Cruel Intentions

Few performance vehicles are as brutal as a turbo Regal. All accolades aside, two guys can hit the drag strip with a pair of mildly modified Buicks, and while one is running mid-11s reliably, the other one could very well be popping head gaskets like popcorn. This boost-induced Russian roulette was a bit unnerving for the pioneers of TR performance, who struggled through "grenade" computer chips, exploding turbos, and toasted trannys to give smooth driving, hard charging Bufords to the masses. But regardless of these advancements, educated Boostophiles know that some drivetrains hold together from the factory, and some don't.

Annawan, Ill. resident Roger Davis has always had good experiences with 3.8-liter turbo motors, since this 34-year-old manufacturing engineer started his turbo V6 education over 15 years ago--on a Toyota, of all things!

"Back in 1985, my brother and I decided to build a four-wheel drive Toyota," Davis begins. "Mud-bogging was much bigger around here than street racing was, and it just so happened that we found a four-barrel Buick turbo V6 in the junkyard. We went through it and it ended up running really well. Our creation had a Buick trans and a Chevy driveshaft, but I really liked the uniqueness of the V6."

Davis had heard about the bad black Regals, but when his brother Charlie bought a Grand National in 1988, it solidified Roger's feelings about the sinister performers.

"My brother has always had cool cars. He owns a '68 Camaro SS and a 1957 Chevy, and his daily driver is a '72 Cutlass 442. I really thought the Buick was a bad car, so in 1990 I bought my first GN, an '86 model. I did the basic performance upgrades like a chip and new injectors, and it ran pretty well. But it was my only car and I drove it year round through college, so it got rusty. When I got out of school, I had two choices: Either I could try and fix the rusted-out '86, or I could go shopping. So I started looking for a replacement."

Roger was perusing the "cars for sale" section of TurboBuick.com one day when he ran across a straight '87 GN with a built motor for sale in Canada. Phone calls, photos, and more than a few questions were exchanged, and Davis eventually deemed the TR worthy. After getting the okay from the lovely Mrs. Davis, Roger headed north to retrieve it in 1999. He bought the 68,000-mile GN with no regrets for $7,500 U.S., even though the five-owner Regal had been passed around more than a case of Elsinore beer between the McKenzie brothers.

"It did have lots of owners, but it was clean," Davis defends. "The nice thing about Canada is that you get all of the information about a purchased vehicle, including the history of all of the previous owners. You can call GM's Canadian Historic Services about Canadian cars, as well. And the GN was in such good shape, I thought I got an excellent deal."

Externally, the Buick was as advertised. It was freshly painted, the body was near perfect, and it featured the desirable Astroroof option. But he would soon find out that bad luck didn't discriminate, no matter how much Buick savvy you possess--because all was not well in Millville.

"The last owner had done an extensive engine buildup, and he told me that I was getting a 10-second car. I trailered the GN to Illinois and unloaded it, drove to the local car wash, and decided to give it about half-throttle on the way home. It blew a head gasket after 15 miles of street driving on 15 pounds of boost--running race gas. When it was torn down, I found that the crank was 20/10, the cam was way too big at 224o, and one head gasket was a GM, the other was a McCord. It was a mish-mash of parts that didn't work, so I decided to build it right."

Roger sent the 3.8-liter block out to Olsen Bros. in Burlington, Iowa to be bored .030-over, honed, line-bored, and decked. Then the hard parts went to Brandon Crim, who started the assembly. Steel main caps were installed over a new NOS crankshaft riding on Clevite 77 bearings. Shot-peened stock connecting rods swing on the crank, and flyweight Wiseco pistons encircled by file-fit Speed-Pro rings fill the holes.

Once Davis got the freshened 235-inch short-block home, he continued the buildup in his garage. The 2001 GS Nationals were set to start in only five weeks and he had every intention of going, blown motor or not.

Crim had installed a cast roller cam before the word got out that they were heading south more often than Ron Jeremy, so the first thing Davis did was pull the cast roller out and replace it with a billet piece. Once the new cam was degreed, he stuck Fel-Pro lock-wire head gaskets between the block and a hard place, in this instance a set of box-stock Champion GN1 heads. He then found a compatible set of pushrods and bolted on rebuilt T&D rocker arms, which had been modified to fit the aluminum heads.

This black phantom would almost exclusively haunt the track, so streetability concerns were shelved as Davis mounted an on-center PT-70 turbocharger from Precision Turbo & Engine. Cooling the massive charge would be up to PTE's front-mount intercooler, which was made more efficient by black insulation applied from the radiator support to the header panel.

PTE ported the stock intake manifold, and Roger bolted up Kenne Bell's 70mm throttle body to supply the doghouse with mass quantities of atmosphere. The stock DIS was retained to handle the spark, and adding fuel to the fire are half a dozen 75 lb./hr. fuel injectors fed by an in-tank Walbro/in-line Bosch setup. An adjustable regulator allows Davis to fine tune all of that fuel pressure.

Fine tuning the fuel and spark tables was left up to a FAST engine management system. After he installed the unit, Roger turned to PTE's Harry Hruska in Hebron, Ind. to zero in the combo.

"That system is just awesome," Davis blurts. "Harry got the base map done in 20 minutes, then we went for a spin. From start to finish it took about two hours, and after the third tune, it screamed. It went from probably a 12.2 car before to a solid 10-second performer!"

Which was the first good news he had heard in a long time. For all practical purposes, Roger was well on his way to finishing the GN with time to spare before the Nats. Simple suspension enhancements like drag shocks and airbags had been on the car when he bought it, so he didn't have to devote a ton of time to traction issues. But the maligned Buick's bad luck resurfaced when the 200-4R called it quits a week before the Nationals. Hruska's tuning was responsible for an estimated 620 flywheel horsepower, and Roger had to think quick to get a reliable tranny installed before the race.

Mike Kurtz of Century Automotive answered the call, and reinforcements came in the form of a ten-vane pump, a billet shaft, and Mike's shift kit. An Art Carr 9-inch non-lockup torque converter that had been in the old tranny was fortified with anti-balloon plates by JW Performance Converters and reinstalled. Then the Hydramatic was second-day aired to Roger.

Although a bit irked, Davis was still eager to let this tranny-blowing motor do the talking at the racetrack. But the road to Bowling Green proved to be a rocky one.

"The Friday before I left for Kentucky, some dimwit ran a red light and totaled out my tow vehicle, hurting my neck and breaking one of my ribs in the process. That very next day, I had to swap in the dead tranny for the good one. The day after that, I took the hitch off my wrecked truck and put it on a buddy's truck--I was one sore SOB when I finished, but I made it to the Nationals."

When Roger finally arrived, he threw on a helmet and headed for the staging lanes. His shakedown run produced a low 11-second timeslip at 127, and after a few tweaks, the clock stopped with a 10.57 at 129! It had been a frustrating journey for a guy who knows his way around Flint's flyers, but he's not holding any grudges.

"Even with all of the car's problems, I couldn't be happier," he beams. "The 10.5 was pretty terrific--I can't believe how this Buick moves out. I've raced some cycles on the track, and this thing will walk bikes; they will get out a little then the GN just reels 'em in!"

Which is why we fell in love with these barbarians in the first place.