Junkyard Find: 1992 Buick Regal Gran Sport
The 1970 Buick Gran Sport 455 was one of the most ridiculously overpowered, tire-frying machines of the Golden Age of Muscle Cars, and GM also slapped GS badging on some fairly muscular — or at least muscular-looking — Wildcats and Rivieras back then. Fast forward a decade or so, and you had W-body (think Lumina) third-gen Buick Regals with Gran Sport option packages.
Here’s one that I shot in Denver while scouting for the All You Can Carry For $59.99 Junkyard Sale last month.
170 Buick V-6 horses driving the front wheels.
The ’92 GS did come with a tachometer, though.
The interior is far superior that the one in the wretched Lumina.
Pretty much the same car as the Daytona 500 winner.
Back in 1988, Québécois octogenarians who wished to feel 50 again could pick up a third-gen Regal coupe. This car came with the 2.8-liter V-6. By the time our Junkyard Find was built, Regal buyers could have the mighty 3.8-liter V-6.
When this generation of Regal was released, Buick’s marketers went for a patriotic approach similar to Chevrolet’s “Heartbeat” ads of the same era, though with less- screamy guitars.
The great American love story belongs to Buick.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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Unlike today's GM mid-sized cars the GM-10 sedans actually sold in large numbers.
I know I'm in the minority, but I liked the '95-'96 iteration of this generation best. Buick rounded things a bit and ditched the three-tier radio so it was less weird. I got an off-lease '96 Regal Custom with the 3.1 and liked it enough that I swapped it for a '96 GS with the 3800. The bigger engine made a ton of difference. When I was looking, I had checked out a '95 coupe and the longer doors felt ridiculously heavy when trying to open and close them.