If you’re passingly familiar with the Buick Regal Grand National of the ’80s, you probably remember two key points about those cars: They used the Buick turbocharged 3.8-liter V-6, and they were black. This very rare 1982 Regal Grand National is neither, although it IS a real Grand National, in its original paint, with its original engine: the non-turbo 4.1-liter Buick V-6.
The idea of Buicks in racing often seems to throw people for a bit of a loop, but it’s never been as uncommon as you might think. Buick was actively involved in racing and hill climbs in its early days, and Buick engines, if not always Buick cars, showed up in various forms of motorsport. Phil “Red” Shafer built Buick-powered cars for the Indianapolis 500 in the early ’30s, for instance, and Glenn “Fireball” Roberts used a Buick Century sponsored by Fish Carburetor Co. to win the 1955 Daytona 500 (although he was subsequently disqualified after an engine teardown found indications that his engine had been illegally modified).
Buick built some pace cars over the years, but it was really not until the 1980s that the division again made a big push in factory-backed competition. The facelifted 1981 Buick Regal became a popular choice for the NASCAR Winston Cup Grand National Series, although the stock car bore only a cosmetic relationship to the ones you could buy. Driver Darrell Waltrip drove the No. 11 Mountain Dew Regal prepared by Junior Johnson & Associates to two successive Winston Cup championships in 1981 and 1982, and Bobby Allison took the 1983 cup in a Regal prepared by DiGard Motorsports. Buick took the manufacturer championship for three consecutive years, with a total of 53 wins.
When an automaker scores some big racing victories, or even paces an important race, the usual followup is to make some sort of commemorative special edition of the equivalent production car. If you’re not a die-hard fan, these can seem rather silly, and they seldom sell in large numbers, but that’s not really the point — their purpose is to cement the “Win on Sunday, sell on Monday” message. That was particularly important for Buick, which had started to become concerned in the late ’70s about their aging customer base and old-man’s-car image. Buick had tried multiple times before to shake things up, but it never really seemed to stick.
In the ’70s, Buick had established a small Special Products Engineering unit, headed by Herbert A. Fishel, to create sporty “special performance” products. The Buick design studios, heavily occupied with the regular production lines and corporate projects, were mostly not very enthusiastic about these efforts, but designer Gary Smith — now the owner of the Dean’s Garage website, but then in the Buick One studio — agreed to work on them for Fishel in his spare time on a freelance basis. “Frankly, I was the only designer in the studio more interested in performance cars than my career,” Smith said later. One of the concepts Smith drew for Fishel was this rendering of a Buick Grand National, dated 1980. Rollin Sanders of Molly Designs subsequently adapted this as a full-size styling prototype, also red, minus the stripes.
Designer Steve Pasteiner, assistant studio chief of the Buick Two studio that was responsible for the Regal, then came up with this two-tone version. Buick was big on two-tones at this time, with a bunch of Designers’ Accent Color combinations and some Regal Somerset special editions worthy of the Lincoln Continental Mark line, so Pasteiner’s concept was along similar lines, albeit with a lift-off roof panel that didn’t make production.
The production Grand National package, RPO T2E, was sort of a hybrid of those versions. Priced at a hefty $3,278 including its various mandatory options, it was mostly cosmetic, distinguished externally by its special charcoal gray and silver paint job, red pinstripes, “BUICK” billboard lettering, a spoiler and airdam, alloy wheels, and black headlight surrounds (borrowed from the existing Regal Sport Coupe Decor Package).
All the 1982 Grand National cars had the optional T-top roof, which GM called a “hatch roof.” This was a $790 option on the standard Regal.
Since the auction listing didn’t include any photos with the T-tops removed, here’s a photo of a different 1982 Grand National with the roof panels off.
The Grand National package’s required options included features like air conditioning, power windows and locks, a tilt wheel, cruise control, and a center console. The only interior color scheme was Slate (gray) with a dark gray Charcoal finish on the dashboard and instrument panel rather than the usual simulated woodgrain.
Although they aren’t easy to see in these photos, the dashboard included coolant temperature and voltage gauges, a $48 option on the standard Regal.
Bucket seats were optional on the Regal, but not often ordered (they were installed on only 4.3 percent of 1982 production), but the Grand National package included special multi-adjustable buckets by Lear Siegler Inc. The seats had black inserts stitched with the stylized V-6 logo, which had been designed for Buick by Rollin Sanders of Molly Designs.
Console-shifted 3-speed Turbo Hydra-Matic was the sole transmission.
The Grand National package included the F41 Gran Touring suspension, a $49 option on the Regal.
If you’re familiar with the later Grand National cars, you may be expecting these cars to have the 3.8-liter turbocharged V-6, which was the star of the show for the later Grand National and GNX. However, most of the 1982 cars had the normally aspirated LC4 4.1-liter version of the Buick V-6, making a modest 125 hp and 205 lb-ft of torque. The 4.1-liter engine was new for ’82, replacing the discontinued 4.3-liter Pontiac V-8, and was the most powerful normally aspirated engine available on the 1982 Regal. The only V-8 available this year was the ill-starred LF9 Oldsmobile 5.7-liter diesel; if you HAD to have diesel power, you were much better off waiting a few months for the new and considerably more reliable LT6 Oldsmobile 4.3-liter diesel V-6.
A small number of 1982 Grand Nationals WERE built based on the Regal Sport Coupe, with bulged hoods and the LC8 3.8-liter turbocharged V-6. This was still carbureted in 1982, making 175 hp and 275 lb-ft of torque. However, Buick didn’t even mention the possibility of a turbocharged Grand National in the press release, and the number of turbo cars was very small: perhaps as few as 10 or as many as 25, no one is sure. This Grand National was really intended as a show pony.
Buick announced the Grand National package at the Daytona International Speedway on February 10, 1982, so it was a mid-year addition. To avoid tying up the production lines, the cosmetic modifications and the installation of the Lear Siegler seats were outsourced to Cars & Concepts in Auburn Hills. Production totaled only 215 cars.
Buick general manager Lloyd Reuss declared optimistically that “Grand National will help to emphasize the idea that Buicks can be exciting, fun-to-drive cars.” However, the closest Buick had yet come to translating its recent on-track excitement to the street was the turbocharged Regal Sport Coupe, succeeded for 1983 by the Regal T Type, and they weren’t selling very well: 2,022 cars in 1982, 3,732 for 1983. The mostly show Grand National package got a little more press attention, but didn’t really move the needle.
What fans would consider the “real” Grand National arrived almost two years later. The 1984 Grand National had many of the same cosmetic touches as the 1982 limited edition, including the Lear Siegler buckets, but the exterior was now all black, from the bumpers to the windshield wipers to the accents on the aluminum wheels. More importantly, it had the latest fuel injected turbocharged V-6, backed by a four-speed THM200-4R with a 3.42 performance axle. You could get all the performance pieces for cheaper on the regular Regal T Type, but the sinister Man in Black livery of the Grand National made a lasting impression.
If not for the later turbocharged cars, the 1982 Regal Grand National would probably be completely forgotten except perhaps by hardcore NASCAR enthusiasts. However, Grand National fans who’ve actually heard of the 1982 car seem to have accepted it as an honored ancestor, or at least a long-lost cousin — the first step in Buick’s brief but memorable return to the muscle car arena. This particular car, which had 35,544 miles on the odometer when these photos were taken, sold for $28,355 in August 2025.
Related Reading
Automotive History: Shockingly Low Volume Production Cars – The Buick Edition (by Jason Shafer)
COAL: 1987 Buick Regal Grand National – Rock and Roll All Night, Broken Every Day (by LT Dan)
Vintage C/D Reviews: 1986 Buick Grand National And 1987 GNX: “Quicker Than A Lamborghini Countach” (by me)
Those Lear Sigler seats are gorgeous. I wish they continued those throughout the whole GN run but 84 or 85 was the last year.
In the summer of 1982 my Mom was shopping for a new Cutlass and we went to the local Buick dealer to look at Regals. They had a GN on the showroom floor and I begged and begged for her to get it but obviously that didnt work. I think that was the only time ive seen an ’82 Grand National in person.
The intercooled 86-87s boast the most power but between those Lear Sigler seats and the turbine style wheels(which look a whole lot like Vectors… think General Lee) I find the 84-85 Grand Nationals the most appealing.
Because people tend to get it wrong, the company name is “Lear Siegler.” Which is a very strange firm created by an early ’60s merger between Lear Avionics and Siegler Corporation, formerly Siegler Heating (which did HVAC). Siegler’s president, John Brooks, wanted to build it into a conglomerate with a lot of electronics stuff.
The auto seating arm came from their 1966 acquisition of American Metal Products Corporation. In the late ’40s, AMP and Haber Stump Harris had designed a subcompact car that became the basis of Kaiser’s Henry J, but their main business was seat frames and springs.
(This is perhaps the only connection between the Grand National and the Henry J except for having four wheels and offering six-cylinder engines.)
I knew I was misspelling that as I was typing it, but I couldn’t quite figure out where I was going awry (I should have just googled).
I actually pulled a pair of Lear Siegler seats from a Cadillac Catara, which was part of some uncommon seating package(they had adjustable thy supports like the ones in the Grand National). I took them apart to make sure there weren’t any critters making a home inside and that’s where I first heard of Lear as there were some tags inside. Ended up selling them to a friend who was making a restomod 69 Cougar
That history is interesting enough to be its own subject!
Rollin Sanders also did work for Kawasaki and Yamaha. He prompted Kawasaki to use bright green on it’s race bikes, actually AMC Big Bad Green, which Kawasaki still uses today on it’s off-road bikes. He also designed the late 70s Kawasaki Z1R-TC turbo bike paint and graphics which used colors very much like the Buick Grand National logo.
For Yamaha he designed the iconic yellow with “speed blocks” striping in black, which actually look like movie film.
1978 Kawasaki Z1R-TC
I never heard of Rollin Sanders. Those motorcycles designs were well-known as “Molly” designs. So I just checked, and found out that Molly was Sanders’s nickname, and company name. I learn something new here at CC every day. Thanks BlueovalDave!
By 1982 the Oldsmobile 5.7 diesel was very reliable, never lost oil pressure like the Buick V-6 would do all the time.
I’m not really familiar with the Buick 4.1 V-6. Was it a bored and/or stroked version of the 231/3.8? Was it even-fire? Did it have some faults or issues that resulted into the reversion to 3.8 liters for all future variants of this engine?
Yes it was basically a bored out 3.8. Not a bad engine and most of them were good for about 100K before they started having oil pressure issues. I had one in an 83 LeSabre. No power but smooth and reliable. Grand National guys still look for them as builders but their supply is pretty much gone.
The 4.1 was a bored out 3.8. It felt significantly more powerful than the naturally aspirated 3.8 and made more torque. This is all relative, as any car equipped with either is dead slow.
This color combination looks good, in my opinion better than the full black of later GNs. Those seats also look wonderful!
I am somewhat perplexed on why the GN in 1982 was not based on the turbo Sport Coupe, but had the less powerful V8.
The NASCAR car had a V8 as well but apart from the number of cylinders, there was hardly anything in common with the production car’s engine so I cannot imagine the decision was based on that
None of the 1982 production Grand Nationals had a V-8. The only V-8 you could get in a factory Regal in 1982 was the Oldsmobile diesel V-8, which of course was no performance engine. Except for a handful of Sport Coupes, the Grand National package normally came with the Buick 4.1-liter V-6.
I legitimately thought all these years the 6 in the Grand National emblem was supposed to be a turbo, it’s accidentally clever working both ways on the actual turbo ones. (Kind of like the T-type when it actually had the optional turbo engine).
I can’t say I’m a fan of this early iteration, it really does look like a pace car but without being tied to any specific race like most pace car editions. Plus I’m just not into stock car racing(or sports in general) so As a fan of the 84-87 Grand Nationals I like them in spite of the name, but with this it seems like I have to enjoy the sport to appreciate the car. It has a few aspects I like but it’s all the stuff that basically made it into the later ones.
I thought the same thing about the GN logo; I assumed it was only used with the turbo V6.
I never quite understood how the most powerful sporty G-Bodies (1978 to 1987 generation) was the Regal and the least powerful was the Grand Prix. Even the “NASCAR Optimized” GP 2+2 was stuck with the 165hp 305. Some things defy logic.
The V6 belonged to Buick, and they took the initiative to turbocharge it, which of course facilitated significant increases in power without much of an EPA mileage penalty. It was clearly the obvious solution for performance in this era of downsized and emission-strangled engines.
There’s a very good reasons small turbo engines are nearly ubiquitous now; Buick showed the way. And as such they certainly deserved to make the most of it with the GN.
It’s analogous to what Pontiac did with the GTO in 1964; they took the initiative of putting a large V8 in a mid-size car and ran with it.
What was Pontiac going to do? They were essentially forced to stop building V8s in order to build the Iron Duke four. So they were stuck buying engines from Chevy.
In a way, it reflected the “logic” of having each division build only one engine that could be used across the divisions. Having each division build overlapping engines no longer worked.
I’m still willing to bet if someone like John DeLorean had been in charge of Pontiac in the ’80s, they would have found a way to get the TPI 305 under the hood, or at least the H.O. 180hp version from the Monte Carlo SS.
Does anyone know what year the Buick Regal’s dashboard was changed?
There’s the three square gauges version through at least 1982, and the later models that have the rectangular speedometer copying other Buicks and Oldsmobiles.
And I can’t recall any of the dashboards on the other A/G cars having a mid-life facelift. Definitely not Pontiac.
1984.
I’m surprised Buick held on to those black-on-silver gauges for so long. They’re not at all sporty, but they ARE hard to read.
Something for everyone!
Ok. I could very well be wrong here and if I am, I’m sure someone will correct me on this. But, I don’t think this is a real GN. From the book I have at home (a real GN book from the 80’s), I don’t think you could get any true GN in anything but black. And, I believe these were called just the Regal Turbo or it was a package. So I’m thinking that GN badge on the front fender was added by someone who really wanted this to be a GN.
I believe there were no GN’s of this era that did not have the 3.8 turbo. So any of these cars were just a trim option package or they were a turbo, but NOT a GN.
Please correct me if wrong.
You are wrong on all counts. Please read the text.
And a really good article to read too, Aaron! I didn’t skip over anything.
Such a handsome Buick.
Pretty neat, this old man approves =8-) .
That it still is original is fantastic .
-Nate