Hardline

One look at Cal Hartline's mid-8-second Grand National will tell you it means business. Any car with a set of wheelie bars and a parachute tagged on the back is bound to have more than a prosaic stock mill under the hood, and this car is no exception. Hartline has gone to great pains to ensure that his is one of the most competitive cars in the wildly popular Turbo Street Outlaw class. So thorough is his preparation that the car even qualified thirteenth in a field of monster-displacement V8s in the drag radial class at the 2002 World Street Finals. As the sole V6 entrant, that is no small feat!

So how'd he do it? At the heart of the GN's powerplant is a Stage 2 cylinder case. A Buick Motorsport crankshaft was dropped into place and mated with Cunningham rods and JE pistons. A Duttweiler oil pump pressurizes the galleries by way of a Billet Specialties pan. The remaining shortblock details were trusted to Speed Pro rings, Clevite bearings, and ARP fasteners. A Comp solid roller cam was installed and a BHJ harmonic balancer dampens the vibrations.

While the shortblock is pretty much standard fare for nearly any Buick of this caliber, the cylinder heads are a bit of a departure. "I'm just so pleased with the performance of the Champion GN-1R heads. Bill and Tom at Champion have got these things flowing massive amounts of air, and the car's performance is due in large part to them." Naturally, the heads are tricked out with 2.02/1.60 valves and topped with T&D Machine rocker arms. Topside is a BGC intake manifold with an Accufab throttle body. The mill is controlled by a sequential FAST system, tuned by Cal himself. In fact, his company, Hartline Performance, specializes in engine building and FAST tuning, and his services are in great demand around the country.

Precision Turbo & Engine supplies Hartline with turbos for every engine he builds, so of course there is a PT88 4-bolt in place. An Innovative Turbo boost controller keeps tabs on the HKS wastegate, managing the boost at a steady 31psi. A Charged Air Systems V3 air-to-air intercooler removes massive amounts of heat from the compressed air before sending it on to the engine. Mixed with the air is a steady diet of C16, supplied by a Weldon pump and controller, and delivered by 160 lb.-hr. injectors. A fortified Turbo 400 and an aluminum driveshaft back up an Art Carr 9-inch converter.

Hartline is quite proud that his car retains a stock suspension. "I believe the car is currently the fastest stock-suspension GN in the country," he said. Though the configuration is in fact stock, the majority of the factory components have been upgraded to high-end aftermarket pieces. Wolfe control arms and rear sway bar, Eibach coil springs and Koni shocks keep the stock rear end in position. Yes, the rear is stock (including the ring and pinion), though it has been fortified by the addition of 33-spline axles. Aerospace Engineering brakes reside at all four corners, greatly improving stopping ability.

We caught up with the affable Hartline at the 2003 GS Nationals, where he was competing in the top-dog TSO class. But at the same time, Hartline insists the car has remained true to its street car roots. While most 8-second Buicks have a well-earned reputation as ill-tempered creatures, the docile, streetable nature of this beast is a testament to Hartline's skill in engine building and in tuning the FAST system. And though he built the car, Hartline tells us it would never have happened without the support of his wife Holly. "Sure, with the decals and slicks and wheelie bars, it screams 'racecar', but with that stuff removed, it looks and sounds like any other GN driving down the road." Albeit, at a good deal better clip!

Cal & the Decal

Cal Hartline is famous for more than his wicked-fast GN and his skill at tuning EFI systems. Cal was also the central figure in one of the legendary Turbo Buick internet stories of a few years ago. While we don't officially condone street racing, we've all been there, and the story is a good one. Take it away, Cal...

On several occasions while driving to work, I had a guy in a blue Mustang GT rev his engine and point at my car. Of course he is always going in the opposite direction. I asked the local Mustang guys about him, and it turns out the guy had just installed a 410-inch motor and a NOS kit on it. Word on the street was that it ran 10.8s on motor.

As fate would have it, I spotted him at our local cruise night one evening. He had a pretty large crowd of 5.0 guys hanging around him, so I struck up a conversation. I asked him if his car was "as fast as it was loud?" He looked at me puzzled and said that it was. I told him that I was the guy with the GN that he kept revving at. He then made the fatal mistake of asking me if I "wanted to run it?"

I had my street tires and pump gas in it, while he had BFG Drag Radials on his. I was too far into this to come up with any lame excuses so had to take him up on his offer.

I said, "How much?"

"I don't have any money," came the response.

"I don't do charity work..."

My buddy was wanting to watch a race bad and came up with this solution: The loser had to put a sticker in their back window for 30 days that says "Grand Nationals Rule and Mustangs Suck!" or vise versa. He agreed, and we were set. We line up on the street right in front of everybody. We take off and he gets about a car in front of me. I start to catch him and spin, I ease up and get back in it and get to his door and start to spin again, I ease up and get back in it a third time and get just in front of him before the car breaks loose again. We are going 70 mph by now, and I ease up and he gets a half a car out and I nail it one last time knowing it will hook at this speed. I slingshot in front of him and beat him by 6-7 car lengths. He was to spend the next 30 days with decal proudly displayed.

A week or two later, I went back to the same cruise spot with my ET Streets and a tank full of race gas. Sure enough, the guy came back, this time with slicks and a full bottle. He was extremely disappointed that I had changed my tires, but asked me for a rematch. The stakes were he could either take the sticker off, or leave it on another 30 days.

We lined up again, and this time I came out hard. His buddies claim I lifted the tires (I think it was close). He got excited and sprayed it too soon. He started spinning, while I was winning. I let the car shift into Second and when I reached 70 mph, I eased up and coasted to the finish. He had given up and turned around.

Still think this wicked Buford...        read full caption Still think this wicked Buford is race-only? How many racecars have you seen with this much chrome under the bonnet? That enormous 88 turbo stuffs the Stage 2 with 31 pounds of boost, and Hartline's Buick dances around the thousand-horsepower mark on the dyno.

When a car is this fast, a...        read full caption When a car is this fast, a few interior concessions must be made in the name of safety. Notably, the Racecar Shop-fabricated 10-point chrome-moly cage, Turbo-Action shifter, and aluminum race seats. That mysterious aluminum lever next to the console must keep the street wanna-bees guessing... Seasoned racers will instantly recognize it as the parachute deployment device.

"Street car, schmeet car,"...        read full caption "Street car, schmeet car," you say? Think the license plate is simply ornamentation? Scoff if you must--there has been many a Florida Mustang that made the mistake of lining up with this mid-8s monster. The parachute and wheelie bars stay in the shop when street duty beckons. This happens more often than you might think, as the car manages to accumulate a few hundred miles each month.

Hartline is quick to credit...        read full caption Hartline is quick to credit Beez Racing for the low-mass, high-polish aluminum racing wheels. Notice also the polished Aerospace brake calipers. On the street, the bling-blings are swapped in favor of some nice, low-key GNX replicas.