1985 Buick Regal T Type and Grand National: a carry-over year

The 1985 Regal T Type kept the sequential-fuel-injected turbo 3.8, the LM9 with VIN code 9, rated 200 hp at 4,000 rpm and 300 lb-ft at 2,400 rpm, and the Grand National remained a package on the T Type rather than a separate model, listed by Over-Drive at $675. This record's own overview also notes that the four-door Regal sedan was dropped for 1985, leaving the coupe as the only body style across the line, base Regal, Regal Limited, and Regal T Type alike.¹

Production totals for 1985 are disputed between this record's two main sources without either being entered as the settled figure: Over-Drive's production table lists 4,169 Regal T-Types, stating that 2,102 of them were Grand Nationals, while gnttype.org instead lists 2,102 Grand Nationals, 1,575 T-Types, and 525 cars under a package labeled WH1, summing to 4,204 turbo cars total; this record's own conflict entry shows both figures without choosing between them. The 2,102-unit Grand National count itself is the one figure on which both lineages agree without dispute. All 1985 rear-drive Regal production is given as 124,546, split into 60,597 base Regal coupes and 59,780 Regal Limited coupes. Separately, 3,670 Regals of all engines were shipped to Canada that year, including 143 Grand Nationals under RPO WE2.^1,2

Pricing shows the Regal T Type coupe at $12,940, the Grand National package itself at $675 with 2,102 installations recorded against it, and a stand-alone turbocharged V-6 option available on non-T Type Regals at $660. A separate T Type Designer package, combining black or dark gray paint with a rear spoiler, added $403. Beyond these, an extensive regular-production options list is documented down to the dollar, from a $730 air conditioning option standard on the T Type through dozens of smaller items covering radios, wheels, seating, and trim, many of them priced differently or marked unavailable specifically on the T Type compared with the base Regal or Regal Limited.¹

The LM9 turbo V-6 is documented as 3.8 by 3.4 inches bore and stroke, 8.0:1 compression, 200 hp at 4,000 rpm and 300 lb-ft at 2,400 rpm, with sequential fuel injection and VIN code 9, standard on both the T Type and Grand National, paired with a four-speed overdrive automatic. The axle ratio for both is given as 3.42:1, and the Regal coupe's wheelbase as 108.1 in, with overall length, height, and width given together as 200.6, 54.6, and 71.6 in. This record's own specification note flags that the T Type's shipping weight, listed at 3,079 lb in the production table, is identical to the figure given in the same table's base coupe row, a coincidence the note treats as a possible table error rather than confirmed fact.¹

Identification detail is extensive for the year: a decoded example VIN, 1G4GK479XFP400001, breaks down as USA-built, General Motors, Buick, G-body, Regal T-Type sales level, two-door coupe, the LM9 3.8 SFI turbo engine code, a check digit, model year F for 1985, the Pontiac, Michigan assembly plant, and a serial number, though this record's own identification entry stresses that the Grand National itself is identified only by the RPO WE2 code on the trunk-lid service sticker, not by anything in the VIN. Genuine factory Grand Nationals are documented as carrying GN emblems on both front fenders, the driver's side of the trunk lid, and the passenger dash trim plate, with this record's own identification entry adding that 1986-87 cars would add "intercooled" emblems beneath the fender emblems, a forward-looking detail stated directly within this file's own text rather than assembled from a later year's record. Forty-four Regal paint codes are charted, though this record's own paint note cautions that the list is far longer than a single model's palette would need and probably mixes codes from across Buick's broader lineup, with turbo-car availability left unstated and the Grand National itself built only in black. The Grand National's standard interior is again documented through a buyer's-guide description covering 1984-87 as a group, calling the base scheme black and gray and noting that some Grand Nationals received Lear Siegler leather in a light-and-dark-brown combination instead.^3,1