This Regal has 245 horsepower and is just one of 1,547 examples made in the final year of production.
Regals fell under the radar for quite some time. With particularly early eighties esque looks and rather disappointing outputs, most chose namesakes that had just about stood the test of time rather than this humble beast.
In an era still mourning the death of muscle cars thanks to super stringent emissions, most saw the lack of V8 options and didn’t want to be laughed at by friends or colleagues. Yet despite this, most manufacturers seemingly avoided the development of high performance V6s. Perhaps an obvious solution now, but maybe engineers and company boards were sulking too much to consider it. Not at Buick, however.
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The regal was an unassuming rascal when it was launched in 1982. With a 125 horsepower V6 it was hardly dropping mics, yet Buick managed to slide their way through to pole position by winning both the 1981 and 1982 NASCAR Grand National series. Now there’s a name we recognise.
This T-Type offered by Showdown Auto is one of the high performance variants, and a rather rare one. Whilst most people will ultimately recognise the Grand National or even the ungodly GNX, the T-Type was still a turbo powered tsunami of torque and grunt.
As a late example, this one was built in the final year of production with the heralded 3.8 liter turbocharged V6, pushing out 245 horsepower. Whilst you may be thinking that’s nothing particularly enlightening, remembering the competition of the era and it begins to look a lot rosier, and then there’s the torque; 355 pounds/feet of it.
The WE4 package is labelled as being fitted from the factory and this one has an astonishing 9,000 miles on the odometer.
Despite the car featured here being labelled a T-Type, it’s actually a far rarer Turbo-T, being a rebrand for the final year model. A power increase was included for its curtain call and just 1,547 of these were built, making it one of the rarest Regals out there, rarer even than the Grand National.
Perks didn’t stop with power either, with lighter parts used around the car and some subtle easter eggs that only those who know Regals would be able to identify.
For more information, visit Showdown Auto.
