Introduced just as the automotive industry was coming out of the Malaise era – a time period noted for poor quality in automobiles – the Buick Grand National (GN) stood out like a floodlight in the dark and was one of the most capable performance vehicles of the 1980s, challenging even the venerable Corvette. Unfortunately, this performance prowess can wreak havoc if abused by the wrong hands, and that’s exactly what happened to this 1987 Grand National.
This freshly restored 1987 Buick Regal Grand National in the Boston, Massachusetts area was recently stolen and heavily damaged, with the perpetrator managing to strike at least 12 cars during the joyride. Regrettably, the perp ditched the car and escaped on foot and is believed to remain at large.
Outside of the obvious implications of this incident, the Grand National has become one of the Tri-Shield’s most valuable models of all time, with a like-new 1987 GNX fetching $275,000 in auction back in 2021. To make matters worse, this particular unit had just been thoroughly restored.
“This was like a scene out of Grand Theft Auto,” ABC Boston accurately reported in the video below. “He literally just wrecked my life by joyriding the car for no reason,” Dennis Harrington, the heartbroken owner of the stolen Grand National, told CBS Boston. He also spoke with local media about the restoration process of the Buick, which cost around $150,000, and his intentions to pass the car down to his son one day. Harrington has doubts about whether the car can be re-restored to its previous condition and whether insurance will fully cover the damage. “I hope [the carjacker] gets what’s coming to him,” Harrington concluded. So do we, Dennis.
As previously mentioned, the Grand National was quite the performer back in its heyday. In regard to the high-performance GNX in particular, the modified Regal was capable of holding its own against other performance-focused vehicles of its time, including the Ferrari F40 and Porsche 930.
Although this likely didn’t sit well with some GM executives who felt the Corvette should remain GM’s fastest offering, the GNX was able to sprint down the quarter mile in 12.7 seconds at 113 mph thanks to the 276 horsepower and 360 pound-feet of torque from its turbocharged 3.8L V6 gasoline engine.
For the vehicle’s final model year, Buick shipped 547 GNs to McLaren to create the Grand National Experimental, better known as the GNX. This model featured bigger turbos, a new ECU, and better suspension components.
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Comments
Make the driver who stole it hand-sand the entire body before they prime it, then after they prime it…and then wet sand it after each coat of clear-coat.
You broke it. You fix it.
BS, like in the Bible, if you steal you get a hand cut off.
listen bud: don’t go trying to push your absurd religious beliefs on the rest of us; you people never shut up about the bible – we get it, you grew up with zero critical thinking skills.
move on…
GMA, please do a follow up when they catch the POS.