1980 Buick Regal Sport Coupe (turbo): cosmetic year, disputed rating

For 1980 the Regal's changes were mostly cosmetic, led by a new quad headlamp system replacing the previous single-headlamp front end, a styling update this record's own overview names as the year's lead cosmetic change. On the turbocharged 3.8, Buick made three distinct hardware changes to the same basic turbo package rather than pursuing a single larger redesign: the Electronic Spark Control unit was moved inside the car, an aluminum intake manifold replaced the earlier casting, and the knock sensor was relocated. California-market cars used Computer Command Control instead, a distinction this record's own overview states without further detail on how that emissions-calibration system differed in practice from whatever governed cars sold outside California, or on how many of the year's turbo cars were built to that specification.¹

Turbo Regal Sport Coupe production for 1980 is given as 6,276, a figure on which two independent enthusiast compilations agree without dispute, with no engine-specific or transmission-specific breakdown of that total found in either source, and no separate figure offered for how many of those cars were built to the California Computer Command Control specification described above. The limited-edition 1980 Regal Somerset was explicitly not available with the turbo V-6, a notable exclusion this record's own overview states directly rather than an absence this record infers from silence; buyers wanting the turbo engine could not get it in that particular limited-edition trim regardless of what other options they might otherwise have chosen for their car.^2,1

The turbo four-barrel engine's rating for 1980 is genuinely disputed between two sources rather than simply unconfirmed: one gives 170 hp at 4,000 rpm and 265 lb-ft at 2,800 rpm, while the other gives 175 hp at the same 4,000 rpm but 265 lb-ft at a lower 2,400 rpm, a five-horsepower gap alongside a matching torque figure attached to two different engine speeds. This record's own conflict entry treats the dispute as open pending a factory document that could settle it, and leaves the rating fields themselves blank in the engine entry rather than choosing one source's numbers over the other's. The same 6,276-unit production figure given for the Sport Coupe as a whole is also attached directly to this single turbo engine entry, since the turbocharged 3.8 was the only engine offered in the Sport Coupe that year, with no alternative engine choice documented for the trim in any source this record draws on.^1,2

Buick's own 1980 full-line prestige brochure, a marketing document read here from page images, presents the Regal Sport Coupe as the turbocharged Regal, with the standard turbocharged 3.8 litre (231 CID) 4-barrel V-6, automatic transmission, fast-ratio power steering, power brakes, a temperature gage and vacuum boost lights, tungsten-halogen high-beam headlights, steel-belted radial P205/70R-14 tires and the Rallye ride-and-handling suspension. It also says all Regals had a new four-headlamp system. The brochure prints no horsepower or torque figure, so the disputed rating between the two enthusiast sources is not settled by it, and this record keeps the rating fields blank. The Buyer's Guide powerteam chart also does not state how many speeds the automatic has.

The brochure's single Regal dimensions column, which this record carries with that scope, gives a 108.1 inch wheelbase, a 200.0 inch length, a 72.2 inch width, a 54.1 inch height and a 16.3 cubic foot trunk. One cell prints the front shoulder room as 1,442 mm with 56.1 inches in parentheses, two figures that do not convert to each other, so this record logs the cell as a conflict and quotes it as printed rather than correcting it. The Sport Coupe profile also names an available Designers' Accent paint treatment, a blacked-out grille, headlamp trim, available sport steering wheel and sport mirrors, and a set of four turbine wheels, with chrome-plated wheels available.

Buick's 1980 exterior colors folder gives the Regal Sport Coupe fourteen body colors: five offered on all models (White 11, Silver 15, Medium Yellow 50, Tan 63 and Cinnabar 77), eight more offered on every model except the Century Sport Coupe and Sport Wagon Option (Black 19, Medium Blue 21, Dark Blue 29, Dark Green 44, Beige 59, Medium Brown 69, Dark Red 76 and Light Gray 85), and Red 75. It also shows Gray and Blue Designers' Accent colors and seven extra-cost vinyl top colors. Somerset Tan 38 is printed for the Regal Somerset package on the Limited, and Bright Red 72 is printed for other lines, so neither is entered. The brochure's trim table shows the Sport Coupe with a standard cloth or vinyl notchback seat and no trim colors or codes.

The brochure's Regal Buyer's Guide Available Equipment list is carried as more than seventy options, from a heavy-duty battery, a 70-amp Delcotron generator and California emission equipment, through a limited-slip differential and automatic level control, to six-way power seating, air conditioning, Cruise-Master, tilt steering, power windows and locks, Delco radios and tape players, styled aluminum and turbine wheels, sunroof and Astroroof options and body-side stripes. Items the brochure lists only for the Regal and Regal Limited, including the Somerset package, are left out. The brochure prints no prices and no option codes, so every option carries a null price and no code, and no published 1980 price was found in any source read, so the prices array stays empty.