Back when I was in high school in the late 1990’s, my friend Greg had a thing for GM G-Body cars of the Chevrolet variety. He had a 1986 Monte Carlo that we called the “PseudoSport” because he added all sorts of Monte SS parts from trip after trip to the local U-Pull-It junkyards. This car was legendary in my circle of friends, and even led to me writing here at BangShift! Seriously, click HERE to read a ridiculous tale that involved that car. That said, ask any G-Body worshiper, and they will tell you that the ultimate prize was the turbocharged Buick Grand National and it’s ultimate form, the GNX. As we all know, these cars are highly sought after and prized, which placed them out of reach for most high school kids back in the 90’s. When we started researching these in our Computer Lab at school during study periods, we discovered on a website that the turbo G-Body lineage was not limited to the Tri-Shield: Chevrolet briefly dabbled in offering a turbocharged Monte Carlo from 1980 to 1982! That website, BeforeBlack.net, is still up and still stuck in 1998 (and I mean that in the best way possible!) if you want to check it out. Even though it was a carbureted, primitive turbo setup, it was really cool to see the pre-EFI history and lineage of the revered Buick 3.8 Turbo power plant, and we thought it would be cool to own one of them someday. Maybe, since they weren’t a Grand National, they would even be affordable! But alas, time and technology marched on, and the advent of cheap turbos and homebrew EFI kits allow for just about anything to be boosted. Add to the fact that neither one of us ever saw an actual Turbo Monte with our own eyes, let alone in the classifieds over the years, and these things faded off into memory.
Recently, I found this very rare 1980 Monte Carlo Turbo while surfing my usual haunts, and those old gears started turning again. So, what’s the deal with these cars? Let’s take a closer look!
This is a 1980 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. It’s a strange, one-year-only design that bridged the downsized 1978-79 models and the later 1981-88 cars that saw the return of the SS badging to a Chevrolet line for the first time since the mid-70’s. A true product of the “Malaise Era”, these cars were geared more toward personal luxury than blistering performance. It has all the exterior accouterments of a car of this vintage: a padded landau roof, simulated wire wheel hubcaps on steel wheels shod in whitewall rubber, quad rectangular headlights, a prominent hood ornament and swoopy body lines meant to rival Europe’s finest automobiles. This one has something extra: an offset bump on the hood. On that bump lies a chrome-plated emblem that denotes that the V6 under that long hood is sporting the ultimate in futuristic 1980’s technology: a turbocharger!
Even though there’s a bowtie after the word “turbo”, this engine was borrowed from Buick. Like the Chevrolet-derived 229ci V6, the Buick 231ci V6 also displaces 3.8 Liters, but the similarities end there. The Buick V6 dates back to the early 1960’s, with its ancestor being the 225ci Fireball V6 offered in the Skylark. Yours truly had one of these proto-V6’s in a 1964 Buick Skylark, and while reliable, it was completely gutless. Later, it was renamed the Dauntless V6 when Kaiser acquired the tooling to produce it for pre-AMC Jeeps. GM re-acquired the tooling in the mid-1970’s, and produced variants of this engine into the 2000’s. When the fuel shortages of the 1970’s saw automakers trying all sorts of new and experimental ideas, Buick engineers slapped a turbo on the 3.8 in an attempt to make V8 power with less cylinders. With a primitive electronic spark control system in lieu of water injection, it mostly avoided the detonation issues of early carbed turbo setups.
Like other cars on the G-Body line for 1980, the Monte Carlo is a strange beast. It incorporates features seen both on the earlier and later versions of the cars in one weird package. On the Monte, it incorporates the segmented grid-style tail lights that looked more Buick or Pontiac than Chevy, but adds the “four eyes” look of the 1981-88 cars up front. The swoopy, droopy body lines are aligned with how the 1978-79 cars are designed. The whole package for some reason feels very nautical to me. I can see the steering wheel replaced with a giant wooden ship’s wheel in my head, but that’s just me. Yes, I’m weird.
While the car is generally solid, when looking at this example up close, some condition issues present themselves. This is a problem, as previously noted that these are one-year-only designs, and the fact that they have mostly returned to the Earth by now doesn’t help the availability of one-off replacement parts. Check out the driver’s side tail light and bumper, for example.
More broken trim parts, this time a door handle. If this looks familiar to you, you aren’t alone. GM used these on a lot of their cars during the 1970’s, and more often than not, the handles would snap in half while trying to open those heavy coupe doors. Hell, on my own 1979 Trans Am, I’m on my 2nd driver’s door handle, and even that one is starting to break! The future owner of this car should be able to source a replacement easily, as they were probably the same across car lines for years.
Now this screams 1980! Passion Pit-spec Red Velour, a 60/40 bench and column shifter, chrome accents everywhere, and that famous simulated wood burl that looks like it houses tortured souls for an eternity of personally luxurious suffering all make an appearance here. Note the period-correct aftermarket perforated cushioned leather wrap steering wheel cover, which I’m sure many of you readers had back in the day. My dad always had one wrapping the wheel on every vehicle we had well into the 1990’s. The interior is in good shape, which is again probably full of 1980-specific parts that have to be impossible to obtain now.
GM’s red interiors from this time period usually fade into a weird purple/pink color that’s hard to describe and may induce vomiting from it’s ugliness. Thankfully, this one has retained most of its pigment.
Even the stock AM/FM radio remarkably remains installed in the dash. This car has somehow avoided the wrath of some teenager cutting that dash up and installing some aftermarket head unit with blue neon dolphins dancing across the screen.
The worst part of the interior is the headliner, or lack thereof, as it appears to have been removed. We all know that GM headliners of this vintage tend to sag and fall down, but recovering it should be simple. This reminds me of the time we recovered the PseudoSport’s headliner. We got the material at Jo-Ann Fabrics of all places. The second a bunch of teenage gearheads walked in that place, one of the ladies there pointed us right to the headliner material without us even asking! If you are lucky, they might even have the right stuff for this car there today.
Popping the hood reveals an endless sea of hoses, rubber emissions bits, and a giant honking red elephant trunk and carb hat for the turbocharged 3.8 that lies somewhere under all of it. In it’s day, this technical marvel churned out 170hp and 265 lb. ft. of torque. While most naturally aspirated fours of today would likely leave this thing in the dust, these numbers were considered decent for a car powered by a V8, let alone something with two less cylinders. This engine also made more power than both the 267ci (remember that thing?) and 305ci V8’s also offered in 1980. It was a glimpse of the future, for sure.
The badging on the carb hat, although frayed on this example, is identical to the badging on the Buick versions. Before the “Turbo 6” logo we all know and love, this is how you know a Buick was packing some turbocharged heat. And speaking of heat, this is a “hot air” car, with no form of intercooling to be found. That didn’t show up until 1986 on the Grand National.
Now, let’s talk about the price. The seller is offering this rare beast at $10,500. Now, it is a two owner car that remained in the family since new, and it’s in mostly decent shape, but a few things come into play which makes me think that the price is on the optimistic side. First, there are trim parts specific to the 1980 Monte Carlo that need to be replaced. These will be very hard to find. Then there’s the fact that outside of the rare engine, this is a 1980 Monte Carlo. Does anyone truly get hot and bothered looking at a 1980 Monte Carlo? This may very well be the most unloved year they were offered, not counting the front wheel drive cars produced in the 1990’s. The fact that it is a turbocharged one is the only thing making it cool, but even then, it’s cool as a footnote in automotive history rather than being a somewhat desirable performance model like, say, a clean 1983 SS. In fact, these turbo Montes were never offered in a “sport” package like the Buicks had at the time; they were offered simply as a thrifty way to offer V8 power for the masses while saving on gas. And as rare as they are today, they manufactured over 13,000 of them in 1980 alone, and were actually the most common way to get a turbo 3.8L in a car that year. The “when are you going to see another one” factor does come into play a bit, but I’m thinking that the price is still hot by more than a few grand here. No matter what, it’s still a very cool glimpse into the past of turbocharged car history, and a real “What If?” situation. What if they kept offering this engine on the order sheet for the Monte Carlo throughout the 1980’s? Would we be coveting the Monte SS as much as the Grand National today if there was an intercooled and fuel injected 3.8L V6 under the hood? The possibilities are endless.
More importantly, what do YOU think of this thing? Is it a cool historic footnote like we think it is, or is it another overpriced turd in the punchbowl of performance cars? Let us know in the comments below!
And of course, here’s the original ad:
****VERY VERY RARE****this car is totally original…it has been garage kept all its life…2 owner in the same family…it has a 3.8 engine with turbo and an automatic transmission….car has 120,000 miles…service records and other paperwork with car…**** ONLY PRODUCED FOR 2 YEARS 1980-1981….$10,500 O.B.O.
Well, my guess is there isn’t one of these in the GM heritage collection because…..they’d rather just forget it. I knew someone with one of these back in the late 80s. Wasn’t impressed then and nothing has really changed my mind about it. It DOES have great potential, but not at a 5-figure starting point. This might be a $4,500 car on it’s best day with fewer issues. I could image it with a fully-built 3.8, obviously adding an intercooler with a bigger turbo, and some mild suspension upgrades. Keep it looking mostly stock externally….using optional wheels for rolling stock. Rare does not equal value. A 1973 mustard yellow (that’s not the real color name) dart swinger with a slant six and automatic with AC-delete might be rare, but it doesn’t make it more desirable.
I didn’t realize they put the 3.8 Turbo in Chevies. Imagining what would have happened if they’d let it develop into an injected and intercooled Monte SS is an interesting what-if.
Let’s just say, you can’t polish a turd.
Haha! $10K for that! It might be rare but doesn’t make it valuable.
I used to see these and the turbo riviera in one of the kubk yards down here in the 90s. I always thought the red snorkel looking deal looked like an afterthought on the design. It’s has potential if it was cheaper for sure. I’d probs my keep something like that mostly stock and work on the reliability side of it. Would be a pretty cool piece of automotive history to have around.
Spell check really let me down on that one…..
I ended up buying this thing for 3500, needs a repaint but other than that it\’s a solid car. Made your and half trip home with no problems