1984 Buick Regal T-Type and Grand National: fuel injection arrives

The 1984 Grand National returned as a $1,282 package on the Regal T-Type, and Motor Trend's December 1983 test car carried the turbocharged 231-cu-in V-6 fitted with Buick/Bosch multi-point fuel injection, rated 200 hp at 4,000 rpm and 300 lb-ft at 2,400 rpm SAE net, paired with a THM 200-4R four-speed automatic and a 3.42 axle. This sequential fuel injection replaced the carburetor used on the turbo engine in prior packages, a change this record's own engine entry ties directly to the 200-hp rating rather than to any other modification.¹

Motor Trend reported that the Grand National package was originally supposed to be cut off at 500 units, that roughly 900 orders were already in hand as the magazine wrote its story, and that about double that number was being planned for the year; the enthusiast gnttype.org lineage separately gives a round 2,000 Grand Nationals built for 1984. All 1984 rear-drive Regal production, across the base Regal, Regal Limited, and Regal T-Type, is given as 224,754, with 106,306 of that as base Regal coupes and sedans and 113,047 as Regal Limited coupes and sedans. The turbo total itself is disputed: one source's production table gives 5,401 Regal T-Types including the Grand National, while a second source and Wikipedia both give 5,204 turbo cars instead; this record's own conflict entry adds, as a reviewer observation rather than a sourced correction, that the second source's own three component rows for Grand National, T-Type, and a package labeled WH1 sum to exactly 5,401 rather than to its own stated 5,204 total, suggesting that total may itself be a transposition. Separately, 3,955 Regals of all engines were shipped to Canada that year, including 100 Grand Nationals under RPO WE2.^1,2,3,4

Pricing data is unusually thorough for 1984: the Motor Trend test car's base price was $12,130 and its as-tested price $15,275; the Grand National package itself is given as $1,282 by two sources but as $1,280 by a third, a two-dollar gap this record's own conflict entry treats as a probable rounding or mistype in the smaller figure rather than a genuine rival price. A base Regal coupe is separately priced at $9,487 and a Regal Limited sedan at $10,265. A long list of individual regular-production options is documented down to the dollar, from a $403 T-Type Designer package and air conditioning standard on the T-Type at $730, through dozens of smaller items covering wheels, radios, seating, vinyl tops, and trim, several of them carrying different prices or standard-fitment status specifically on the T-Type compared with other Regal trims.^1,3,5

The LM9 turbo V-6 is documented in detail: 3.8-by-3.4-inch bore and stroke, 8.0:1 compression, 200 hp at 4,000 rpm and 300 lb-ft at 2,400 rpm, with 0.400-inch intake and 0.422-inch exhaust valve lift, though this record's own engine note adds that Wikipedia and gnttype instead place the power peak at 4,400 rpm rather than 4,000. The THM 200-4R's four gear ratios are given as 2.74, 1.57, 1.00, and 0.67 to one. Motor Trend's test car weighed 3,342 lb, rode a 108.1-inch wheelbase, and wore P215/65R15 Goodyear Eagle GT tires on 15x6 cast aluminum wheels; its front and rear spring rates, at 440 and 125 lb/in, are given directly against the standard Regal's 330 and 115 lb/in in the same source. That test car ran 0-60 mph in 7.5 seconds and the quarter mile in 15.88 seconds at 87.7 mph, braked from 60 mph in 157 ft, and pulled 0.75 g on the skidpad, though this record's own performance note flags the car as very early production.^1,3

Visually, this record's own identification entry describes the Grand National as entirely black, with the grille surround and matte-aluminum wheel accents the only remaining brightwork, and front and rear spoilers carried over from the Regal T-Type. Genuine factory Grand Nationals carry GN emblems on both front fenders, on the driver's side of the trunk lid, and on the passenger dash trim plate, with the VIN itself not identifying a Grand National at all; that distinction is made only by the RPO sticker in the trunk. The turbo engine's own VIN code is disputed between two sources, one giving 9 and the other giving 3, with this record's own conflict entry noting that neither is drawn from an actual factory document. The Grand National's standard interior is documented as textured sand-gray cloth with gray leather inserts in the Motor Trend test car specifically, alongside a separate buyer's-guide description covering 1984-87 as a group that calls the standard color scheme black and gray and notes some Grand Nationals received Lear Siegler leather in a light-and-dark-brown combination instead.^1,6,3