By Speedhunters

Car Culture At Large

On Saturday, December 12th 2009, Linhbergh and I arrived at a rather soggy Irwindale Speedway on a real mission. Among the rows of customs and hot rods attending the Mooneyes Xmas Party event, we needed to find a feature-ready custom to shoot for Speedhunters I had arranged for two pin-up models to attend the Xmas Party event, so we had no option but to find a machine for them to pose with. The weather was pretty horrible that weekend, so we thought a nice big interior would be a great way to shoot the girls and make some cool content for Speedhunters. So when I laid eyes on this amazing 1949 Buick I knew we had found our car! Continue reading at Speedhunters

By Rod Chong

By Fireball Tim

Movie Car Design Master

B. …B is a good letter. It stands for BITCHIN.’ Or maybe BOLONEY. Fried Boloney. Or how about BADASS. That’s a good one.

The word “be” suggests the present moment. As in “I be bitchin.” Which you KNOW you are. Not grammatically the best of usages, but hey, we’re car people and we say things like that.

So, here’s the best of the “B’s.” Not all of them, as the list would go on around the moon, but just a teaser. So, after you’ve checked them out… “Be positive and make something of your day.”

The B’s. Oh, and join in on my upcoming CAR SHOW in Huntington Beach.

Continue reading "Fireball’s Alphabet of Awesomeness… The B’s" »

By Katherine Helmetag

Atomicalex

“This is a test. We need to see where the market goes.” Jim Federico, Vehicle Line Executive for Global Midsize Vehicles, is excited about the future for the Buick Regal brand at GM. The Regal will launch this year and is an important addition to the line – it’s the first Buick in a long time that sheds cushy in favor of performance. To make his point, Jim notes that “The GS is the return of turbocharging to Buick.” The importance of this is not lost on us – our next question was “what about GN?” That’s where the test line comes in: if the Regal GS does well, Federico says that a GN is “not out of the question.” More on the future for Buick and the Regal after the jump.

Continue reading "Jim Federico: This (Regal GS) is a Test" »

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Peter’s ‘57 Buick may be a money pit, but I’d say it’s worth every penny! Check out his ride page for all the pics!

By John Coyle

Deputy Editor

This week, I’ve been working from Florida, because I’m down visiting my folks for Christmas. Now, aside from the family, hyper-spicy Jamaican beef patties—the ones here are beyond awesome—and Cuban sandwiches, there’s absolutely nothing I miss about the Sunshine State. But I have to admit, America’s wang has it charms. I mean, check out the truck nuts dangling from hindquarters of this clapped-out Buick. That’s just hilarious. And what you can’t see? The sticker on the driver’s side of the rear window. It reads,  “Warning: Redneck,” which is kind of awesome, in a scary, backwoods kind of way. Hit the jump for some more classic Florida verbiage…

Continue reading "Yup, I’m in Florida: Truck Nuts on a Buick" »

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Just 219 miles! Talk about pristine! How high do you think the bidding will go? Check out the eBay aution for more info and pics!

Continue reading "Ultra Low Mile Buick Grand National on eBay" »

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Watching this video just reminds me how lucky I am to have survived my high school years…

By Jim Brennan

UDMan

Welcome to another installment of the CarDomain Obscure Muscle Car Parking Lot, a regular feature which aims to expand the definition of what a muscle car is, and to discover hidden treasures while doing so. Many do not even know that the Buick division of General Motors produced the Grand National on a platform other than on the Regal, but there was a very unique Grand National built in late 1985: the 1986 LeSabre Grand National. This was the debut of GM’s new full-size FWD platforms, and the two door Buick LeSabre (along with its corporate cousin, the Oldsmobile Delta 88) proved to be quite slippery in wind tunnel tests. We have had this question in this series before, but can a front wheel drive two-door really be considered a muscle car?

Continue reading after the jump!

Continue reading "CarDomain Obscure Muscle Car Parking Lot – the 1986 Buick LeSabre Grand National" »

By Brian Lohnes

BangShift.com

Throw your nitrous away and leave your turbo at the door. Tom Spinella’s 1970 Buick, powered by a 489ci big-block Chevy, cruises at 65 mph and nearly runs 9s on 93 octane straight out of the pump. Every week, this car gets driven to the track on the freeway, hammered on, and driven home. Spinella racks up a few thousand miles per year driving it to shows and the strip.

Get over the lack of a Buick motor. Tom’s brother Jay is a racer as well, and long ago, Jay took the big-block Chevy out of his bracket car and gave it to Tom, while Tom took the Buick out of the Skylark and put it in Jay’s car. In terms of power per cubic dollars, it’s impossible to beat a well built Rat, and this one certainly is.

To take a 3,750-pound fatty (and we say that with a smile) and hurtle it down the track without any outside assistance from a bottle or a blower in just hundredths over the nine-second zone means that this little big block has some snot. Coming in at only 489ci, it’s on the small end of the big-block food chain, but it will sing to more than 6,500 rpm in the lights.

We certainly had some fun during the photo shoot and filming the awesome video on the car. It was the first time Tom had the car out and about after swapping the cam. He was dealing with valvespring breakage issues, and after consulting cam legend Harold Brookshire on what the problem was, Brookshire told him that the ramps on his previous cam were about as gradual as a cliff face. A custom stick went in and now all is right with the world.

Pay close attention at some of the “fly by” shots in the video. This brute is baking a pretty used up set of big 295/65-15 MT drag radials at about a 30-mph roll. Torque is your friend.

Go here to see the photo gallery and learn all the gory details about this broad shouldered street bruiser. The video below kicks some serious ass as well (even though there is a little typo in there).

By Brian Lohnes

BangShift.com

You’re going to get familiar with the names Gary and Pam Beineke. We invaded their privacy to shoot and video several cars from their way awesome collection, and we’ll be featuring those cars in coming weeks. Most are cars that the couple built from scratch, but there’s one that they just picked up along the way. That’s this one, a 1987 Buick GNX that the couple bought brand new back in 1987 and has held on ever since.

Ironically, every other piece in their collection is a Mopar product, but this Buick holds a special place in their hearts. As one of only 547 ever produced, there are plenty of reasons why.

The GNX was basically the parting shot fired by Buick when it came to be known that the Grand National would be dead at the end of 1987. Buick teamed up with ASC/Mclaren to design a package that would totally optimize the drivetrain and upgrade the suspension of the car to levels previously unheard of in factory cars. The name was an homage to the legendary GSX moniker that was used on the highest performing Buicks from 1970-1972. They used 455ci to shred tires, this car used less than 250 to haul the mail.

The devil is totally in the details, so click here to see the gallery that’s loaded with photos and captions that spill the beans on this pinnacle Buick.

Oh yeah, right below there’s also the kickass video of the 8,000-mile original shredding tires. The ones it rolled out of the factory on.