I thought they were suposed to be fast stock. I see GN all the time when cruise night comes around, they have parking lots full of them.
Oh well, Full Throttle is good entertainment.


1987 cougar XR7 347 stroker FRP BOSS block 328rwhp 10.89 1/4mile @126mph ..so far..

2005 F150 5.4 vortec supercharged @15psi water methenol injected 450rwhp 14.0@98mph on 22's

Re: just watched the history channel about 80's muscle cars

Reply #7
GNs were great in a straight line, but that's about it. And build quality leaves a lot to be desired.

Any V8 Tbird/Cougar with the sport suspension was a better car overall.  I am sure that wasn't mentioned in the show, of course. :)
pro-five-oh

88 Cougar XR-7...5.0HO, T-56, and much more                             
85 Thunderbird 30th...#2471, 29k, all original and might actually stay that way

Re: just watched the history channel about 80's muscle cars

Reply #8
I actually think the show was just about the Grand National... not all 80's cars.

Re: just watched the history channel about 80's muscle cars

Reply #9
I've seen that show on the Speed Channel I think...its pretty light on info and buttstuffysis. Blech.
pro-five-oh

88 Cougar XR-7...5.0HO, T-56, and much more                             
85 Thunderbird 30th...#2471, 29k, all original and might actually stay that way

Re: just watched the history channel about 80's muscle cars

Reply #10
NOt to start an oval/bowtie war, but history channel likes to hug chevys nuts. Watched a show on development of the muscle cars and half the show was devoted to chevy, (even though chevy did have alot to do with the progression of the muscle car)

 

Re: just watched the history channel about 80's muscle cars

Reply #11
Quote
I've seen that show on the Speed Channel I think...its pretty light on info and buttstuffysis. Blech.


That's probably because the hosts are the same guys that host Super2ner TV that used to be on spike tv saturday mornings. Trying to watch that show was like watching someone else play a video game. It's hard to take buttstuffysis on muscle cars from the same guys I hear talking about how sick it makes your civic to have a tricked out 4in. exhuast tip.
The Birdman wouldn't lie!

Re: just watched the history channel about 80's muscle cars

Reply #12
Quote from: oldraven
Heh. Just thought of something. If buddy ever gets that 351 crammed into a '70 Camaro, I think I'll swap a turbo buick six into the TC. :flip: I'll get the speed AND the looks. :giggle:

That idea isn't as original as you may think, OldRaven. The following is a quote from the March, 1987 issue of Motor Trend magazine, where they published an owner's survey on 1986 Turbo Coupes:
 
Quote from: Motor Trend
And then there's Mr. Sailor A. Mahler.

Mr. Mahler is a physicist employed as a navy electronics warfare buttstuffyst in Columbia, Maryland. He owns a Turbocoupe with the 5- speed manual. We're getting used to respondents using additional sheet of paper to amplify comments made on our survey form, but Mahler sent six handwritten pages of comments and suggestions, ranging from adding a turbo intercooler to replacing the GoodyearGatorbacks with GT+4's. He wants balance shafts, two-stage turbos, double overhead camshafts, and 4 valves per cylinder. "What I'd really like to see," Mahler wrote, "would be Buick's 3.8-liter turbo in the T-Bird (and no computer limit on speed). The chassis and aerodynamics are there, so why not shove some honest-to-God thunder under the Bird's bonnet? I understand that some of these offerings are in the works for the 87 TurboCoupe."

On the subject of GN's, a friend of my brother's had a Chevette with an '87 GN drivetrain in it. He worked at a junkyard in Elmsdale and bought himself the drivetrain from a wrecked GN. That car was probably the quickest (and one of the most sleeper) car in metro Halifax until he climbed a tree with it.
2015 Mustang GT Premium - 5.0, 6-speed, Guard Green - too much awesome for one car

1988 5.0 Thunderbird :birdsmily: SOLD SEPT 11 2010: TC front clip/hood ♣ Body & paint completed Oct 2007 ♣ 3.55 TC rear end and front brakes ♣ TC interior ♣ CHE rear control arms (adjustable lowers) ♣ 2001 Bullitt springs ♣ Energy suspension poly busings ♣ Kenne Brown subframe connectors ♣ CWE engine mounts ♣ Thundercat sequential turn signals ♣ Explorer overhead console (temp/compass display) ♣ 2.25" off-road dual exhaust ♣ T-5 transmission swap completed Jan 2009 ♣

Re: just watched the history channel about 80's muscle cars

Reply #13
That reminds me... there was, I believe a concept 3.8 Turbocoupe, if I'm not mistaken?  Something on coolcats about it.

Re: just watched the history channel about 80's muscle cars

Reply #14
There was a concept in '83 that was supposed to be the '87 model. Was supposed to get a twice-turbo'd 3.8 putting 250 horses to the ground (remember, this was the 80's). It featured some body add-ons that later became available through FMS. I've got an article on it somewhere around here in an old early 80's magazine. I scanned the pic of it and posted it on my website:

http://www.foxthundercats.com/tcconcepts.htm

If you choose to look at it, check out the PPG pace car above it. I want to build that car some day...
2015 Mustang GT Premium - 5.0, 6-speed, Guard Green - too much awesome for one car

1988 5.0 Thunderbird :birdsmily: SOLD SEPT 11 2010: TC front clip/hood ♣ Body & paint completed Oct 2007 ♣ 3.55 TC rear end and front brakes ♣ TC interior ♣ CHE rear control arms (adjustable lowers) ♣ 2001 Bullitt springs ♣ Energy suspension poly busings ♣ Kenne Brown subframe connectors ♣ CWE engine mounts ♣ Thundercat sequential turn signals ♣ Explorer overhead console (temp/compass display) ♣ 2.25" off-road dual exhaust ♣ T-5 transmission swap completed Jan 2009 ♣