Rewind the clocks back to 1987 and the Buick Grand National was on top of the performance mountain. Quicker than a Corvette, a Porsche 944 Turbo, a Porsche 928S and even a Lamborghini Countach – the car that was on every kid’s bedroom wall in the 1980s – there’s no denying the blacked-out G-body’s appeal during those days.
After several magazine articles were published in 1986-1987 highlighting the Turbo Regal’s performance attributes, everybody went crazy. They went even more bonkers when it became known that the cars plug was getting pulled after the 1987 model year, with no viable replacement in sight.
As a result, seemingly everyone with a decent income and a high credit score hit the Buick dealerships like they were giving away free money. Buick themselves ultimately offered the GNX, a low-production (547 total) limited edition Grand National that raised the performance bar even higher, essentially sending the car off with a bang and cashing in on the craze.
Even members of the Hollywood elite at the time found themselves in line, such as Burt Reynolds, Sylvester Stallone (who ordered two) and Charlie Sheen, who ended up picking one up a few years later. Of course, the owner of Marriott hotels ordered his with an Astroroof (technically not available) and even the Miller Brewing Company purchased one for promotional use.
For those unable to pick up a GNX, but wanted something even more unique than a “normal” Grand National, they had the luxury of having its roof cut off making their car into a convertible. It was an aftermarket job commissioned by a now defunct company no longer in existence. While not hugely popular, we have seen a few of them pop up from time to time.
We were looking for a particular video, when we ran across these three from a classic car lot called Sunset Classics from a few years ago. While the videos are now four years old, we felt they still had the enough relevance to show you, our readers, something slightly different than the everyday norm.