San Bernardino Woman Killed After Alleged Street Race With Son Ends In Rollover Crash

KCAL ^ | June 10, 2020

[Fresh Wind]

I knew a guy who had a Grand National. Don’t remember if it was the GNX, but it might have been. He was the worst driver I ever knew. He flipped it right over. He said something broke in the suspension, but I knew better.

[UNGN]

Buick Century’s were NEVER fast.

86-87 Buick Regals with Turbos were fast.

Century’s were ALWAYS something 70 year olds bought.

[alternatives?]

Well, it appears neither car was stolen.

[Huskrrrr]

Won’t come back from Deadman’s curve.

[TalBlack]

I think they had a trim level that included turbo and for that reason budget guys buy them and tweak them up with exhaust, heads, cams etc. Upon first seeing them I recall wondering which in heck would turbo a Century.

[TangoLimaSierra]

Century’s were ALWAYS something 70 year olds bought.

Well, this 71 year old would still be driving a Porsche if I could afford it.

[DeplorableGirl]

Darwin Award winner?!

[UNGN]

70 is the new 60. The 70 year olds that bought Buick Century’s 20-30 years ago are the equivalent of today’s 80 year olds. My dad is 81 and drives a 560HP AMG V8 swapped 2005 Chrysler Crossfire, but he’s not normal.

My 21 YO kid just bought a Porsche for $1,000. 1984 944. Once I get some car projects done I’m going to restore it for him this summer. His girlfriend inherited a ‘91 911 C4 that I can probably get cheap, but 911’s are worth too much for cash poor people like me to drive.

[UNGN]

The '78-79 "Turbo Century" was a carbed Turbo V6 that made less than 180 HP in a 3500 lb car. so 0-60 would be in the 9-10 second range (vs 5 seconds stock for the 86-87 Turbo Regals).

It would be super cool to find an incredibly rare Aeroback 2 dr Turbo Century and swap in an '86-87 Turbo Regal drivetrain. It is a "bucket list restomod" idea I have, but I would have to find a nice, rust free one.

The carbed Turbos can't be tweaked enough to keep even with even contemporary late 70's/early 80's "performance cars, and the mid 80's performance cars would destroy even a heavily modded carbed buick Turbo in the 80's.

When SFI came out in '84, all of the buick guys abandoned the carbed turbos. When Intercooling came out in '86, All od the non intercooled SFI guys dumped them for intercooled cars. By the 1990's when some one asked "how do I make a Carbed/non intercooled Turbo car faster?", they were told to "sell it and buy and intercooled turbo Car.

Here is a similar C&D road test for an '86 Turbo Regal (check the 0-60):

Buicks came a very long way in 7 years.

Here is my '86 that I have had for 25 years:

It does 0-60 in the 3's and runs low 11's in the 1/4 mile.

[Sequoyah101]

The only problem I see with this story is that not enough of the participants were killed.

[Enterprise]

"She was ejected from the car - sounds like not wearing a seatbelt."

That's possible. Recently we had a high speed crash in our county and the two teenagers in the car were ejected. Both had been wearing seat belts.

[End Times Sentinel]

Ya gotta admit, that’s one cool mom.

[TalBlack]

180 hp? Sweet mother! I was assuming they were talking 3800 series 2 type V6’s They had 200 horse from the factory. I did wonder why they put them in centurys at all but for 180 lousy horses, well geez.

[TalBlack]

I have a 98 Fbird with the series 2 engine and spec wise it looks exactly like the ‘86 Turbo Regal except 10:1 compression. To be honest I’d think they were under-rating the HP except that the time numbers back up 235 HP.

Here’s the thing: Abbot Racing Heads have a 98 Fbird daily driver that they measured at the rear wheels @273 HP. N/A, No intake to speak of. Their own Stage 2 heads. A Comp cam for which they gave the specs mid-high 400s) and long tube headers. That’s it. That must be near 300 HP at the crank.

Buick were seriously choking that engine down or something because it isn’t hard at all to get those humble 231 cubes to stand and deliver

In fact some chick and her dad got 600HP out of a V6 Fbird using a home made double turbo setup.

I’d be willing to bet that any of those Regals still around are 300HP or better now. Some of them that pass me on the highway sound down right NASTY.

[UNGN]

The SII is a great motor compared to the 3.8L in the 86-87. The Heads on the 86-87 were barely a step up from the Heads Jeep sold back to Buick in the 1970’s. The ‘89 TTA heads were even a huge step up from the 86-87 heads. Turbocharging/intercooling made all the difference. SII heads start off on a whole other level.

If Buick stuck with RWD and turbocharging, by ‘96-97 they would have had a legit Corvette killing, 380-400 HP V6 on 93 octane. I’m sure one of the reasons they supercharged the FWD cars instead of Turbocharging was the carnage that would have come from Front Wheel drive cars running 125mph in the 1/4 mile with only race gas and mild tweaks.

Before I ported the heads/cammed my ‘86, it ran mid 11’s @ 118 in the 1/4 mile but couldn’t rev above 5,200 RPM, because the heads were so terrible.

[TalBlack]

SII heads start off on a whole other level.

Now that you mention it I recall guys who work those heads saying they’re pretty open to begin with and that it’s not long before you’re in the water jacket. I suspeCT that headers and a custom intake on an otherwise stock series 2 would wake it up more than is the case with most engines. Even with a stock intake and exhaust you can hear the flow thRu the heads.