I've owned this 1971 Buick Gran Sport since the summer of 1981. The car has gone through several persona's over the years, from low 12 second street machine to semi-stock resto ride. Enjoy the story, click on the thumbnails for an enlarged picture.

Well, there she was, in all her glory, circa 1981 in Toms River, NJ. A Buick GS 455. I had just parted with the princely sum of $350 for the purchase! Technically, the car ran OK, all though the 50 mile trip down the Garden State Parkway from Orange, NJ was quite the adventure. The tags we had on it were, how should I say, not quite 100% legal!  The car had one working headlight that pointed more in the direction of the trees then on the road, a questionable steering idler arm, a front tire blow out, a battery that went dead at the first intersection I came to, and one missing muffler. The one remaining muffler exited the underside of the car just after I got on the Garden State Parkway, wrapping the tailpipe around the rear axle in the process.  Crazy? No, this car had a 455 cubic inch engine, Turbo 400 transmission, power steering and brakes, power buckets seats, console, A/C, and power windows. Not to mention that Buick only built 680 of these GS 455 cars in 1971.

I think the car had something like 110,000 miles when I picked it up. One regret I still have is that when I was originally rebuilding the GS, I tossed the factory A/C system. After all, hot rods certainly didn't need air conditioning! Oh if only I could have seen I would end up living in the middle of the desert where daytime temperatures typically get over 100 degrees between April and October!

This was it, 455 cubic inches of Buford power, torque on demand! It still had the original ram air set up on it as well.

Mark, a good friend of mine and myself were working in New Jersey at the time. We finally got out of the Howard Johnson's we were staying in and found a house to rent. We each had a GS that we wanted to get running. Unfortunately, we were in New Jersey in the winter, living in a house with a one car garage, the second section had been walled off and converted to a den. Mark's GS was closest to being road worthy, so he got the garage space for now. We looked long and hard to see if there was any way we could get that sliding glass door at the back of the house off of the tracks without destroying them. Looking back, I guess it was lucky we couldn't or we probably would have had pushed my car into the den!  Hey, we were both in our early 20's and didn't care about home furnishings, we wanted to race and cruise! We finally completed Mark's GS and now it was time for mine!

Here's Marks GS before and after our paint job. These are old pictures I scanned, his GS was actually a bright "Hemi Orange"

Then we got started on my car!

Apparently, prior to my a purchasing the car, it had been given several paint jobs over it's life span. The last paint job was a really bad one. They didn't even bother to grind the old paint off prior to spreading on the bondo!  I began by stripping the car down to bare metal. I decided to use a grinder and 36 grit discs instead of a chemical stripper. In hindsight, not the best method, but live and learn.

The car was finally ready for a fresh coat of paint. Not being professional painters, we went with the best friend of the garage painter at the time, Acrylic Lacquer.  I had chosen a bright red paint that came on Ford Escorts. Once painted, the car was wet sanded and then buffed to a brilliant shine. The final touch was a genuine GSX rear spoiler that Ireceived in trade for a set of Buick 350 chrome valve covers. The interior was redone in black vinyl. This included the seats and door panels. The headliner was dyed black and new black carpet was also installed.

Prior to finding this GS, I had already built a motor and was just looking for a suitable recipient for the new found power. At the time, if you ran a Buick, and wanted Buick information and advice, you went to Kenne-Bell Buick in California. They helped me assemble a decent motor. This consisted of Speed Pro forged pistons, a Kenne-Bell cam and valvetrain, Stage 1 valves, Hooker headers, a Hays Stinger breakerless ignition, Edlebrock B4B dual plane intake manifold mounting an 850 Holley double pumper carb.  ATI Racing Transmissions in Baltimore, MD modified the Turbo 400 and supplied the 11 inch torque converter. The rear end was changed over to a Chevy 12-bolt posi housing with 3.55 gears. I also received a lot of help from the founder of the Gran Sport Club of America, Richard Lassitter. I've been a member of this great club since 1981! 

Racing at Englishtown, and the results of a broken rear, a twisted driveshaft!

Best ET at Capitol Raceway in Crofton, MD.

This initial metamorphosis took about a year to complete. Once completed, I enjoyed cruising the ocean side town Seaside Heights, NJ and racing at Englishtown's fabled Raceway Park quarter mile. I also made a few trips back to Annapolis, MD where my folks lived as well. I had changed the rear gears to 4.56 and this made the 180 miles on the turnpikes and interstates quite nerve racking!  Initial outings to the strip on street tires resulted in ET's in the low 13 second range. After obtaining a set of slicks, the massive torque this motor produced was easier to harness. Although now with the traction not being the weak link, a new problems was discovered. On one particularly brutal burnout and launch, I destroyed the rear gears in mid launch! This locked up the rear and I twisted the driveshaft down to about an inch in diameter! The ET's were eventually whittled down to 12.18 seconds at 110 mph. They say the best way to tune a car is by making one change at a time and observing the results. Unfortunately we just made wholesale changes right and left. Cams, carburetors, rear gears etc, whatever we had handy!  I eventually moved back to Annapolis, MD and spent the next year still cruising the GS around Annapolis and Glen Burnie, MD as well as continuing to drag race at the local strip, Capitol Raceway. I eventually tired of the traveling I was doing with the company I had been was working for this whole time. I ended up getting a job with Arizona Public Service in Phoenix, AZ, so it was time to head west, Big Red in tow!      

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