THE GRAND NATIONAL IS SOLD.
After 6 years of owning the Grand National, it was time to move onto something else. Going back to my roots. Bought a 2nd Generation, 1977 Camaro Type LT. It's Antique White with Blue interior. It has a mild 350 with Speed-Pro H631-040 hypereutectic pistons, Comp Cams 260H camshaft and timing chain, 993 iron heads, Quadrajet, Z28 split-dual exhaust, Ram Clutch, Super T-10 4-speed, Hurst Competition Plus Shifter, F41 suspension, Competition Engineering subframe connectors, Energy Suspension poly body bushings, Z28 front frame braces, SouthSide Machine Lift Bars, a '70 Camaro 12-Bolt with 3.55 gears and positraction, an '80/'81 Z28 Air Induction hood, and Alpine/Pioneer audio. I'll post more info & plans for it soon, I'm too busy out cruising right now, enjoying a Camaro again, which happens to be my first car with a manual trans. Loving it! A couple of pics:

Dirty Engine

Clean Interior

****THE GRAND NATIONAL STORY****

This page is devoted to my recently sold '87 Buick GN. I bought it in April '01 with 23K miles. The strange thing about the purchase of this car was that while I always liked and respected Turbo Buicks, I never really considered buying one. I really had my heart set on buying a brand spankin' new, fully loaded 2001 Sunset Orange Metallic Camaro SS. I had owned 2 Camaros in the past, but never a brand new one. This was my last chance before they stopped production. I was ready to buy one, and I sat down and thought about it....I was about to drop upwards of $30,000 on a car that I couldn't really modify (without hearing bogus "denial of warranty" claims by the dealer because the car was modified), would be making payments on all year while I was driving it only 6 months out of the year, and not to mention the stratospheric insurance rates. And it would really put the hurt on any chance of buying a house within 6 years. It was a hard choice, but it was the mature choice....I couldn't buy it. As heartbreaking as it was that I'd probably never own a new Camaro, I am very happy that I stumbled upon my GN. I just ran across it one day while searching the "TurboTRader" classifeds on www.GNTType.org and found it. It was 1 1/2 hours away in Peabody/Salem MA. I drove up and looked at it one Saturday, and the rest is history. It had been modified in the late '80s/early '90s, but in 2000 these mods were really old school, and the car could really benefit from some newer technology.

This is the engine as purchased, except for the "Big Mouth" chrome MAF pipe & Intake. Pretty disgusting looking, huh? Not for long!

I drove the car for the Summer of '00 just as I had bought it. I did get to race it once, and the best I could get it to run was a 13.49 @ 102mph...not bad for a mostly stock car, and my first time back at the track in 10 years! Come winter I tore into it and replaced all of the old mods that were done and scrubbed & scoured it into a much more presentable condition.

Page 1: The Beginnning
Page 2: Engine & Drivetrain
Page 3: Interior
Page 4: List of Modifications
Page 5: GN Pics
Page 6: At The Track
Page 7: Mike's '80 Z28
Page 8: My Old Cars: '87 5.7 IROC, '77 Camaro Type LT & '96 Cutlass **COMING SOON**
Page 9: My Next Project