If you’ve been following along with the Hemmings “Grind National” build, then you know that the car was transformed from a bone stock ’87 Buick Grand National, into a modern day resto-mod. But with only a two-week deadline to get it street worthy, the crew at Hemmings were under the gun.
Fortunately, some great people at QA1, Holley, Spoolfool Productions, and others, were happy to jump in and contribute to the build. In this latest episode, Mike himself makes an appearance, and to inspect the process on the build. He knows the car is in good hands, but who doesn’t get antsy when there dream car is under the knife?
While in town, Mike also talks about how the Grand National is truly a car that he loves, alluding to a story from his youth.Back in the day, Mike used to roll around in his grandma’s G-body Regal. One, that as he describes, looked like a T-type, but was just a plain Jane model the a lot of people wanted to own. One man even tried to buy it off of him while he was taking his date to the high school prom.
Looking to more current times, Mike has stepped up his game from Grandma’s Regal, to this factory turbocharged Buick. But not want to keep EVERYTHING in the past, he elected to bring the car in tune to the performance standard of today. Sure, you could make 650hp with the old LC2, with a LOT of work, but with a 650hp LT4 to begin with, the foundation to make reliable 1,000+ horsepower is very possible. Toss into modern suspension into the mix, this Buick is going to absolutely scream in a straight line, and handle the corners. Looking forward to the next installment.
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.
