Did any of thes Turbo cars get built?

[Barney Eaton]

I just found this Jan 1991 article from Mototweek

Wonder if the company actually  built modified any Reattas

[KDirk]

It is interesting that this was a bolt on kit made apparently for any 88-90 3800 engine, and wasn't limited to a Reatta, though that is what was pictured and referenced in the article. This would be one of the few aftermarket upgrades for the 3800 (aside from things like ignition coil upgrades) that I've seen.

 

I'm guessing this wasn't a big seller as most GM's with the 3800 weren't intended for performance (the Grand National/GNX exlcuded of course, and those weren't true 3800's anyway, but only somewhat related). Most 3800 equipped cars were ordinary daily driver types (Century, Bonneville, Toronado, and so forth) and while some looked sporty or even had better suspension setups, they weren't performance oriented cars and thus their buyers weren't much inclined to getting a $2600 upgrade of this sort. That still leaves the question, were any actually built and installed?

 

[Barney Eaton]

Grand Blanc is a southern suburb of Flint,  maybe someone here that lives in the area could check with the Flint library.  They could probably find more information about the company....how long it was in business, and maybe the owners name.

With that info, if the owner could be located, more details might emerge.

[Cargirl]

Looks like the owner was a gentleman named Rodney Summers. There is contact information listed but the company has been dissolved. We know for sure at least they built one, too bad they did not have a photo of the engine comp too. https://www.bizapedia.com/mi/advanced-vehicle-concepts-inc.html

 

[Cargirl]

Here is an magazine on EBAY on the Turbo Reatta. It mentions it is not a prototype but a marketing and research car. (you can actually read the article if you zoom in) It mentions an engineer from Advance Concepts and all the engineering changes made to accomidate the more powerful Reatta. I can't imagine they made more than one. All the labor and modifications, $2600 for the conversion sounds cheap!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/BUICK-REATTA-TURBOCHARGED-ORIGINAL-1989-ARTICLE/372244217808?hash=item56ab7bffd0:g:sFcAAOSwezVWxf9M

[padgett]

Certainly it could be done but once the L67 came out (1994 ?) that would be a simpler design. Besides for a 88-90 the weak spot is the 440T4/4T60 transmission, GM even had to dial back the L67 to stop scattering trannys.

 

Besides the main reason for 165hp is that the engines were designed for low rpm torque and not high rpm. For a real comparison you have to look at torque curves. The big difference with modern engines is very broad torque plateaus rather than peaks.

[2seater]

On ‎3‎/‎19‎/‎2018 at 2:28 PM, Barney Eaton said:

I just found this Jan 1991 article from Mototweek

Wonder if the company actually  built modified any Reattas

If they are close to Flint I wonder if someone part of that company had anything to do with the factory prototypes? The boost and horsepower level would be what I would expect from what was the low boost factory prototype. At least it sounds eerily similar. It would be nice to see how it was accomplished, but alas, that may not be possible. 

[Barney Eaton]

I don't know when that company started but the article is from January 1991.....those turbo cars that Buick built were done in 1989.

 

[KDirk]

The well known Reatta turbo cars (in the periodically posted article, in which the one ate the wall at the test track) were done in house by Buick. The car highlighted in the article upthread features an aftermarket kit deisgned to bolt on to production cars. I don't think there is any relation between the turbo Reattas prototyped by Buick and the turbo in the article Barney posted above.

[2seater]

On ‎3‎/‎22‎/‎2018 at 11:48 PM, KDirk said:

The well known Reatta turbo cars (in the periodically posted article, in which the one ate the wall at the test track) were done in house by Buick. The car highlighted in the article upthread features an aftermarket kit deisgned to bolt on to production cars. I don't think there is any relation between the turbo Reattas prototyped by Buick and the turbo in the article Barney posted above.

True, there is no way to know if anyone involved with the original cars had anything to do with the aftermarket kit offering, or not. A bolt on kit would need to be limited in potential to work with the stock engine configuration, and the hp. listed is just within the capacity of the stock MAF programming  in the ECM. A little more injector, a custom chip, custom exhaust manifolds/piping, oil feed and drain and a small turbocharger could likely be put together within the listed price at that time. Internal engine work as mentioned in some of the other articles would probably blow that budget out of the water.

[SteveT]

Even though the Reatta was built in Lansing Mi , at the craft center , all other Buicks were built in Flint , in the BUICK CITY area , and with the engineering there it would not be hard to imagine Buick Engineers were involved to some point.