Reatta Prototype Turbos

[Greg Ross]

Mike has permitted me to post several pictures from his collection, these recently acquired as a Collector Set on eBay(for those who missed them)
First one is the under-the-hood Shot of a RWD Reatta Turbo Installation.

[Greg Ross]

The Second Image is the Center Console with revs up and the Boost Guage showing positive pressure.
But it is in "Park" it appears!

[Greg Ross]

And the Icing-on-The-Cake"
The exterior shot of the Reatta with Ground Effects and the handsome wheels Mike mentioned in the other Thread;

[Greg Ross]

The last shot, a Wed Weatta wiff FWD Turbo set-up,
Enjoy.
Boost is Fun!

[Vincent Vega]

Wow! That black finish on the engine looks great.

[reattadudes]

for those that have thought I have suddenly acquired computer-literacy, I haven't. I had my sister (who is quite computer-literate) send these for me to Greg when I was in Ohio last week.

I should mention that the actual photograph of the grey RWD turbo is much more striking: there is a subtle red stripe in the top of the side molding which wraps around onto the bumpers, similar to the Regal GS of the same era. the bumpers are also color-keyed. the ground effects on the reproduced pictures here are shrouded in shadow (at least on my computer, which Fred Flintstone would be proud to call his own). in the actual photograph, they are very neatly integrated.

it's interesting to note that two of the most recent posts concerning side molding color-keying, and color-keyed bumpers are addressed here, albeit sixteen years ago.

to all the folks who have modified your cars, I congratulate you. if the Reatta was still being built, it would be light years ahead of everything else, just like it was when it was new.

recently, we had the pleasure of seeing one of our customer's cars (1989) from Colorado down here while they were getting their new leather package installed. they had removed the cassette player (God bless it), and installed an Alpine GPS unit in it's place. how fitting. the location in the console reminds me of the GPS unit in Sean Connery's Aston-Martin DB4 in Goldfinger (1964). the one major difference is this one in the Reatta doesn't make the "hum" of vacuum tubes warming up like 007's did.

again, thanks to Greg for posting some the photos from our collection. we hope that you all enjoy them, and see that these cars do indeed exist.

Mike

[mdgrant24]

where do you find body kits for a reatta?

[C.F.Massie]

I agree with Vincent, I love that black look on the engine. Wow, I did not realize that there were that many Reattas out there that had been modified with turbos. Mike are most or all of them still in private hands?

[reattadudes]

Craig,

the ones we are dealing with here are all the factory-built ones. there were reported to be eleven built: five front-wheel drive, and six rear drive. the rear drive cars were essentially cobbled together, as they required a driveshaft to be installed in a car that was not designed for one. the rear suspension was from a Corvette.

one was reportedly wrecked while being driven by a journalist. I don't know if it was a front or rear drive one. I have been told repeatedly from our sources on the project that none were destroyed, and ended up in private hands. I have absolutely no doubt that they will surface within the next few years. many probably ended up in the hands of people who worked on the Reatta project; as they pass on, the cars will come up for sale.

Mike

[2seater]

I don't have enough resolution to actually read that boost gauge but I suspect it may be reading vacuum. My boost gauge looks similar, 0-30" vacuum on the left side and 0-20 psi boost on the other. I don't know about your car Greg, but my turbo won't really build any boost until I load the engine. It's one of the significant differences between the S/C and turbo, the S/C is directly coupled to the engine so it will spin up based on rpm, where the turbo needs a load on the engine to generate the exhaust flow to spin up the turbo, but once that happens, there is more and more boost available. Thanks for posting Reattadudes pics.

[ksmmspt]

Quote:

I don't have enough resolution to actually read that boost gauge but I suspect it may be reading vacuum. My boost gauge looks similar, 0-30" vacuum on the left side and 0-20 psi boost on the other. I don't know about your car Greg, but my turbo won't really build any boost until I load the engine. It's one of the significant differences between the S/C and turbo, the S/C is directly coupled to the engine so it will spin up based on rpm, where the turbo needs a load on the engine to generate the exhaust flow to spin up the turbo, but once that happens, there is more and more boost available. Thanks for posting Reattadudes pics.

Your right, it is reading vacuum which would be appropriate in "park". I had a vacuum/boost gauge on an 87 turbo regal that I no longer own.

I am very impressed with the rear wheel drive setup and there have been several people transplant the 87 turbo regal drivetrain (with modifications) into a Reatta. As a current owner of an 87 Grand National, I have been very interested in the possibility of performing this swap. The buick 3.8L turbo engine was used again in 89 in the Pontiac Trans Am pace car. What my question would be is this: Would the sensors be able to be integrated into the Reatta's ECC? Or could the ECM from the turbo 3.8 cars be compatible to the ECC? Any ideas? Padgett? I'll try to dig up some info from my turbo buick forums about Reatta swaps.

[imported_Flash]

Nice photo.

[padgett]

1) Anything is possible
2) Electronically, the biggest problem I see is that the turbo engines all used the single ring crank sensor/module while the Reatta all used the later dual ring.
2a) Are the crank balancers interchangeable ?
3) The ECM data stream must match the Reatta BCM for the instruments to read properly. Not necessarily difficult, just has not been done.
4) Stock Reatta ECM program is limited to 170 gm/sec MAF, for turbo it needs to be expanded to 255 (am assuming the turbo engines were also MAF and not MAP).
5) Would the RWD require modification of the floor pan ? If so where are the modules inside the console (re)located ?