A Real Turbo Powered Reatta On Ebay

[Shelby]

There is a Reatta that has a turbo listed on ebay.

Somebody should go over and look at it.

[87WE2]

Yea, and it's a vert too. One owner (not the ebay seller though). That upper radiator hose looks real close to the turbo. And he claims the turbo "enhances" the performance. A nice way of saying it was driven hard. Why else would you put a turbo on a car that's pretty quick as is. Hope he has all the original parts!

[ALF1]

A "real turbo"...wink, wink. Most likely it's one of those $29.95 pieces of wishful thinking you see on eBay, available for "any model, any year, any condition." No more than a leaf-blower motor or a boat sump pump.

<span style="font-weight: bold">-- ALF</span>

[Guest F14CRAZY]

Check the pix Alf. It looks pretty legit to me.

ebay turbo reatta link

[ALF1]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Check the pix Alf. It looks pretty legit to me.

ebay turbo reatta link </div></div>

<span style="font-style: italic">Did</span> check the pix. And did you notice this car has painted mirrors, as well as what appears to be painted-over chromed-aluminum trim on the front and rear bumpers? Looks like they just shot the entire car, masking off only the glass areas. Even the Reatta door script appears to be painted over! What you wanna bet the moldings have regular paint on 'em, with no flex agent?

Too many strange things for this furball.

<span style="font-weight: bold">-- ALF</span>

[bwarren]

The radiator hose actually looks like it has a tare in it. In a way I like the mono paint scheme. It makes the car look very clean. At least they didn?t spray over the hood ornament.

[Guest F14CRAZY]

I didn't mean to be mena if I was. Sincere apologies.

Maybe the dude just wanted to go for a monochrome look. A good number of new model cars are that way these days. I didn't notice it at first.

[2seater]

The turbo install looks pretty similar to mine, in the same location but oriented differently. The compressor side of the turbo sees about the same heat as the coolant water, so burning it shouldn't be a problem. He could have used the other model of formed upper hose that would clear the turbo better, but with chafing protection it's probably fine like it is. The stock system handles 5-6 psi of boost without real problems and the aftercooler would be nice but not absolutely necessary for low boost. Even that level of boost will add 30%-40% to the hp level, a very noticeable increase. It would be on the edge of the stock fuel system, but the installation looks pretty close to what GM did back in the late '80's for the turbo prototypes they did. They do not exist anymore as far as I know, so this is not factory.

[Guest F14CRAZY]

Reatta.net has someone's account of knowing someone that wanted to stay unknown that had a "barnfull" of Reattas, including a turbo prototype and one of those black glass cars used for photo shoots.

Without any photos, this tale is worthless.

[2seater]

Yeah, that tale comes up every once in a while. From the articles on the subject, there were three different prototypes, a low boost fwd, a high boost fwd and a high boost rwd, esentially GN running gear. At least one of the proto's was crashed by one of the press corps. The others may still exist somewhere, but they would likely be like the ones donated to schools, not available to the public and probably no titles either. Barney probably has a better handle on these cars.

[Guest Gomer]

Most of the factory turbo's I have seen bolt on after all the cylnders meet. That way all would have the same back presure. This one looks like it feeds only from the front 3 cyl. Wouldn't this cause the front cylnders to run hoter than the rear!!! I think that the supercharger is the way to go. Less power mind you but more reliable.

[padgett]

I'm curious about the line going to the fuel rail valve. Could that be a guage down by the driver's leg ? It does kinda belie the "Everything, and I mean everything, is original" bit. Bet there is some kind of story there. BTW looks like some kinda overlay on the upper radiator hose where nearest the compressor

[Guest F14CRAZY]

Can someone throw a G Tech in their pocket and go see this car and test drive it already?

[padgett]

Well, Boca is about 200 miles from Orlando and I have this day job...

BTW I can't tell from the picture just how the exhaust plumbing goes. Might have tapped into the crossover, blocked the rear manifold outlet, and built a new head pipe.

[Shelby]

I ask the seller about the turbo this is his answer:

For what it is worth.

Alan, The car was pre-ordered and delivered in July 1990 & yes of course not as a Turbo, Buick should have but never did offer one. The Turbo is a Garrett Turbo AVC

# 465939-1. Garrett has been around forever & is a highly respected company in the industry. A authorized Garrett Distributor installed the Turbo equipment and has performed even better than originally hoped. If I can be of any further assistance please

feel free to contact me via my cell phone or email. Sincere regards, Mark

----- Original Message -----

[Guest F14CRAZY]

I wonder what ECM problems it had/has

[2seater]

It is impossible to tell how the piping underneath is routed. That was a problem that confronted me also. I could not find enough room to route the rear manifold exhaust up to the turbo and still have enough room for a down pipe back through the same area. If you look at a Reatta, it gets very tight at the drivers side rear corner of the engine, near the anti-lock stuff and all the cables that connect to the throttle. I resorted to making a new rear manifold, located higher on the head and the exhaust from the rear is routed around the passengers side of the engine and joins the front manifold, essentially the same as the stock routing only reversed. The downpipe from the turbine outlet is routed out through the stock location and outlet to connect to the exhaust in the stock position, just below the newly created rear manifold. All of the stock exhaust system bolts up as if it were unaltered. They may have relocated some other items that are unseen. My install has all items except the air box and vacuum reservoir in the stock location. I saw a photo at one time, probably the ones in the article about the turbo Reatta's, and there appeared to be a crossover pipe in the same location I described. This was after I had already done mine and sorta validated what I found to work. It's true an s/c installation would likely be easier, since most of the hard stuff has already been done, except for the ECM and other control system items which both systems will have problems with and still make a Reatta fully functional in the electronics area. The turbo has more total power potential and is way easier to change the boost level, but the full power really can't be used unless all sorts of other upgrades are done as well. The Reatta is a nice car in stock form unfortunately it died before the later model 205 hp versions of the N/A 3800 were available, which would be a nice base engine for the weight and something like 250-300 hp for a high performance(GS)version would be just about perfect. Just my opinion.

[reattadudes]

I am that person who told this "tale". I have a 4'x12' factory photo of this "non-existent" photo-sensitive glass car on my bedroom wall, given to me by Bob Thompson, the Reatta project manager. I also have actual photos of this same car, now owned by a customer in Southern California. I stare at this huge photo every night before I go to bed. it is interesting to note that the pinstriping on this car is reversed; the large stripe is on the bottom. on the production version, the large stripe is on the top. the stripe is also in a light champagne gold, not the yellow-gold color of the factory stripe.

a customer in California purchased the "dark glass" car (which also has reversible side moldings, black on one side, and red on the other, with a "prototype" emission waiver label under the hood) from someone who worked on the Reatta project in the early years (interior designer) as an outside consultant. the person he purchased it from lives in Santa Barbara, and his barn does contain two full-size clays, and a 1992 prototype Reatta convertible. by the way, the existence of this 1992 convertible has been verified by Bob Thompson. he said there were actually several more built in different colors as well.

Buick had planned to produce a "stripper" convertible for 1992, with analog gauges, and a cloth interior. this car is dark green with a black top, and a grey cloth interior.

we recently purchased two magazine articles for sale on ebay about the Reatta turbo, and we have them here. there are many color photos, including five I have never seen before, with photos of both the front and rear-drive versions.

the rear-drive version is dark grey, with totally different front and rear fascias, really nice ground effects (which I normally hate, but they look exceptionally nice and integrated here), and a very nice set of wheels. the wheels and ground effects are not the same ones as shown on the factory turbo prototypes on our web site. one of the cars in the article most definitely has a black interior. it is absolutely NOT dark grey. the sixteen way seat control panel has four switches, including moving side bolsters.

a few things about me for the folks I haven't met: 1) I'm sure a monkey has better computer skills than I do. it took me over two years just to figure out how to change my address location on my profile here, and got it done only when someone helped me. I can send emails, and that's about it. send a photo somewhere? far beyond my capabilities. it takes an interest to learn something, and mine sure isn't here. 2) I am beyond privacy oriented...I would never dream of asking any of my customers for their VIN numbers (I don't feel it's any of my business...it's their car, not mine), and I would never reveal a confidential source if they want to remain private.

I would certainly like to see these cars in Santa Barbara; however, my source has said that the guy is a cantankerous old fart, and I would never want to create a problem by being overbearing and pushy. they are after all, his possessions, and not public items.

Mike, buickreattaparts.com

[Guest F14CRAZY]

I didn't know it was you, Mike. I don't think you'd be making up tall tales about missing Reattas though considering what you've done to help us all. I understand about privacy and not wanting to pester someone though.

[Reatta Fan]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> Reatta.net has someone's account of knowing someone that wanted to stay unknown that had a "barnfull" of Reattas, including a turbo prototype and one of those black glass cars used for photo shoots.

Without any photos, this tale is worthless. </div></div>

The second meeting of Mensa is now called to order...

[Reatta Man]

All this secrecy has told me who owns all of these 'secret' Reattas;

The Central Intelligence Agency.

Yep, the Reattas are now doing classified work somewhere in or near the vicinity of Langley, Virginia....or are they?

How else can you explain all this "someone knows someone who wants to remain unknown" crap?

[2seater]

The word "tale" was probably a poor choice of words, no offense was intended. I do know they did exist, one was crashed but if it was repaired or not is unknown. The others probably survived, as you indicate. How and where they were disposed of continues to be a mystery. I do remember the photo of the gray one with the different front end treatment. Nicely aggressive looking without being gaudy. Maybe they will appear in the light of day when the value is such to make the owners want to cash in. It is interesting you mention the "stripper" version. If the Reatta could lose a few hundred pounds it wouldn't need much more motor. Just getting the weight down to about 3000# would be equivalent to adding about 20hp.

[Guest F14CRAZY]

CIA probably uses them as getaway cars instead of Crown Victorias

[padgett]

Just a side note: for many years Delco Electronics had their military electronics center in Santa Barbara (or might have been just across the line in Goleta) including the embedded computers. When GM instigated the Computer Command Control in 1981, the computers were designed at SB. Consequently it would not surprise me if an insider had retired there.

Just for trivia, my understanding at the time was that GM ordered so many 68xx processors from Motorolla for the car computers (millions at a time when a 1,000 was a sizable order) that it took their entire production capacity for several years. This meant that the 68000 range of 16 bit processors was delayed which resulted in a foundering Intel having an opportunity to step in with their 8086/8088 processors and Apple having to hold up the Macintosh because they could not get enough CPUs.

And for super trivia, the same thing happened over 100 years before to Smith and Wesson with their "Russian" model.