In '84, Buick decided give all it's Grand Nationals a 'tiny' V-6 3.8 liter stock engine. While this may sound less than impressive to most hot rod restoration buffs, in reality it was a relative beast in its day! This little guy delivered 200 horsepower and 300 lbs of torque on the chassis dynamometer tuner. It also let Buick compete on the drag strip against much lighter competitors, Camaro and Corvette, and still hold its own. It did the quarter mile in 15.9 seconds while the Corvette barely edged it out at 15.1.
If power's not your thing (not sure why you'd be reading this blog!), then the appearance of the Grand National is still sure to impress. Buick decided to bring back the solid black paint job in 1984. Their motto was basically, 'if it can be painted, make it black!', and it turned out to be a great decision. They flew off the shelves and actually sold out their whole production run that year.
Another cool thing about the '84 Grand National was that this was the year they introduced a special T-Top design. This upgrade was only added to around 400 of them, so if you're lucky enough to come across one these in your auto restoration search you should hop on it instantly! It's a rare find for sure.
In 1984 the Grand National was going for around $1200 and today at auction we've seen them get up to $30K fully restored.
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