NTX5467

GREAT POINT, DAN!!! GREAT IDEAS TOO!!! As for "smiles" in the advertising, that's ONE thing that has tended to set the Ford advertising apart from others. The early Mustang print and television ads were about fun, enjoyment, and the fact that a Mustang could put a smile on your face as you escaped the hustle and bustle of the everyday world. Great messages, to be sure. Same general orientations are still going on with more recent Mustang ads too. Some of the GM and Chrysler ads have headed in the same direction, but not quite to the extent of the Ford ads over the years. As great as the new or yet-to-be-built GM cars might be, it's going to take some innovative, memorable, and different advertising to ensure the buying public excited about going to see them or desire to own them. Just some thoughts, NTX5467

I agree Dave, it's torque that gets things moving in the first place. But not all OHC motors are peaky with weak low rpm power. For example, when I was renting cars for weekend running around, I'd rent a Regal LS with the 3800 sometimes and Chryslers with the 3.5L V-8 other times. Same general size motors with the same general horsepower, weight, and even the same Eagle LS tires back then. If you nailed it from a dead stop, both would spin the front tires the same number of seconds. The Chrysler, with it's dual path intake manifold (which the Intrigue 3.5L V-6 never had), would really sound nice over 4000rpm yet didn't give up anything on the bottom end. Although the 3800s had rated horsepower at 5000rpm, above 4000rpm in high gear, things started tapering off as the Chrysler kept pulling. The later Intrigue 3.5L V-6 motors had decent lower rpm power and had more run in the higher rpms too. Not to discount the 3800s low and mid-range power (which the earlier versions of the Intrigue 3.5L V-6s did not meet, needing the 3.29 axle ratio to get close to the existing 3800's performance), but they can get a little slower above 4000 rpm. With our modern highway system, how often do we need that rpm range? Not a whole lot. In many cases, many might not desire to admit it, but I highly suspect the Buick 3800 has been something of a benchmark for other V-6s to match with respect to overall power, economy, and reliability. In the case of the smaller 2.0L general size motors, they can be weak in lower rpm power, regardless of the number of valves or camshafts. When they talk about power, they don't tell you it takes 6000+ rpm to make it happen and that a manual gear box will extract it better than an automatic. Even in the sports car days of old, they talked about them needing a manual gear box to "row" them through traffic. Bottom line is that when you put your foot to the floorboard, you expect something to happen. It's how it happens that makes the difference, regardless of what kind of power numbers that might be on the paper. Responsive power is what matters and the Buick engines, with their great torque characteristics, have always been good at that. Enjoy! NTX5467

I admit I was working from memory on the power output on the new 3.6L V-6 in the LaCrosse. Seems like it's more like I quoted in the CTS automatic trans base engine? Either way, still lots of engines in the same horsepower range from one manufacturer. Enjoy! NTX5467

Right now, GM has several engines in the 240-260 horserpower range. The older, but more recent, 3800 SC engines were 240 and the one in the 2004 Grand Prix has 260 due to some tweaks of various components. The new 3.6L DOHC V-6 in the CTS and the LaCross sport model is in the 250-260 horse range too, yet the prior "ShortStar" 3.5L V-6 in the Intrigue and Aurora was more like 215 horsepower. And then there's the LS engine family with the 4.8L and 5.3L V-8s, one of which might end up in a future front wheel drive GM car. Too many choices? The main difference might be minimal with respect to power, but not when the customer demographics of the various vehicles is considered. No problem with putting a Chevy V-8 in a Grand Prix, for example, but with Buick officially heading up into Lexus territory, it needs to have the "High Feature" GM V-6 to compete with the DOHC engines that Lexus has in their vehicles-- a cam-in-block engine will not cut it when compared to the more upscale cam-in-head motors in those price classes. Unfortunately, even the old Intrigue 3.5L was a quieter running motor than the typical 3800. As the LaCrosse is set up, the normal versions will have the 200 horsepower 3800 with electronic throttle control. It makes a fantastic powerplant for the similar Grand Prix so it should serve well in the lower levels of LaCrosse. The sporting model will need a little extra cache, so the 3.6L V-6 will be in it. Double OHC with Variable Valve Timing on all 4 camshafts (40 degrees of variance on the intake side, 50 degrees of variance on the exhaust side--if it's the same as the NorthStar V-8). Therefore, it's not so much about how technically good an engine is, it's more about the target market and what is expected in particular market segments if Buick is going to expand its customer base with "conquest sales" to prior owners of other vehicles. AND then keeping them once they get them. Getting them in the door is the hard and critical part. Personally, the old 4.9L V-8 Cadillacs did the job just as well as the NorthStar cars do, functionally, but whatever "high tech" orientation that it might have had as a full aluminum V-8 "back then" has vanished and the expectation was for bunches of valves/cylinder and cam-in-head architecture. The other consideration is that 4 valves/cylinder engines can easily have the same power output as a supercharged engine of similar size. Both supercharged and DOHC engines have their own unique packaging issues, though. Just depends on what the marketplace tends to demand. The current 3800 Buick V-6 is an excellent engine in so many respects--especially power vs. fuel economy AND reliability AND longevity, whether in a rear wheel drive late model Camaro or Firebird or the multitude of front wheel drive GM vehicles. At some point in time, though, tooling must be replaced and that also raises the possibility that "something different" might need to be done to keep current with market trends and orientations. There's also a multitude of high performance information/equipment out for that engine too. Seems like there a www.3800performance.com (or similar) website that even gets into the ins and outs of drag racing the newer GM front wheel drive cars with the 3800 V-6s in them! Lots of great information on how the engine management system operates too! Even if the 3800 does go out of production at some date in the future, there will still be plenty of them around in cars that are still worth driving and enjoying--MANY BUICKS TOO! By the way, I finally watched the Barret-Jackson Palm Beach auction, which I taped. The Buick Park Avenue Ultra show cars looked great. Dropping the suspension about an inch really made the lines on those cars work! With the 3800 SC motor, those cars can be some real sleepers. Just as in the old days, nice as (or nicER than) a Cadillac, less expensive to own (purchase, fuel economy, AND maintenance), and fun when you add that extra bit of throttle to the motor. Enjoy! NTX5467

A vacuum gauge and a tach are good tools to have in adjusting the carbs on earlier vehicles. Typically, they were adjusted to the highest manifold vacuum for the smoothest idle. A "shade tree" method I developed in the later 1960s is a little different. I did the prototyping of this procedure on Dad's '69 Chevy pickup with a 350 4bbl and then later expanded it to our other cars. Basically what I did was this. I first set the idle speed to specs with the dwell tach. Then, I'd tweak the mixture screws for the max rpm (also highest manifold vacuum) and then go back and forth until the speed and mixture adjustments were fine-tuned to the correct rpm. After getting that baseline, I went to Plan B which further fine tunes the settings for the particular vehicle. On the earlier vehicles with the more basic emission controls, the factory procedure was to get max rpm and then lean the idle to obtain a 20 rpm drop per mixture screw. With other vehicles, you set the idle to a particular idle speed, maxed the mixture screws out for that speed, maybe having to tweak the idle speed screw to keep the specified idle speed, and when everything was completed, then turn the idle screws "lean" to drop the speed to the final idle speed. If some roughness came in, then you could tweak the mixture to hopefully smooth things out at the final idle speed. Basically, this was called "lean best idle". In Plan B, which is an extension of the first procedure, I would FIRST put the parking brake on all the way. Then, at base idle, I'd put the trans in "D" (which means it might not be useable with a manual trans at this point) with the foot brake also applied, but then ease it off to see if the car would stay stationary. With the vehicle sitting there in "D" against the brake, I'd then check the pulses from the rear exhaust pipe. The aim was to just get them to smooth out from perceptible individual pulses. When that rpm was fine-tuned, then I'd tweak the mixture a little with the aim to not have any hydrocarbon smell out the rear pipe. This might result in some additional tweaking with the trans in "Park" also. End result, smooth pulses out the rear pipe and no smell. That usually coincided with a smooooth idle too. When done, I'd recheck the idle speed in "Park" to see if it might be a little too high to not stop when the ignition was turned off and would then restart easily and quickly. The deviation from factory specs might not have ended up that far off, but the extra care to baseline these settings made things just a little bit better in many cases. By the way, the "smell" part might not work on vehicles with working catalytic converters. Also, in the days of the old Sun diagnostic machines that many dealerships used to have, with the Air/Fuel Ratio meters, you could adjust the idle mixture by the a/f meter. In many cases, you could lean it out to the desired 14.2 a/f ratio with the normal carb. Many times, you could get by doing that without loosing smoothness, but heading into the middle 13.0 area would usually smooth things out. All depended on how good the other engine components were at the time. Probably too much information. These things worked for my, your results might vary. Proceed at your own risk. Enjoy! NTX5467

Of that number of engines, how many were installed in North America (USA & Canada) and how many went to Australia or to other GM plants worldwide? Just curious. Thanks, NTX5467

Although there might be some segments of our modern society that might get their feathers ruffled, but wouldn't it be nice if they would include the "Buick Theme Song" in their advertising and as a general advertising theme for the next generation of Buicks? Some article I read mentioned that a "flagship" model vehicle didn't necessarily have to be the biggest size vehicle in the brand's portfolio of models. That could well set the Velite up for such a position at Buick. Kind of like Thunderbird was for Ford in prior times, I suspect. I do wish the Velite was on a larger platform, though, with MORE engine and a "more Buick" name. Enjoy! NTX5467

I saw the B-J Phoenix auction on Speed Channel and was somewhat amazed at how high some vehicles went and how quickly. All of the customs and street rods had a storied history, it seems, that resulted in the higher prices for them. Then figure in the rarity of some of the vehicles too, either particular options or just plain low production too. Not to mention the outstanding "over restorations" of many of them that made many of them better than new. I saw a part of the FL auction and it seemed the quality of many of those cars were what they called "Phoenix Quality". They also mentioned how much the sales volume ($$$$$$$$$) had increased in that auction since they started it a few years ago. KEY POINT -- every time the financial situation of the banks not paying very much interest on CDs or whatever and the stock market is a mixed bag, those with money will put it somewhere that it'll work better for them. Cars are an easily done place to put it--easier than real estate and as long as the condition doesn't deteriorate, they typically don't depreciate that much (unless the market was going crazy and they paid a little too much, which is why careful buying is important) and if things get bad, you can always drive them a little (which they probably need anyway). I highly suspect the feeding frenzy for collector cars is starting to peak now, so it's time to sell also. Bad thing is that many with similar, but not nearly so desireable models get the idea that their car is worth "gold" too, which usually isn't the case. There was a feeding frenzy in the early-middle 1990s too. Many of those spending the bucks are not really car people per se, but really investors of sorts. The fun part of these auctions was when two people were bidding on a particular vehicle. The guy that bought the restored Power Wagon pickup looked like he was really glad to get it, but the other guy that was bidding against him was not nearly so excited about bidding, it seemed. Those auctions have become more "events" or "destinations" rather than just a place to sell and buy vehicles. There were some decent buys in the "no reserve" vehicles, from what I could see. Just remember, when interest rates are down, car auction prices will be up. Enjoy! NTX5467

You might have better luck heading more toward tires/wheels, I suspect, that can have a definite impact on the way the car looks. That and a slightly lower ride height might surprise you. Enjoy! NTX5467

That 2006 time frame could well interface with the move of GTO production on the Sigma-Lite platform to North America and the change of other GM vehicles to that platform (and suspected reappearance of a prior nameplate too). But, it could well be an Aussie car built in the same factory that the GTO is currently built in (not knowing how similar the Holden V-6 is to existing GM engines), which means limited production. In general, it sounds good! Enjoy! NTX5467

One thing about it Matt, your understanding wife knows where you're supposed to be if you're not with her. Enjoy! NTX5467

Thanks very much for your input on this subject, Mike and Nancy! Thanks for all that you do! Internet delivery (if you've got a big enough mail box already, without paying extra!) or CD-rom might be alternatives in the future, but to do so would result in not having a printed document with which to promote the BCA to prospective members. You can't brag about how nice a CD-rom looks on the coffee table, for example (I guess you could, but I doubt many would). Some might even complain that it took their computer too long to load the pages with Adobe Acrobat Reader or they needed a "pay for" upgrade to read the pages correctly. There are already several car clubs that use Yahoo! Groups for their contact medium and also to post their magazine/newsletter. We've got this excellent place already, though. In the meantime, we've got a pretty good print magazine each month that we can carry around to show people, find out about new members, and chase car and car parts through the advertising. Enjoy! NTX5467

If parking space is an issue, which it surely can GET to be, then you might investigate the rental of a stall in a miniwarehouse facility. Prices and facilities will vary, so shop. Might get two spaces so one could be used for household off-site storage too. Every so often, it can be beneficial to "turn the fleet", in some respects, AND it'll also generate those "I should never have sold that ________" stories. Just some thoughts, NTX5467

There seems to be a lot of car related shows on all of a sudden. There are some on the Discovery Channel variations which document the progress of vehicles in Boyd Coddington's shop, other custom vehicle fabricators, and "Rides" on TLC. Speed Channel has about 3 hours in prime time each night during the week on various vehicular subjects, many related to cars per se. Barret-Jackson Car Search is one. Not to mention the many American Muscle Car Special Reports (which included about at least a week's worth of a Harley Earl show). Multiple airings of these too. And don't forget Barry Meguiar's "Car Crazy"!!! Then there's also the Power Block on Sunday mornings too. Plus Hot Rod Television, CAR AND DRIVER Television, Motor Trend Television, AUTOWEEK, Dream Car Garage, Two Guys Garage (formerly ShadeTree Mechanic) and a few other similar shows. Some might not "trip your trigger" but many will. With respect to new vehicles, there's "Speed Vision Test Drive" with Tommy Kendall. These can be pretty neat and informative plus fun to watch as they take vehicles around the race track. Some are more like infomercials, but still interesting to watch. Enjoy! NTX5467

A few thoughts -- Matt, when I buy a car magazine from the newsstand, after looking at it first to see if it's got some information I desire to have and spend money for, when I get it home, it's usually a 10-15 minute time frame before I have looked at what I want to read about and then it's put down (for further reference). The one possible exception might have been the Harvard Business Review, which had much longer articles than most car magazines. New members list -- From the chapter level orientation, this is a good thing to have. Instead of sending a letter of these new members to one chapter officer, ALL chapter officers now see it basically at the same time. Sure, it might take two pages from other content, but considering the number of new members each month, the postage for the single letters to the chapters would become quite expensive each month. It also can lead to networking activities with existing members. Members who are not actively involved in trying to grow a chapter might not share this orientation. Paper -- We've decided previouly in here that a change to a less expensive paper would be a step backward. Even if glossy and non-glossy paper (of the same weight) were used, that one change (mixing the papers in the same publication) could introduce added complexity to the production of the magazine AND probably run the production cost upward. I also subscribe to Mopar Collectors Guide (at least for a year) and know that it has some interesting information plus what I'd call Hemmings-style ads, but the expectations for that type of publication are different than for the magazine put out by a particular marque car club such as the BCA. Articles -- The prior "administration" of The Bugle requested some sort of database from which to write articles for the magazine and that request was consumated. I recall seeing where that happened "back then" and noticed that no extra articles were forthcoming from that Editor as time progressed. What happened to that database/information has never been mentioned, but I suspect it's "somewhere else", yet the BCA purchased it. Nor do I have any suspicion of how extensive or relevant it was, just that it was purchased. As a newsletter editor, I am aware of how the request for information submissions often result in no submissions, which then results in either nothing in the newsletter or generating articles myself. Been there, doing that. I also know that many times, submissions must be reworked for language (considering that all ages and orientations of people will be reading what's in the newsletter) without harming the content and message. Then there are the normal things that must be in every newsletter which do repeat every month. Bugle Content -- We all like to see things about the cars that we, ourselves, like. Just like the Ford, Chevy, Mopar, and other brands of vehicle owners like to see their beloved vehicles in the normal consumer car magazines. At the present time, things are pretty locked-in on the content of The Bugle. We have the monthly repeating advertisements for Buick, major and minor vendors, plus the repeating classified ads for others. Much of that does not tend to change from month to month, yet do we take that content out to the detriment of the magazine's funding or services to members who might only need those things very sporadically? Tech articles are great, just as car articles are. We don't have a 6 digit circulation so certain economies of scale that are shared with the major magazines are not possible, nor are there appropriately large budgets for various editors or similar. Therefore, member submissions are what we are saddled with and if no submissions happen, or if the submissions might not fit some criteria of interest to the bulk of members, then I suspect some judgment calls are made somewhere. I am aware that sometimes articles might be held "in file" until space or an appropriate time frame is available. One thing any car club magazine/publication should not become is a "politically based" document such that it becomes one group's "bully pulpit" of sorts to push a particular agenda. The last time that happened, various aspects of the BCA total organization are still recovering from that situation. I also know from some experiences that trying to get some magazine people to show some interest in a particular vehicle is frustrating at best, especially the normal car magazine operatives. With all due respect, Brad, it seems that they are on another planet sometimes as to what they will get excited enough about to do an article on a particular car. But this is a variable situation too. Perhaps the content of The Bugle has become a little too predictable? Same things on the same pages each month? But I suspect that if you look at any commercial car magazine, you'll see similar things, just more pages for them to be on. Others might appreciate this predictable layout too, so it might be a "no win" situation to keep beating that horse. Unfortunately, The Bugle must be all things to all members. That means comments from BCA Board Presidents, other comments, chapter activity information (when submitted), events listings, interesting articles, classified ads/notices, etc. Every issue might not rivet you to the recliner until you've read everything, but hopefully many will AND possibly motivate others to say "I CAN do that with my Buick!" or "Maybe I should write an article on _________ before I get too old to do it (or the "moment" passes)". Therefore, Information, Inspiration, and Motivation are some important aspects of the magazine that hopefully many can relate to on pretty much a monthly basis with The Bugle. Enjoy! W Bell 20811 Director, N TX Chapter Newsletter Editor, N TX Chapter

Obviously XM has some great benefits in programming content and is well worth its subscription charges. One of the things I kind of like to do is find local stations to see what's going on, to hear some different commercials, and other local interest items. I do believe that XM has rolled out some local stations that will carry traffic information, but I'm not sure about that. The other thing is local weather forecasts, but then you can always switch to the local radio from XM is the need arises. Local radio can be a definite change of pace. Listening to the Old Radio Shows would definitely be a plus and pleasant change from "modern" radio. Also a reality check when you realize how many of those actors are doing their shows somewhere else now. Sometimes, it does seem that we have more than enough choices, though. Just some thoughts, NTX5467

John, that quality issue with Mercedes had started before the "merger" was consumated. It has allegedly been a fact of life in Europe for several years--a fact that is somewhat concealed by their national border. When's the last time you heard of Mercedes or any other German company admitting they did something less than stellar (before the "merger", especially)? If Schrempp had been in a USA company and done what he did to the stock prices of DC, there would be someone else in charge of the company now. But the German pride has resulted in carefully worded press releases about his performance as to say otherwise would indicate some cracks in their German unity. Just my observation. As for the "great" new Mercedes vehicles? Why do they look like they ought to have a Hundai "H" on the grille instead of the Mercedes Star? And they call American styling "blahhh"? Mercedes has typically been a "state of the art" automobile (with respect to engineering), but we all know that when the vehicles get more electronically complicated and offer new electronic gizmos to satisfy what the upscale buyer allegedly wants (and might never learn how to use, BMW I-Drive included), little quality glitches can happen. Even if the problems are confined to just a few vehicles, it's still something that makes headlines. As for what's been going on with Mercedes, local (Fort Worth, TX) automotive historian Ed Wallace mentioned a few years ago that Mercedes was having serious quality control issues back then, much less now. Lots of cars were not making it out of the plants due to them consistently needing in-house repairs prior to shipment. Something you have to get into the German or European press to read about. The Mercedes vehicles that we see stateside are just a small number of what they sell in their homeland. They are not all loaded megabuck cars over there either. We seemingly get the more upscale models instead of the taxicab versions over here. Of all of the Chrysler products I've rented (pre and post merger), none had quality control issues or mechanical failures. They were just as reliable as any GM or Toyota I've similarly rented. As some of the FAQs at www.allpar.com point out, many of Chrysler's alleged problems come from technicians not knowing how to diagnose and/or fix the vehicles OR an opportunistic service writer at the dealership--and that can happen to any vehicle regardless of nameplate. I know, according to JDPowers, they've still got work to do, but then so does GM. It always amazed me that a Plymouth Breeze would score higher on a customer satisfaction survey than the highly similar Dodge Stratus or Chrysler Cirrus. Or why a GMC Sierra, Chevrolet Silverado, or Cadillac Escalade vehicle would have similar differences in how they score when they all came down the same assembly line? It all depends on who's filling out the surveys and what their state of mind is at that particular time. The last time I really thought Mercedes was a neat car was during the 1960s when they had that neat little coupe model--and Studebaker was the designated importer. When I finally sat in one in 1973, I was shocked at how uncomfortable the seats were. That was the end of my "love" of Mercedes vehicles, although I respect them for what they are. Like Lexus, it's what I call "perceived goodness" and "demand" that keep their lease residuals and resale values up. I'd much rather have a Jaguar instead of a Mercedes if I was buying "ferren" cars. I used to think I wanted a BMW, but that's now faded too (but the 760 in one AWESOME running car!). In the mean time, I'll stay with my fleet of vintage, semi-worthless American cars and enjoy buying inexpensive parts and doing maintenance myself, waiting a few more years until all of the new GM designs hit the ground. Look at all the fun and greasy fingernails I'm not missing by owning a new Mercedes or Lexus! Everyone drive what they like and enjoy it to the limit of your tolerance! Enjoy! NTX5467

Some of the information you're desiring would probably have to come from several locations and publications. Some of the production information is in the back of The BCA Roster and other similar information can be found in The Standard Catalog of Buick. Depending on the year, some more detailed information could be in the Buick Gallery and Archives at the Sloan Museum. In earlier times, the different GM divisions looked upon archive information in a variable orientation. To some, it was just "old records" and to others it was "treasured historical information". That's why you can find information for Pontiacs easier than for Buicks or other GM carlines, probably. Typically, some of the other information you desire has only been important to those of the muscle car or Corvette (in the GM line of things) persuasions. In those areas, correctly documenting a vehicle as "factory production" can mean lots of money when the vehicle is sold--if it's an "as produced" vehicle with particular options or groups of optional equipment instead of a "clone" or "built" vehicle that started life as a more mundane model. And then there's the great "History of Buick" book that's been out and was recently revised. Lots of highly interesting information in there! There are several other great books out there about Buicks too (as the "Buick Musclecar" book that really starts with the first Buick V-8 cars of the 1950s and progresses into the later decades). Probably some books that are out of print too (you can search the Barnes&Noble website for their network of used book vendors). End result, to get to where you might want to be, it'll be a multi-faceted search. One that can be highly interesting but will most probably take some time. Enjoy! NTX5467

The alignment settings themselves will not change with a new set of tires, just that if they were compensated for due to "radial pull", then with new tires and different dynamic operational characteristics, it could pull then when it didn't before. The chain of events you mention to have some merit, but any time you put new tires on the front of the car, they need to have an alignment done then. If you're "breaking belts", where are you driving that poor car??? And at what air pressure? When a tire starts weathercracking, then moisture can invade the tire carcass and cause problems too (probably somewhat similar to "dry rot"). No one has come up with a "shelf life" recommendation as such on tires, but regardless of the remaining tread, if they start weather cracking their days are numbered. Also, with age, the rubber will harden so traction can be compromised from what it was when the tire was new and fresh. No real need to spend the money on an 80,000 mile tire unless you're really going to drive that much before the sidewalls weathercrack and such. If the sidewalls are weathercracking, there could also be weathercracks between the tread ribs too! Just some thoughts, NTX5467

XM Radio and Sirius Radio are subscription satellite radio services. In GM cars, the XM radios are usually part of the in-dash factory radio (although you can also buy them aftermarket and in boomboxes and some home units. Sirius got off to a slower start and, I believe, might be what Chrysler's going to use. Lots of diversity in their programming, much of which is commercial free. Must be activated and subscribed to as OnStar is, though. That's what the little black "blob" antenna (in factory installations) is for on the roofs of vehicles (light trucks on the front edge and near the rear edge on passenger cars. How many more entertainment choice do we need in our vehicles? Also, be careful what DVDs you play in those automotive devices where the screen can be seen by other motorists (kind of like a drive-in movie without the fence). Enjoy! NTX5467

With all due respect, I do feel the current magazine is better than what we had several years ago. As mentioned, members are the main source of the car articles instead of members typically being approached about doing articles on their cars (as a consumer magazine with free lance contributing editors might do). No submissions, no articles. The tech articles might not be of the vintage that you desire, but they are informative from what I've seen. True, some are more complete than others, but still better than nothing. I will admit that perhaps the car articles might not fully reflect the true diversity of the Buick automobiles that have been produced in more recent decades and this might be something to work on in the future. Seems that I remember seeing many more car articles on "full size" Buicks rather than Riveras or GS or Reattas over the years and that might be something you're seeing too. By the same token, there were many more mainstream Buicks built rather than the more speciality models I mentioned. Did you see the article on the ElCamino-style GS before the Kokomo meet? Maybe now that we're past the Centennial Celebration and the related early history of the corporation and its founders being in print, we can see more car articles on the various decades of Buicks from the early days to the more recent times? Considering the number of pictures that many took at the Flint event that have been posted on various websites (including this one), our magazine operatives might get together with the Buick historians and do a monthly article on the various eras of Buicks from the early days to more modern times? This could continue the historical aspect that has begun and perhaps put many things into their correct perspective with respect to where Buick's been and how it got to where it is in more modern times, for example. A shame to let all of those pictures be out there and not put some historical perspective to them. By the same token, with all of the Buick knowledge that resides in the Michigan area, there could be some articles on Buick engines and/or transmissions and their development. Lots of that knowledge and experiences might need to be put in print before those involved leave this world. Did you see the recent article on the TripleTurbine FlightPitch DynaFlow? Every automotive enthusiast has their own respective needs that they desire to be met with car club organizations or other similar groups. All groups are not or can be all things to everyone, unfortunately, so it might take some time, but finding the group that's best for the particular person's orientations can be good when it's found. If, per chance, the BCA is not meeting your particular needs, maybe the BCA needs to consider what's happening and alter its course somewhat to be more responsive to the members' needs or perhaps there's another Buick enthusiast group(s) that's already more closely meeting your needs. Everyone needs to be happy with the organization(s) they are or are considering being a part of--even if it means we lose you from the ranks of the BCA after your "check us out" period. Sometimes a more generalized organization might not meet the needs of particular members quite as well as a more specialized organization (i.e., GSCA, Reatta, GN, Riviera, BPG) might. To me, the key thing would be that you enjoy your vehicles and find others that are similar in that respect such that all associations are mutually beneficial for all involved. Just some thoughts, NTX5467

Many glass shops might not desire to get involved in the repair as it might turn into something other than a normal "R & R" situation. Meaning, hidden rust issues that they have no control over and that must be fixed prior to putting the glass back in with new sealer. Some might desire to attempt a "bandaid" fix by just putting sealer over the leaking area, but that's a temporary fix at best, but might last a year or so if done correctly with quality products. The other thing is that if you do try to put some sealer on it yourself, don't use more than is necessary to do the job. If you try to really seal it good, it could take the flexibility out of the situation and result in a cracked glass once the weather gets hot and things start to expand--and can't. Rather than a glass shop, perhaps you need to find a body shop that does restoration work. Maybe not a full blown restorations shop, per se, but one that has someone that knows how the more vintage vehicles are put together instead of a "production" shop. It might cost more, but it could be worth it. This way, when they get things cleaned up from under the moldings and glass seal area, if there is some rust they can repair it, repaint the pinchweld area with the black glass primer, and then get the glass reset. The issue of "breakage" might come into the discussion too, but that's something y'all will have to work out among yourselves. If they know what they're doing and take appropriate precautions, I suspect there should be no breakage. If necessary, you can get new glass with the correct LOF markings and date codes from a repro glass vendor (which might not be that bad of an idea anyway as the existing glass probably has some discoloration or pits in it from its years of exposure to the elements). Hope this helps, NTX5467

The original emissions standards were built around "parts per million" concentration specs for the various things like HC, CO, and NOx that came out of the tail pipe. Actually, HC and CO were the first things worried about and controlled, which were basically things that could be controlled by adding some efficiency to the mix (more lean mixtures over a broader operational spectrum). NOx required less combustion heat and that was where the lower compression ratios tended to come in. A terrible mix of trying to make it efficient and then making it no efficient. Later, when the specs were changed to "grams per mile" of the gasses emitted, that's when the axle ratios headed into the 2.41 area. Fewer revs = fewer grams. Couple that with a somewhat heavy car with a small engine and it was where performance basically ended, especially in the 3-speed automatic days. Manual trans were basically for just smaller motors as when you shift gears, emissions tended to go up as the engine was unloaded whereas the automatic kept a load on the engine and thus was cleaner in the testing. As noted, the earlier EPA numbers were not completely relevant to real world situations and were modified factored down in later times after there were complaints. Driving style was not mentioned either, but it took a special task to get those driving cycles "nailed" by those driving the cars. When I was in college in the 1973 time frame, I heard another guy talk about his summer job. It was driving a Mazda on the test dyno to determine optimum shift points and such so it would best pass the EPA dyno emissions/mileage test. By the way, the EPA mileage now comes from the gasses collected during the EPA driving cycle and not real world "on the road" testing. Anyway, I thought that was a kind of neat summer job, even if I didn't like Mazdas back then. The first "truck=car" was the Subaru BRAT. Back in the pickup truck "dumping" days of the 1970s (where the Japanese were accused of dumping and flooding the market with their little trucks), Subaru put two seats in the back of a pickup and called it "passenger vehicle" and got away with it. By observations, 4 cyl Camaros did not lead an easy life. Most were trashed when people found out how hard it was to find parts for them (as no dealers stocked anything for them, engine wise) and similar. Might be quite collectible today if anyone's into "rare" cars. One of the best combinations would have been a V-6, 5-speed, 4-wheel disc brake 1982 Camaro, of which few were probably built as everyone keyed on the "performance" Cross-Fire 305 V-8. Enjoy! NTX5467

The small CID V-8s were there basically for EPA mileage numbers. No one had anything with any power back then, usually. Emission controls were in the primative/crude stage still, plus cylinder head/port designs necessary for better power/emissions were still just a thought. The general orientation was to downsize the car so it'd take less motor to push it and things like EGR and lower compression ratios were power decreasers too. The only real rust problems we saw down here were due to add-on vinyl roofs and such. The holes for the moldings were drilled and not sealed, so that was instant rust in a few years. I remember seeing a 3 year old GM car with an add-on vinyl roof on Avery Island, LA, across the parking lot from the entrance to the salt mine, with red rust dripping from each of the rivet holes in the quarter panels. I know that what y'all had up north was different, though. But those days are in the past . . . The Buick V-6 might be an "antique" OHV architecture motor, but so is the LS1/LS6/LS2 Chevrolet engine family. Manifolding and their interaction with cylinder head flow/combustion dynamics is now a finely honed science. Several of the 1950-60s designs were headed in some of the same directions, they just weren't aware of where to ultimately end up or how to really get there. Enjoy! NTX5467

It is something of a shame that some poor strategies followed by poor marketing strategies in the 1980s basically took GM out of the lofty position it had held during the "glory days". I'll admit, that as a car enthusiast that grew up with the first Mustangs and musclecars of the 1960s, watching Buick do it's "little engine that could" scheme just seemed a little suspect when cubic inches were the name of the game. Even the earlier 300 V-8s in the LeSabres seemed a little suspect compared to what others were doing back then and to then couple it to a two-speed automatic did not fit the performanc equation, at least the equation we knew back then. Ahead of their time? Probably, but not for the market trends of the '60s. Olds did their innovative JetFire Cutlass too. Pretty slick, but that two-speed automatic didn't let it do what it needed to do. Sure, the two-speeds worked well with the 400 inch motors, but not with the smaller ones, even with switch pitch converters. If they could have done a lower power consumption Hydramatic back then, those cars and the Buicks might have been better appreciated. But, obviously Buick was still oriented toward their normal market demographics back then--as long as it pushed you back in the seat from a dead stop or in passing gear (remember that?), it was ok regardless of how many speeds were in the automatic. Many of these strategies might well have been the result of the corporate economics of the times too. Enjoy! NTX5467