By the 1980s, whatever vestige of what had been a muscle car was pretty much dust in the wind. There were some posers still hanging on but things had moved on in a very different direction – fuel economy, clean air, sound road manners, etc. And then, when you least expect it, Buick, a marque usually reserved for people my father’s age (and now me) comes along with the Regal Grand National, just like this 1987 example, located in Stamford, Connecticut and available here on eBay for a current bid of $7,100, no reserve.

The Grand National was introduced in 1982 as basically an appearance package. Discontinued in 1983, it was back in black for 1984 with a lot more Hubba-Hubba under the hood in the form of a turbocharged 3.8 liter V6. Power continued to climb until 1987, the Grand National’s final year of production. In that final year, Buick produced 22,287 Grand Nationals including 1,547 of the uber potent GNX models.

What made the Grand National so grand in ’87 was the 245 net HP, turbocharged 3.8 liter V6 coupled to a four-speed automatic transmission. The seller tells us that this 3.8 was rebuilt 10,000 miles ago and has an overbore of .030 along with other mods and adjustments. The seller tells us that this GN runs “excellent.” Performance reports at the time placed the GN in the Corvette acceleration realm.

There is no image of the interior included because it is either on the exterior or in the trunk along with a whole lot of other parts. The seller claims that he has 99% of the necessary parts to complete this GN so this will be another assemble-it-yourself project. I’d also like to know what that missing 1% is.

There is no discussion in the listing regarding rust and corrosion and being that this is a New Jersey car and the A-pillars are rusted through at the base, I would want to do a very thorough inspection of the floors, frame, lower quarters, etc. Supposedly there are some dents in the roof and missing bumper fillers that will need attention, the dents are not visible in the accompanying issues.

These were fantastic cars, especially “back in the day” as very little could compete with a Grand National or top its Darth Vader bad-boy attitude. I actually gave consideration to a non-Grand National, turbocharged Regal back in the ‘80s but as usual, I got distracted with something else. I’d still consider one today but not one that I’d have to put together like a Monogram model kit. Besides knowing what or how to do it, there is always the risk of the parts not working or fitting together as they are supposed to and then there’s that issue of the potentially missing 1%. That said, there are 45 bids who are throwing caution to the wind and going for it so I offer the best of success to the winning bidder. How about you, would you buy and assemble this GN or prefer to acquire an example already intact?