1987 Buick Regal Grand National by Monogram circa 1988

There are only a few scale models of Turbo Regals that I know of.  The one you are probably most familiar with is the mold from 1988 which depicted a Buick Grand National on front pulling away from a Corvette at a downtown stoplight.  This kit was distributed to retail stores across the country just as the GN was reaching legendary status.  The box, pictured below, featured a small printed line that read "Fastest US production car."  Notice the front clip of the red Corvette as the Grand National pulls away. (continued....)

This didn't sit too well with the brass at GM since no other car in the lineup for that year was supposed to be faster than the coveted Corvette.  Much to the chagrin of Buick fans, Monogram redesigned the box in 1991, removing the Corvette and the famous slogan.  The model was finally dropped by Monogram around 1994 or so, but good shrink-wrapped examples can still be found at "five and dime" stores if you are lucky.  I found my model at a local automobile swap meet. I can still remember buying this model at a local drugstore when I was a kid. I had no idea what it was, but the "Fastest US Production Car" banner got my attention.

 1987 Buick GNX circa 1989

In 1989, Monogram produced a limited edition 1:24 scale model of the legendary performance investment for the fortunate 547, the Buick GNX.  This model wasn't produced for very long and is quite rare, although I do not have any production numbers to back up my claim.  For this release, the box was very similar in appearance to the second release of the original Grand National.

 1987 Buick Grand National re-release circa 1998

Fast forward to 1998.  Monogram re-released the ever popular Grand National to join their lineup of performance muscle cars.  The box had a whole new look and the scale remained at the popular 1:24.  This model can still be found at almost any discount store and favorite hobby shop.  Keep in mind that a model keeps its value to the collector if it is still shrink-wrapped, so I recommend picking up a couple.  That way you can tuck away one model for the future and you can still enjoy building your favorite muscle car to exacting detail.

 

 

 

To my knowledge, no model has ever been produced of the Buick Regal T-Type or Turbo T.  This is unfortunate because the T-Type is also a car of legendary status.  A savvy modeler is forced to convert an existing Grand National model to meet the specs, which makes it all the more fun.  To do this, it requires skill and a little bit of ingenuity.

First, you must prepare the body for modification.   To be correct, you must carefully file off the rear spoiler since T-Types did not have this from the factory.  For mine, I just filed it off and then smoothed the rear portion with very fine grit sandpaper and a mini-block.  After careful sanding, you can get the rear deck lid as smooth as the rest of the body with no problem at all.   After you have sanded off the rear and blended, it is time to prime the whole body so that your paint will stick better.

My car is a unique color, Dark Garnet Red Metallic, which looks deep maroon or cherry during the day and black at night.  I searched high and low for canned spray paint, but I didn't have any luck at all.  I ended up just getting some maroon, red, and black and I mixed and thinned it for the airbrush.  It took quite a few tries to get it right, but it did end up looking pretty darn close.  I sprayed all body parts with primer first and then lightly sanded the body to smooth out the rough edges.   After the primer had fully dried, I sprayed on several mist coats of color, allowing it to dry between coats.  By doing this, one can eliminate runs and unevenness of color.  I found that mixing the paint and thinning it to the consistency of milk was the way to go.

While the body parts dried, I assembled the engine, interior, and chassis of the car, taking care to do it correctly and paint each detail just as it was in my car, right down to the oil filter.  The neighbors must have thought I was weird because I actually painted part of the chassis and engine bay while I was outside with the car!  Take special care to paint the proper parts with the correct color since they are either chrome plated or black out of the box.  Have fun with this part because this is what is going to give your model uniqueness.

Final assembly was about to take place.  The stock exhaust wasn't correct for my car, with Hooker exhaust,  so I had to heist a dual exhaust system from a 1:24 scale Monte Carlo SS that I had.  I modified the SS exhaust with the proper side exiting slash cut tips, which I grafted from the stock Regal exhaust  I also had to paint the bumpers with a combination of chrome paint and flat black, which emphasized the plastic trim for realism.  I then used some amber paint to simulate the turn signal lamps in the front.  The car was really missing something at this point, which turned out to be the wheels.

The Grand National wheels just didn't look right on this car so I sought a model that had similar wheels I could pirate.  I had a couple of choices at this point.  I could either go aftermarket and try to capture the look of my car with the Weld wheels, or I could find a model that had rims I wanted.  I did find that the General Lee from the Dukes of Hazzard had T-type looking wheels, but I did end up getting some Keystone rims and fat tires for it.  Not an exact match for my Weld Pro Stars, but it did look nice.

After these pictures were taken, I wet sanded the body and sprayed on a few coats of clear to protect it and deepen the color and then let the model dry.  After a few days, I put it in a nice plastic case to display it with the rest of my performance car collection.

Peach State GMP has produced a wonderful 1:18 scale die cast model of the 1987 Buick Grand National.  These little cars are popular since they are cheaper to maintain and insure than the real thing.   It is made out of metal and boasts extremely fine detail of the interior appointments and engine bay.  The model shown below released for $50, but they usually can't be found for under $250 on eBay.  Certainly a popular collectible!

Here is an example of the 1986 T-Type, which was released in late 1999.  This is also a highly sought after model as white is a very popular color with the TR crowd.  It doesn't command the price of the original GN release, but it certainly is a good addition to any collection.  I am really hoping that they produce a maroon 1987 model so I can have one to match my car.

Early 2000 brought the release of the 1987 Buick GNX, which is considered by many to be the baddest Turbo Regal ever produced.  A collection of these fine die cast cars would not be complete unless this car adorned the shelf.  As you can see from the picture, Peachstate paid careful attention to detail, as reflected by the correct wheels, badging, and the louvers on the sides.  They also issued a replica window sticker with each vehicle.  Imagine how cool it would be for one of the lucky 547 owners to actually have a numbers matching window sticker!

There have been many recent releases of Turbo Regals in the small toy car arena.  I find it interesting that the performance car collectible market has taken this long to realize the Buick Turbo Regal's place in history, but I am glad it is getting the recognition it deserves.

The toy pictured to the left is the recent release in the Johnny Lightning series.  It depicts a gray turbo Regal, which, judging by the rims on the car in the picture, is a 1984 model.  The car has very nice detail and one can even see the 3.8 SFI Turbo printed on the turbo bulge.  The car doesn't have the correct rims since Lightning models all feature Cragar rims and fat tires.  The detail is pretty good for such a small car and they did a nice job reproducing the T-Type logo on the sides.  For some reason, they also slapped it on the rear deck, but it still looks neat there as well.  On this piece, JL also chose to release the car sans side view mirrors.

This particular piece is neat for me because it is just like the car I used to own.

 

 

 

Pictured here is a Monogram Exacts package which features three cars in a 1:87 scale.  Included in the package are: a Camaro Z28, a Shelby Cobra 427, and the legendary 1987 Buick Regal Grand National.   These are pretty hard to find, but I scored this one from Toys-R-Us in 1990.

Racing Champions has also reproduced a 1987 Buick Grand National in late 1998 for us to enjoy.  The car is a 1:61 scale reproduction and can be found in only dark green,  which is rather strange since the Grand National was only produced in black.  It has the correct rims and an accurate representation of the engine bay as well as painted tail lights and front turn signal lamps.  The car has no Grand National decals on the body, but it is hard to mistake the nature of this beast.  The build quality is kind of shaky and it takes a while to find one with cleanly painted details.  I have seen some with smeared tail lights and even some with only one front turn signal lamp painted.  I came across this piece at a local Wal-Mart.

 

 

The first car above is a release by Racing Champions under the Mint collection, circa 1998.  It depicts a highly detailed 1987 Grand National in the correct black with the emblems in the correct places.  It even has the correct rims and turbo 6 logos on the headrests.  It is a high quality piece and is fairly hard to find, at least in my neck of the woods.  The issue number is #168.

The second car above is a release by Racing Champions under the Mint collection, circa 1998.  It depicts a highly detailed 1987 Grand National in the incorrect silver paint scheme.  I am not sure if they were trying to appeal to the Buick Regal T-Type crowd with this release, but it seems to be every bit as popular as the black issue.

Racing Champions also released a series of classic police interceptors in late 1998.   Included in the set is the 1987 Buick Grand National.

Above you can see a very recent release of the Grand National by Racing Champions.  This is a red GN sporting WCW graphics and a photo of wrestler "Booker T."  I found this one at ToysR Us, Aug 1998..

Pictured next is a very limited edition release of the Johnny Lightning GN, circa 1996.  These were limited to 5000 pieces and are extremely hard to find!   I have these two and it took me a long time to get them.  One has Firestone tires mounted on incorrect directional rims and the other has big slicks mounted on trademark JL Cragar® rims.

Finally, we have a very rare example of a chrome 1987 Grand National, which hit the shelves in late November 1998.  There are only 1998 of these cars and they are not easy to find at all.

Johnny Lightning released the scale toy car to the left in December of 1998.  The vehicle is a 1982 Grand National, which was the car that started the legend.  The actual full size car is very rare as only 215 were ever made.  There were 15,000 toy cars produced by Johnny Lightning, which makes it easier to find than some of the other turbo Regal toys.

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"Ten Years After" is an individually numbered and signed offset lithograph printed on acid-free archival paper.  The lithograph is a limited edition of 547 impressions plus 55 artist's proofs.  One edition only.  Actual image size is 13.5"X24.5".  This was produced in 1997 based on an original Ibusuki painting.  I personally own one of the 547 produced and it hangs in my collectibles room as a tribute to both the artist and the muscle car.  The frame represented above is just an enhancement of the graphic and doesn't reflect how mine is framed.

This beautiful painting of a 1987 Buick Grand National has been reproduced as a limited edition art print. Automotive artist Bill Harbort has depicted this car under a starry night sky. There are only 231 prints in the edition and each print is hand signed and numbered by the artist. They have been expertly printed in full color on a fine stock paper measuring 16" x 20".

These are examples of dealer literature available in the racks at your local dealership
during the awesome 80's.