1979 Buick Regal Sport Coupe (turbo): down to one carburetor

For 1979 the Regal Sport Coupe's turbocharged 3.8 dropped its two-barrel version entirely and used only the four-barrel Quadrajet, paired with new free-breathing cylinder heads engineered to improve the turbo engine's airflow. A Sport Coupe decor package was added, combining a blackout treatment, Designer's accent paint, and turbine wheels into a single appearance option for the turbo car, giving buyers a visual identifier for the performance-oriented Sport Coupe beyond the drivetrain itself. This left the Regal's turbo engine offered in a single carburetor configuration and a single rated output for the year, a simplification this record's own overview states directly rather than a conclusion this record infers.¹

Turbo Sport Coupe production for 1979 is given as 21,389, a figure on which two independent enthusiast compilations agree without dispute. Buick also fitted the same turbocharged V-6 to the LeSabre Sport Coupe, the Century, and the Riviera S Type that year, and the company's own Free Spirit Power Manual, as quoted by one of this record's sources, gives 37,451 turbo V-6 engines built in total across all of those models combined, a company-wide figure this record treats as context rather than a Regal-specific count. Separately, this record's own production notes show that all 1979 Regal production, 273,365 vehicles across the base Regal, Regal Limited, and Regal Sport Coupe, splits into 157,228 base coupes, 94,738 Limited coupes, and the 21,389 turbo Sport Coupes already given, a three-way split that one of the record's own sources notes sums exactly to that 273,365 total with nothing left over, leaving no gap between the series-wide figure and its three named components for the year.^2,1,3,4

Prices are given for all three 1979 Regal coupe variants: $6,220 for the Sport Coupe, $5,475 for the Regal Limited, and $5,075 for the base Regal, the last of these drawn from a source whose own text separately describes the base coupe as starting "just above $5,000" while giving $5,075 as the bottom of its stated price range, a wording this record carries as the source's own internal description rather than a rounding this record introduces itself, since the two figures given on that same page are not stated to be exactly equivalent. The turbo four-barrel engine is rated 170 hp at 4,000 rpm; its torque figure is disputed between 265 lb-ft at 2,800 rpm and 245 lb-ft at 2,400 rpm, a conflict this record's own rating leaves blank while showing both figures. A note attached to that same engine entry adds that the Riviera's version of the turbo engine was rated 185 hp at 4,200 rpm because of a different exhaust arrangement on that model, a comparison to a sibling model documented directly within this file's own engine note rather than assembled by reading a Riviera-specific file.^4,1,2

Buick's own 1979 full-line prestige brochure, a marketing document read here from page images, describes the Regal Sport Coupe as carrying a turbocharged 3.8 litre (231 CID) V-6 under a special hood, with the Rallye ride-and-handling package, front and rear stabilizer bars, firmer springs and shocks, fast-ratio power steering, automatic transmission, steel-belted P205/70R-14 radial tires and power brakes. Its Buyer's Guide lists the engine as a 4-barrel turbo V-6 and prints no horsepower or torque figure, so the ratings in this record still rest on the two enthusiast sources. The brochure's Turbocharging explainer likewise gives no output numbers, and it does not state how many speeds the automatic has, so the transmission entry is left at automatic.

The brochure describes the new Sport Coupe Decor package as blackouts around the windshield, rocker moldings, wipers, door pillars, tail lamps and license plate molding, a blacked-out grille, right- and left-hand sport mirrors, Designers' Accent paint on the hood, top and rear deck lid, and four Turbine wheels. Its dimensions table is a single column for the whole Regal line, and this record carries it with that scope: a 108.1 inch wheelbase, a 200.0 inch length, a 72.2 inch width, a 53.4 inch height and a 16.3 cubic foot trunk. The Sport Coupe profile names a turbo-boost gage on the dash, while the Buyer's Guide lists a temperature gage and vacuum boost lights, and this record logs that difference as a conflict inside the one brochure.

Buick's 1979 exterior color chart, form BSP-79-59, gives the Regal Sport Coupe fourteen body colors: five offered on all models (White 11, Silver 15, Medium Blue 22, Dark Gold 63 and Red 77), six more offered on every model except the LeSabre Sport Coupe, Century Sport Coupe and Sport Wagon (Black 19, Dark Blue 29, Light Green 40, Medium Green 44, Tan 61 and Dark Brown 69), and three offered on a still narrower list (Light Blue 21, Light Yellow 54 and Dark Red 79). It also shows Gray and Blue Designers' Accent colors and seven extra-cost vinyl top colors. The brochure's Regal trim table shows the Sport Coupe with a standard cloth or vinyl notchback seat and available 55/45, bucket and Limited cloth 55/45 seats, but it prints no trim colors or codes.

The brochure's Regal Buyer's Guide Available Equipment list is carried as more than seventy options, beginning with the Sport Coupe Decor package and running through a heavy-duty battery, engine and transmission cooling, a block heater, the high-altitude package, California emission testing, the new C-4 computer-controlled catalytic converter system for California after November 1978, a limited-slip differential, automatic level control, six-way power seating, air conditioning, Cruise-Master, tilt steering, power windows and locks, a range of radios and tape players, wheel and roof options and body-side stripes. The brochure prints no prices and no option codes, so each option carries a null price and no code. Items it lists only for the Regal and Regal Limited are left out.