Pioneering Turbo: 1978 Buick Regal Limited
When it was introduced in 1978 the Buick Regal Turbo was the only American-built car on the market available with a turbocharged engine. Other turbo engines featured in European brands such as Porsche and Saab. This 1978 Buick Regal is located in Millstone Township, New Jersey. It is for sale here on eBay and comes with a clear title. Bidding sits at $0.99 at the time of writing, but I would suspect that it may go considerably higher than that. This is especially true given the amount of recent work that has been completed on this particular car.
Externally this Buick presents really well. The blue paint appears to be consistent and has a really nice gloss to it, and the vinyl top sets it all off rather well. The seller is candid about the fact that this car has been repainted previously. He states that this was undertaken in 1997, and that it was a top quality job with the car receiving substantial disassembly to ensure that the job was completed correctly. He also states that there is no over-spray anywhere on the car. I will say that if that is a 21 year old respray and it has held up this well then it probably was a first-rate job. Looking at shots of the underside of the car also reveals a car that is in generally solid condition. There is some surface corrosion present, but nothing that appears to be terribly severe.
Under the hood looks quite clean and tidy, and gives the sort of indication that you would expect from a car that has been well cared for. That 3.8l turbo engine appears to be quite clean. It is backed by the standard auto transmission and a Posi rear end. The list of work that has been undertaken by the current owner is quite extensive. The car has recently been serviced with new oil and filter for both the engine and transmission, as well as fresh oil in the differential. There are new brake rotors, drums, pads and shoes, and the car rolls on four new tires. The valve cover gaskets have also been replaced. The Buick also sports a new radiator and coolant, and also has a new battery and new Turbo Regal specific springs.
The interior is both a pleasant surprise, but also a slight disappointment. The car appears to be surprisingly original and in generally good condition. There appear to be no major issues with the plastic, trim, dash or pad. The original 8-track player is not only still in place, but the car even has the original Buick-specific 8-track tape that came with the car when new. The disappointment is there appears to be some damage to the wheel, and the carpet is surprisingly dirty when compared to the presentation of the rest of the car. Neither of those things are massive problems though, and I think that both could be addressed.
The car has a nice range of features. It has air con which was updated to 134 a few years back, but no longer blows cold. This may only require re-gassing. It has power steering, power seats, a new headliner, power window, power locks and trunk. Everything works as it should, but the clock is a bit off so the seller is including another one that works perfectly.
I quite like this car. With bidding sitting at 99 cents as I write this I suspect that there is some way to go in the auction. I think that the color is attractive and that it generally presents well. It has a nice range of comfort features to make life on the road quite pleasant. To me I think that it would make quite an interesting daily driver. Having never driven one I would be interested in hearing from people who have. These earlier production turbocharged cars seem to fall into two categories. They are either a revelation or a nightmare. Which category has the 1978 Buick Regal Turbo fallen into for you?
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Comments
Worked at a Buick dealer back in 78′. I got to drive these a few times as well as the V-8 Regal. The Turbo Regal’ were fun when the boost came on. WHEN it came on as there was a thing called turbo lag back in the day. The V-8 seemed to have a wider but slower power band. The carbs back then would have a “lean spot” when accelerating from a stand still under part throttle on the V-8s.
Tell me more about the 67-68 Firebird in the garage !!
I was a technician at Buick when these were out. They actual had 2 versions – one with a 2 barrel carb and one with a 4 barrel carb. It was very strange to see the 2 barrel version. The plugs / wires on the RH side required removing the exhaust bypass pipe off. These bolts were usually missing/broken/frozen or stripped out. The turbos used wipe the CHRA about every 30k miles. We didn’t have synthetic oil back then (in wide use anyway – Mobil 1 was 8 bucks a qt) and the turbos were not liquid cooled – so they would fail and start flowing oil in the exhaust – ALOT of it. After a turbo repair, we would run these down the freeway for about 10 miles while bringing traffic to a halt from the billows of white smokeblasting out the exhaust. These had a rope seal for the rear crankshaft. Under boost, the engine crankcase would pressurize as the rings wore out and leave massive oil slicks when parked. Oh the good ol days!
It is already up over $4600.00, so it will be interesting. I have a 78 turbo Regal, so it will be interesting to see how high it goes.
Bob
Paint it black and call it a Grand National.
It’s the great-grand national.
The black hood scoop and black grill and headlight surrounds are not factory. But beyond that very interesting car. Not many of these survived that’s for sure.
Considering that 1978 was a really starved year for performance, these weren’t that bad. Pull the top off the carb and swap in a power piston spring from a 455 and they ran a lot better. You’d get quicker lift on the metering rods. Personally, I like the turbo LeSabre a little better. This was the year that a lot of models were downsized and the downsized A car took a little getting used to.
I had one of these back in college and the turbo blew and no Buick dealer i took it to knew how to fix it.
They also shoved them 3.8 turbos in the monte carlo .I owned 2 of them . Not fast on take off till turbo spooled up, but drove nice . Too bad the rear frames rusted out on those cars back then . The engine worked much better in my chevette though, those were the days !
Early experimental stuff here in how to get both mileage and performance along with low emissions out of engines that were being choked to death with retarded timing lean fuel systems and a barrage of emissions equipment. My hats off to Buick for trying…and sticking with it.
The steering wheel is from a later model T type & Grand National.