The Super Bowl LIX half time show featured Kendrick Lamar, who opened his performance standing on the hood of a black Buick GNX.
Serving as the namesake for Lamar’s new album GNX, the legendary Buick GNX – short for Grand National Experimental – was a high-performance model from the late 1980s that was built in collaboration with ASC / McLaren. The GNX was based on the Buick Grand National, but with significant performance upgrades, including a turbocharged 3.8L V6 engine rated 276 horsepower and 360 pound-feet of torque, which were significantly underrated at the time.
The GNX was capable of sprinting from 0 to 60 mph in roughly 4.6 seconds, outpacing many of its competitors, including several V8-powered muscle cars. Its stealthy, all-black exterior, aggressive stance, and advanced turbocharged engine made it an instant classic, while its limited production status makes it a collector’s item to this day. The model was produced for just one year in 1987 and is now known as one of the most celebrated GM performance cars of all time.
As for Lamar’s album, the 12-tracker was released in November 2024 and features contributions from prominent artists like Jack Antonoff, SZA, and Kamasi Washington, alongside credits for Bobby Hawk, Ink, Sam Dew, and Roddy Ricch, among others. Two tracks, “Wacced Out Murals” and “Heart Pt. 6,” have garnered attention for continuing Lamar’s ongoing diss feud with Drake. Lamar also addresses the controversy surrounding his Super Bowl halftime show in the album, as Lil Wayne expressed frustration over being excluded from performing in his hometown of New Orleans.
Shortly after the release of the album, Buick tipped its hat to Lamar and his album by posting a black Buick Envista to social media (kinda-sorta) in the likeness of the GNX.
Comments
Hottest car on the market.
$500k will soon be the norm for these cars.
Like it or not, this is reality. The fortunate 547 just got more expensive!
Was likely butchered-up to allow that many people to come out of the interior and trunk.
I’m sure that a black, lesbian, female vehicle line executive at GM is now planning on launching a GN package for Encores.
Robert Terwilleger,
You are a racist and a low life.
You need psychiatric care.
I’ll bet your parents are real proud of you.
Wonderful! She’ll probably do better then all the white cis het men that oversaw Buick’s multi decade decline. Certainly can’t do worse.
What would you call Mary B? A cis white female.
Racist low life? What bubble are you living in? Have you seen who Buick targets in their ads. What about subaru?
Buick posted this on Instagram tonight. Let’s hope they take advantage of the hype and greenlight a new GNX or something similar
And lets make sure its not a China only model. Because they may get distracted.
And not an EV…
Halftime Show was the WORST I’ve ever seen. Rappin doesn’t appeal to the majority. NFL needs a brain transplant, like most top auto execs.
Beachy29579 I hate to break it to you but rappin is quite popular in the US and globally. You should step out of your echo chamber from time to time. Or don’t I don’t care. Great half time show though.
Rap is popular. Rap can even be good. For that matter, there are rappers and rap songs I like. But, whomever that obviously rich rapper was, just put on the WORST NFL halftime show ever. In fact, I said those exact words to my wife as I got up and walked out of the room to do something else until it was over.
I agree. I grew up with WuTang, 2Pac, B.I.G., Eminem, Nas, and Snoop Dogg. The rap wars between West Coast and East Coast, etc. REAL rappers that grew up in the streets and took their hard life experiences from the projects (as we New Yorkers say), made poetry out of them, found a good DJ, and made it into legendary music. These crappers of today, literally all they do is monotone reciting about the same garbage. Money, Drugs, Women (because my comment would be blocked is I said the four letter H word), and many of them, including Drake, especially Drake, grew up with a silver spoon in there mouths. The legends that have passed, 2Pac, Biggie, DMX, and ODB, are all rolling in their graves at the garbage this genre has become.
guys , this is HIP HOP not Rap as us boomers know it, and yes it SUCKS.
What ever genre of music you call it…it was boring! Had absolutely no excitement in his theatrical performance.
Been seeing several car shows where they remove the 6 cylinder and replace it with a supercharged V8. Not sure if that’s a good idea?
Well a person that knows what they are doing would assess the downstream components to make sure they can handle the extra power. So yes. I love the idea, but the mechanical engineer in me tells me to do it right the first time and make sure nothing else will get adversely affected like the transmission.
The GM 200R4 can take all a highly modified Buick Turbo V6 can dish out. But, a beefed up clutch pack support ring helps.
Wonder if the advertising “costs” are worth being part of this going forward? None of the ads were memorable…and, IMHO, far from a motivator to make a purchase.
None of the ads, period, are worth anything.
It was unintelligible. No, I’m not a racist. Even tried closed captioning and the results were as bad.
As far as the GNX, it was modded and therefore, not of interest either.
100% agree.
Yup the have totally lost the plot when it comes to commercials and halftime. Just another in a long line of things ruined
It has been almost 40 years since the GNX rolled off the production line. After all these years, I still smile every time I see one 🙂 Best car ever.
The pregame and half time were both disgusting. From the phoney anthem and a butchered real anthem to …. I can’t even describe the half time debacle. Sad a GNX was part of it.
I’ll give him this. If the GNX being on the show (original looking even not butchered up like Justin Bieber did with his god awful Wraith) is an indication that it was his dream car (and I’m sure he probably owns one), then atleast I can say he has excellent taste in cars despite his music being mediocre. It warms my heart to see there are millennials still that appreciate cars like these.
The GNX was apparently the car his Father drove him home from the hosiptal when he was born…which is kind of a cool nod to his Dad.
These were truly some of the nicest cars of my time! My favorite cars of the 80s was definitely the Regals, Gran Prix, Cutlass & Monte Carlo! Kenny Nash CEO A BIG EVENT ENTERTAINMENT
Racist piece of TRASH! If I was a White entertainer and had all white dancers, back-up’s etc. you know who would be crying he’ racist. Well you all saw the garbage worst Super Bowl half time show ever shown. F the NFL.
This car was the best part of the show.
JUNK
It wasn’t a real GNX it was a Grand National doctored to look like one according to Haggerty.