Educating the Young on a Buick Grand National
#1
   

It’s times like this when I begin to feel my age. You see last night I was at a car show and my buddy rolled in with his 1986 Buick Grand National. The car is beyond pristine and draws a crowd wherever he takes it. As we were standing around the car a few teenagers came up to us, looked at the car and then asked what it was. We looked at each other dumbfounded, then looked back at the kid and asked his age… 15 he said, followed by “I was born in 1995?. OH MY GOD!!

   

I mean I don’t feel old, nor do I think I look old, but God all mighty, how the hell does anyone on this earth not know what a Buick Grand National is? The kid obviously saw that we were perplexed and then just stared at us as if to say, “Ok old man… I said I didn’t know what it was, so educate me”… and that’s exactly what we did. We popped the hood and explained that in the mid-1980’s this was America’s top gun. We talked about the 3.8 Turbo V6 and how still, in it’s current form the car would go out and run 0-60 in about 6 seconds and blitz the quarter mile in a tick under 14 seconds.

   

The cool part was this kid was really interested in the GN, he commented on the old school piano style gauge cluster, the sofa like seats with no bolstering and then asked why the car only had 16 inch wheels… amazing. Our conversation only lasted about 15 minutes, but then at the end, something wonderful happened. One of the other kids in the group, after listening to us explain what the Grand National was, made a comment to the fact that a new Subaru STi would probably smoke the old Grand National. His friend (the 15 year old we spoke to) then turned and said, “So what?’' Everyone’s got an STi but this thing (the GN) is bad ass…”. I swear at that moment I felt like Yoda talking to Luke in the Empire Strikes Back… then I remembered that it came out 30 years ago. For some reason though I didn’t feel the need to tell him that.
Reply
#2
Grand Nationals are a pretty special car. I'd love to own one but don't see it ever happening.
Reply
#3
My neighbor from my previous house had/has one of these. He bought in new and I first saw it in 1988 when I moved in across the street. He used in sparingly and kept it in the garage. He still had it when I moved away in 2004. Nice Car! Also for some reason he had an affinity for Horizons and Omni's, kept four or five of them around the house; go figure.
Reply


Possibly Related Threads…
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  1987 Buick GNX becomes dealer time capsule Mach 1 Club 2 11,052 12-16-2010, 10:17 PM
Last Post: Rare Pony
  Mummified body found in Grand Marquis after 10 months Mach 1 Club 0 6,804 10-25-2010, 02:59 AM
Last Post: Mach 1 Club

Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)
[-]
Latest Threads
What's One More Iron In The Fire!
Last Post: fram lee666
03-18-2024 06:21 PM
» Replies: 125
» Views: 238042
"Jacobra"
Last Post: JTS71 Mach1
06-30-2023 11:13 PM
» Replies: 86
» Views: 150597
My old Queensland Ambulance
Last Post: JTS71 Mach1
06-30-2023 11:08 PM
» Replies: 5
» Views: 1682
New member from San Jose, CA
Last Post: JTS71 Mach1
05-09-2023 08:39 AM
» Replies: 12
» Views: 3953
Saving Seatbelts
Last Post: Jim
02-19-2023 10:23 PM
» Replies: 2
» Views: 9109
Sourcing new wheels
Last Post: JTS71 Mach1
01-25-2023 02:34 PM
» Replies: 1
» Views: 1993
Shaker Air Filter
Last Post: JTS71 Mach1
01-08-2023 02:24 AM
» Replies: 3
» Views: 1465
1971 Mach 1 parting out interior parts -...
Last Post: ylwhrse
12-22-2022 01:38 PM
» Replies: 0
» Views: 640
Painting
Last Post: Rare Pony
12-14-2022 06:24 PM
» Replies: 2
» Views: 1964
WELCOME ALL NEW MEMBERS INTRODUCE YOURSE...
Last Post: JTS71 Mach1
08-31-2022 01:36 PM
» Replies: 82
» Views: 157011
1970 mach 1 matching numbers
Last Post: Kstweeter
08-31-2022 10:31 AM
» Replies: 1
» Views: 1086
Brake booster/servo hose length
Last Post: JTS71 Mach1
08-23-2022 09:40 AM
» Replies: 7
» Views: 2992
New Member
Last Post: JTS71 Mach1
08-20-2022 11:18 AM
» Replies: 2
» Views: 1498
smooth window operation on 70 Mach
Last Post: CUSTOMMISER
08-15-2022 12:10 PM
» Replies: 2
» Views: 1471
Blinkers on solid
Last Post: busted21
08-09-2022 03:58 AM
» Replies: 14
» Views: 8682
Blinkers on solid when lights on.
Last Post: JTS71 Mach1
08-08-2022 12:06 PM
» Replies: 1
» Views: 1719
351 cj running hot
Last Post: busted21
08-08-2022 12:13 AM
» Replies: 5
» Views: 3403
Major Winter projects
Last Post: JTS71 Mach1
07-09-2022 05:12 AM
» Replies: 49
» Views: 21118
Happy Fathers Day!!!
Last Post: JTS71 Mach1
06-20-2022 02:34 AM
» Replies: 0
» Views: 1681
1969 Raven Black 390 Looking For
Last Post: mason1958
06-11-2022 09:48 AM
» Replies: 10
» Views: 15079

>