photos by: the author
Lorenz Racing & Performance Opens Their Doors to Welcome Turbo Buick Owners
In Northeast Ohio, there’s a little pocket of passionate car guys of all stripes; whether you’re into hot rods, lifted trucks, classic muscle cars or late-model performance, there’s something for everyone. However, like most of the Midwest, there’s only so many weeks out of a year where gearheads can truly enjoy their vehicles to their fullest potential, since they tend to be buried under snow for five or six months.
Among these groups of people are niche communities, dedicated to specific segments and types of vehicles. Among them, are the Turbo Buick owners. Spread out relatively thin thoughout the state, they converge every year to West Salem, Ohio. Largely a rural farming community, West Salem is home to well-noted and very knowledgeable Turbo Buick tuner, Brian Lorenz, of Lorenz Racing & Performance.
Having made a name for himself with his own turbocharged Regals, on the track and in the print magazine world, Brian opened up his own shop several years ago. He’s even wrenched on GMEFI Magazine’s Project Wicked6 at one point, working out a few bugs and adding a couple of upgrades for us.
Since that time, he’s held an annual Turbo Buick gathering, which is open to all Grand Nationals, GNXs, Turbo-Ts and T-Types, as well ac Buick V6-swapped vehicles. Naturally, LC2 powered ’89 Turbo Trans Ams typically show up, as do Syclones and Typhoons.
In addition to the car show, Brian opened up his on-location dyno bay for whoever wanted a run for the highest dyno sheet. Some of the biggest names turned up and sponsored the event (see the full list below). There were some serious cars there, but unfortunately, we were on a serious tight schedule that we couldn’t stay for the whole event. However, Brian has relayed to us that the final numbers are in:
“We had an awesome turn out! We had a total of 68 turbo cars on the property for the show consisting of Turbo Regals, Turbo Trans Ams and a few Turbo Buick transplant cars & trucks!! A total of 23 States and Canada were represented!! Fifteen cars were on the roller and tuned on the DynoJet in over 3 days!!
I want to personally thank all my family, friends and my tech Josh Hewitt for all the help with making this run as smoothly as possible! Without them this couldn’t happen. We would also really like to send thanks to all our vendors and sponsors who sent in door prizes, set up on site and supported this event!! I’d also like to thank Coach for his help with the car show and Otto Perneck for his help on the DynoJet.” — Biran Lorenz, Owner, Lorenz Performance & Racing
Brian already has plans for next year’s event, and we’ll keep you posted on our Facebook page when the dates will be.
Sponsors:
- Cal and Holly of Hartline Performance
- HR Parts N Stuff
- BorgWarner Turbo & John Norton
- Competition Components
- Laura Buick & David Day
- Coaches Custom Parts
- Limit Engineering
- McCune Welding
- Janis Transmission
- Spoolfool Productions
- Ally Printing
- FireCore Wires
- ArizonaGN
- G Body Parts
- TurboBuick.com
- Kirban Performance
- J&L Cooking Craze
- Dan the DJ
- BigWorms Rides
- Turbo Farm
- Advance Auto Parts of Lodi, Ohio
Results:
GN & Turbo Regal (0-5 mods class)
- 1st Jason Maxwell
- 2nd Greg McCutcheon
- 3rd Ray Tumbry
GN & Turbo Regal (6-12 mod class)
- 1st Steve Dickerson
- 2nd Joe McGowan
- 3rd Mark Tolar
GN & Turbo Regal (Heavily Modified)
- 1st Paul Dubois
- 2nd Barry Bigelow
- 3rd Walt Judy
Rick Seitz is the owner and founder of GMEFI Magazine, and has a true love and passion for all vehicles. When he isn’t tuning, testing, or competing with the brand’s current crop of project vehicles, he’s busy tinkering and planning the next modifications for his own cars.
