For a few years, I ran a hustle that involved a 2001 Buick Regal GS. The car surprised the hell out of me when I first test-drove it. And if it surprised me, naturally, it would surprise the holy hell out of someone who was hot for a race and didn’t suspect a thing. There was plenty of those types running around Tacoma. Kids in Jetta who couldn’t keep their Fast and Furious urges to themselves on the 512. The guy in the green Camaro Z28 who actually tried to fight me at Bremerton Raceway during a test-and-tune session. Everyone who was ready to try it out was ready to get the shock of their life when the silver Buick proved to be up to the task of laying waste. An Army friend of mine once joked that I should go full-on old man with some decorations: AAA sticker in the rear window, disabled license plate, and an old man mask to wear late at night when I was ready to screw with some heads.
Let’s be honest here: there is no “sleeper” left on this Buick. You can see that the interior is gutted. You can see the stickers along the doors, and you can’t miss that intercooler in the cut-out front bumper cover. This Regal is a racer, a low-12 second runner that was probably a used-car-lot refugee at one point in time. But that handicap plate, the one that my buddy joked about years ago, is legitimate. The older gentleman who runs the Regal, is legitimate. The car has a mild build, the right little tweak here and there, the camshaft, the blower work…everything that turns the supercharged 3.8 V6 up from “sporty” to “stout”.
It makes me happy that a guy like this is racing a car like that and is holding his own well. The only way this could be any better: full interior, hidden intercooler, no stickers, smacking around the young bucks like nothing’s wrong.
Very cool. My daily driver is a ’98 Regal GS – it’s interesting to see somebody go crazy with one of these cars. So far the only mod on mine is that I just swapped the thoroughly trashed driver’s seat for a Procar “race” seat.
I had a 96 Riviera with the supercharged 3.8. Very fun car for its size and I wish at the time I would have had the means to improve on its performance. The 3.8 is a great engine for sure.
I had one that I bought when it was almost new. Great car. Rust got it. The 2015 Regal that replaced it no where near as good.