- [Steve Magnante] This is RoadKill's Junkyard Gold.
(mellow rock music)
- Here's a little junkyard pro-tip,
you fans of General Motors G-bodies
from the '78 through '86 period of time
be on the look out for aluminum rear break drums
like this on here from this '79 Pontiac Grand Prix.
They feature aluminum construction
with these fins which do a better job
of dissipating heat than iron and save
about five pounds per side on the rear axle.
Inside, they do have an iron liner
which does the job of creating
friction against the break shoes.
But these are great for drag racing,
or road racing or any time you want
to reduce unsprung weight and they're waiting
for you right here in the junkyard.
(soft rock music)
For many years Buick's ad slogan was,
when better cars are built, Buick will build them.
Well, that was the case for many, many decades
but in mid 1970s all of Detroit was forced
to downsize to meet EPA fuel economy standards.
And Buick's best selling model,
the LeSabre full-sized car, was shred down 700 pounds.
This is an example of a Buick LeSabre sport coupe.
Now the thing is when the downsizing occurred
the V8s, the 350 or 455 were dropped.
So to move a car this big what Buick did
was take their 231 cubic inch V6,
put a turbo on it and make it into the sport coupe.
Now these engines were also used in Buick Regals,
the mid-sized cars, the Grand Nationals
later on in the '80s but they made their humble
beginnings right here with carburetors.
You can see here's the turbo charger
which creates boosts by taking exhaust gases
and then sends the charged air under the carburetor.
This is a draw through system.
The carburetor is a Rochester quadrajet
to spread more carburetor and up in the front
we see this, the turbo computer.
This controls ignition timing
to prevent detonation and engine damage.
Now, this only measures 231 cubic inches
but thanks to the turbo charger it makes 165 horse power.
And that might not sound like a lot
but that's net horsepower and that's probably
closer to 210, 220 and in this heavy-ish LeSabre
it's fairly spritely but this is as good
as things got in the late 1970s.
It was a pretty dark time for automotive performance.
Inside the car, on the right hand side
of all turbo sport coupes, is a turbo boost indicator.
Now, it's not a gauge, but rather a little
idiot light setup that has economy, power and turbo boost.
And so basically the turbo charger
when it makes it's seven to eight pounds
of maximum boosts this goes green,
but when you're cruising around you get yellow
to let you know you're saving gas.
Now, this is a base model sport coupe
with the bench seat and the column shifted automatic.
We also do see this one has standard air conditioning
which was mandatory on a Buick V6 engine
because it included a heavy duty radiator
and had capacity cooling to keep
that turbo charge engine cool.
This also has GM's old AM/FM cassette player
radio right there, rewind, remember doing that?
And I dig this too, the sport coupes'
steering wheel which has a leather wrapped rim,
brushed aluminum spokes and even fake
alum fasteners on the horn button right there.
But this was basically the epitome
of a full-sized Buick performance and style, 1979.
Now, outside Buick did a variety of things
to alert people to this car's special nature.
Let's check those things out.
To differentiate the sport coupe from lesser LeSabres
Buick blacked out the top half of the door frame,
had a special body with a tiara-style targa band,
half vinyl top which has been rotted out
by the sun here and on the rear quarter panel
a sport coupe logo.
And around the back of the car, something very special.
The Turbo 3.8 Liter emblem, this would alert people
driving five liter Mustangs and Firebirds
that this was not something normal.
Trying to pass this car you might get embarrassed.
Inside the trunk, what do we got?
Okay, very cool, this is a Buick styled steel wheel
these are 15 by six inches wide and these wheels
were actually used all the way back to 1965
on full-size Buicks and even Rivieras,
and this rim was used without change
all the way into the mid-1980s.
Once of the longest lived
factory-styled wheels of them all.
The Turbo LeSabres came
with a special single exhaust system
you see the outlet right here,
it's a high volume, high flow, single exhaust tract.
There's a high flow catalytic converter,
a high flow muffler and again this single exhaust pipe.
The irony though, is the smaller Buick Regals
with the turbo charged four barrel engine
could be had with dual exhaust at the same time.
But for the full-sized LeSabres
Buick figured the single pipe enlarged
diameter would do the job just fine.
Well I got to say I have a soft spot
for late-70s smog era pseudo-muscle cars.
I think what I'd do is re-spray it
in the same pale yellow paint
'cause I love that, it's very 70s.
And then I'd make sure that the engine
and tranny and brakes were all ready to go
and I'd hit the road Roadkill-style.
I wouldn't spend a lot of money on this car
'cause no up-side but I'd also want to remind people
that there's life beyond the mid-size
Buick Regal Turbo V6 program.
They also built full-size Turbo cars.
(soft music)