My 1971 Buick [GS Clone]
Once upon a time... I was in High School, attending a KISS concert in Kemper Arena, and I saw my future sitting in a yard. I was on my way out of town after the concert, as we passed this run down house. I got the address, and went back home to Nebraska. Saturday the next day, I went back, and went to the house. I asked the owner if it was for sale, and he shot me a price of $200.00. I said, "I brought a trailer, I'll take it". An hour later it was loaded and on it's way to Nebraska. I had a crappy job, at a Champion Auto store, but I got all I needed for it with my employee discount, destined to someday make it great.
I was raised in a gearhead family, and drag racing was in my blood, so that was the only logical thing to do with this heap, while I worked on it, and tried to make it my dream car. I draw, obviously... if you're on this page you've seen that, I got a great job at a local speed shop, drawing flyers, ads for local swap meets, car shows, and anything else to help the shop out, etc. I saved what I could and built the most nastiest Buick I could think of, cuz after all, I live in a biased, strict, Chevy/Ford town, who would build a Buick?
So I tubbed it, ran a 4 link, Dana 60 Mopar rearend with 4.30 gears, full roll cage, built a small block Chevy 406 for it, and went racing. I ran that engine for about 3 years, then I realized that the only way to go fast was to do it with a big block. So I found a 400 Buick, and then eventually a 430 Buick, and then finally the "GOD" of all mountain motors, a 1970 455 Stage 1 block. I still raced for those next 2 years while building my 455 to the engine it is today.
I finally finished my 455, but now it was a 510 inch, fully dyno'd 812 hp, 947 ft. lbs. of torque Hemi Killer!
I ran it tubbed for 4 years and then, after the shine of corporate harassment finally got on my last nerve, I retired and wanted a street duty thumper that would suck the paint off of anything that pulled up next to me. So, I restored it to it's original glory, like all Buicks should be, and removed the wheel tubs, the cage, redid the trunk, floorpans, and made it back to factory specs, and went racing in the F.A.S.T. class, that's "Factory Appearing Stock Tire" for those who don't know. I've been racing it for almost 19 years, running a best of 9.12 @ 165 mph when tubbed, and a best of 11.23 @ 117 mph in the FAST class, on street tires, full exhaust, and factory trim. Until financial reasons forced me to retire for 5 years.
Fast forward 5 years, I still run the mountain motor it had when it was tubbed, only now it's painted like a factory stock 455 Stage 1, and wears "455-4" decals on the valve covers, and all the factory decals a "stock" 455 would have, but it's still the beast under all that paint that still makes it run like it used to... if it would only hook like it used to when it was tubbed. I now drive it on the street, and attend many car shows which it has brought home many trophies. It still does wheelies if it hooks good, but only an inch or two, and in street trim it still runs low 11's, which is more than enough for the Camaros, Mustangs, and all this Ricer junk that runs around here. I repainted it black cuz quite frankly I got sick of all the "Why would you race a REAL GSX?" comments. Afterall, it's NOT a GSX, hell it isn't even a real GS, it's just a Skylark, but hey... what people don't know, don't hurt em.
Wouldn't you really rather have a Buick?
