Most of us know the Buick Grand National, the all-black turbo screamer. Think of this 1985 Buick WH1 turbo as a Grand National without the Batman cape. This example is listed on eBay with no reserve and bids just topping $5,800 as I write this; very, very tempting. It’s located in Ford City, Pennsylvania. I know, why isn’t there a Buick City, Pennsylvania?!
I think it’s fair to say that most of you know that I love all cars, trucks, motorcycles, snowmobiles, campers, boats, whatever – no matter where they’re made or really even what they are. I just love all vehicles. I tend to gravitate towards oddball or unusual vehicles, though, and this WH1 is unusual. Do I like the Grand National? Of course, dumb question, but I like this model much more so. The Grand National has turned into somewhat of a bubble car or a bandwagon-jumper car, in my opinion. Being all-black doesn’t help matters since that’s what most people seem to want these days. Give me an elegant two-tone paint scheme on the same car any day of the week.
Oops-a-daisy, there’s a bit of work to do on this car. I’m sure that you have noticed the “Insurance Auto-Auctions, Inc.” banner on the bottom of some of the photos, I’m not quite sure what that’s about. The seller says that they “purchased the car from the auction in NY on impulse & have too many projects in waiting so here it is.” I’m not sure if those were photos from when they bought it, maybe at an insurance auction? In any case, I think this is a much better look than the all-black Grand National has but I know that I’m in the vast minority there. They have the same specs and can do the same things, why not step out of the box a little?
The interior and engine photos don’t have the running-banner thing on them so I don’t know if these were just taken or why that is. In any case the interior looks like it’s in fine condition with enough tinkering to do to make it an interesting weekend project. You can see that the driver’s seat controls will need some help but as far as gaping holes or dash cracks it looks good. The WH1 was known as the Designer Package and it was available on the T-Type Regal from 1984 to 1986. With the chic two-tone paint scheme it’s more of what I would call a sleeper than what a murdered-out Grand National is, where people automatically expect you to jump on it at every stop light. Again, they’ll do the same thing on the street and only those who are really in the know will recognize what you have here, not every 12-year old kid on the street. They only made 525 of the Designer Series or Designer Package WH1 T-Type turbo Regals so they’re rare, even more so than the 1987 GNX is.
The engine needs a couple of weekends worth of detailing, but it runs and drives, it “starts very easy every time, no smoke or noises, shifts very well.” With just over 50,000 miles on this car it needs more work than I would have thought for the mileage, but if it sells for anything around the current bid price this is a monster steal deal. There is no big intercooler, of course, that was reserved for the 1987 Grand National GNX, but 200 hp and 300 lb-ft of torque in a turbocharged 3.8L V6 engine will move this thing along very nicely. The WH1, T-Type, and Grand National all had the same power in 1984 and 1985. In 1986 power went up to 235 hp for all three models and that was the last year for the WH1. Have any of you heard of the Regal WH1 Designer Series turbo?
Someone would be better off waiting for any 86-87 turbo Buick. That’s the ones collectors will always desire.
This one would be fine driver if it’s cheap enough.
Steve R
I passed on buying a two-tone T-type several years ago, and I’m still kicking myself. Very sharp looking, but it had turbine style factory rims…not as ‘hip’ looking as the GN perhaps, but every bit as fun.
3.8, not 4.1 litre.
Ugh, brain freeze. Thanks, RoKo.
Title checked mileage over limits , rolled over. So when you register will say that on New title . Not good .
For most states any car over 10 years old is exempt anyway, so it won’t really matter.
A friend of mine has a grand national, every time he pulled into my father in law’s driveway he would say “Here comes the turbo Mennonite.”
I like a two tone paint scheme better.
This would be a great ride w/ some TLC.
I must say, I do like the two tone on this Buick! I have driven a Grand National and a Buick T-Type Turbo in the past and although they do go balls-out fast in a straight line, they are the worst handling cars I have ever driven! If you are drag racing I guess it’s fine but why wouldn’t you just buy a car that goes good in a straight line and in the corners and be done with it? I think that’s where the term Lumber wagon came from that my dad used to say! LOL
If a car can go fast in a straight line with a little effort and some $$$ it can be made to handle corners. My wife’s 70 Mach1 wasn’t the best at corners so when we restored it we increased the rear anti sway bar from 1/2″ to 1″ and the front anti sway bar from 7/8″ to 1 1/8″ then added new KYB gas shocks with new rear leaf springs and it made a very impressive improvement on cornering.
My across the street neighbor had one of these when new. I was a teenager in the ’80s. It was a really nice car. He had some weird rubber strips that hung down from the rear axle and drug the ground. To this day, I have no idea what that was about.
These were commonly installed by owners to reduce static shock when touching their door handles when entering the car. They always looked… bad.
Thanks…… so basically my neighbor was kinda a wimp…..lol….brings a lot of other things into perspective.
And the rubber strips would hit the ground and eventually be short and you had to change them. Reminds me of curb feelers.
There was a trick to mounting these strips so that you didn’t look like a nerd or a wimp. Most people used a rear bumper mounting bolt to attach them, and this made them very visible (and look like your car was growing a tail). However, if you used a bolt somewhere under your car (and a transmission cross-member bolt was a good one to look at) you still had the benefits of the static discharge without looking silly.
Always get that pukey feeling when you pull up to see a car and it’s in a compound with one of those loaders with the wrecker type forks on them.
All cars in Pennsylvania over 10 years old are mileage exempt. That means that all PA car titles of 10+ will either say “Exceeds mechanical limits” or ” True mileage unknown”. Don’t let that scare you
Looks to have an aftermarket air filter, which is just fine, not even a big deal. Makes me wonder just how hard it was driven or fiddled with over the years as these became very popular at the local strip well into the 90’s. Still has too much black paint, not gonna fool anyone with this so called sleeper, might even raise a few eye brows with that paint scheme! T-Type turbo Regals in plain jane paint were the sleepers of this breed, particularly the ’86 and ’87 models.
Weirdest sounding cars I ever heard, particularly during staging, sounded like something out of a sci-fi movie!
If the powertrain is a mess, a twin turbo LS conversion would be cool.
82 Designer T purchased new .Still tucked away in my barn for a while.The last of the Rochester Carb models.
’83’s were still carburetors.
I keep trying to scroll past this and I keep stopping to look. The thing that keeps catching my eye is the wheels. Can someone tell me if these are factory wheels, or are they after-market? I just really like them.
Look like stock wheels to me. I like them too.
My best friend had a Wh1 car with a bench seat sunroof. I imagine that had to be super rare. It was all stock back in the early 90’s