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Reatta History

jonlabree

By jonlabree
in Buick Reatta

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Guest TommyH

Guest TommyH

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way back when, befor gm decided what the final reatta would be, they built a RWD and a turbo reatta. the turbo reatta was being driven by a guy from some magazine, I think it was car and driver, anyways, he lost control, not expecting such power, and drove into a guard rail or something at 50mph. he got out of the million dollar reatta, and walked away. these cars are safe. gm decided not to make a turbo reatta, and the RWD one was stored for many years, and its reported that it was crushed in either 2003 or 2004. gm works in mysterious ways....

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Guest TommyH

Guest TommyH

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they only made one of each. one turbo, one rear wheel drive. the end of the turbo came when it was wrecked, as gm thought it was un feasable. is that a word? they never made a supercharged. just one turbo and one rwd. I have pictures. if it wouldn't be copyright infgingment I would post one, so unttill I'm clear on that, I don't know aht ill do. maybe you can just send me your email, and I will make you promise to never post it anywhere or something. I dunno. I think they did make 6 regular engine reattea.

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jonlabree 10,000+ Points

jonlabree

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Date: 1 Jul 04

There were apparently eleven turbo Reattas built in total. the split was six rear-drive, and five front-drive. they were not all destroyed.

One of the forum members who lives in California purchased two early build 1988 Reattas from a rather cantankerous gentleman from Santa Barbara. the two he purchased are rather unusual; one has reversible side moldings (black on one side, red on the other), and the other has photosensitive (even the windshield) glass. this one was used for photo sessions. both cars have eighteen-way seats (the other two functions are the "wings", or seat side bolsters) on both left and right sides, not just the driver's side only. neither car has a conventional emission label on the strut tower under the hood; in the label's place is another label GM states, "this car is a GM prototype, and is exempt from emission requirements", and shows a date of 9/27/87. both of these cars are low VINs, being in the double digits, with one being in the 60s and the other in the 80s. what is really interesting here is that technically, these cars could not be sold with an emission label like that. or even registered... and they both have California registration and titles. Hmmmm.

The most interesting thing of all is what else this gentleman from Santa Barbara has...basically a barn full of Reattas! he apparently has two full size Reatta clays, a 1992 green convertible, and at least one turbo. he would not let anyone in the barn, saying perhaps another time. he had apparently worked on the interior design team in an outside contractor's capacity. no clue how he got all these cars.

I do have photos of parts of the two early build cars, however. the photos include the photosensitive glass, the prototype emission label, and the eighteen-way power seat switch panel. I will not circulate the photos without the permission of the owner. if there is interest, I will ask him.

as time passes, I am beginning to believe that the Reatta production log is not accurate, as many of the people who worked on the Reatta project we have as customers have told us. many of the workers on the project have said it was a work of fiction. I was stripping much of 1988 VIN 1G4EC11C2JB900217 for the last few days, which we purchased in the San Francisco bay area last year. there is no question that this is an extremely early build 1988, but how early?

I will not bore the folks here with many differences I have NEVER seen before...oh, well, just a few. when you work on these cars as much as we do, you know exactly which tools you will need for what task, and this one sent me back to the tool box several times. I was removing the fenders, and none of the nuts/bolts/fastners were like any other Reatta. for example, if anyone has ever removed a rocker panel molding, it is held on with phillips screws. not here. they were all 7MM hex head screws. this car had never been in an accident, with all panels containing the original VIN stickers. just to satisfy my curiosity, I checked the rocker panel molding on the other side. same thing. what was also strange were the door sill moldings. for anyone who has ever taken these off, you will discover a major GM boo-boo. the left ("L" on back) will be on the right side of the car, and vice-versa. they were mislabeled when they were made. and this car? no markings at all...just some scribbling with a Dremel tool. there was so much scribbling all over the car that I stopped removing anything else. I will investigate this one further at a later time.

I generally don't look at the door VIN sticker, but for some reason I did. the build date was 1/87. let's see....if the white car in the widely circulated factory photo with all the Reatta team members standing around it was actually car number 25, and was built in January of 1988...either they used a strange calendar, or there is a numbering issue, don't you think?

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padgett 25,000+ Points

padgett

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Though 1989 the only production boosted 3800 was turbocharged, the supercharged version came out on the 92 Park Avenue Ultra so development probably began about three years earlier.

The problem was that GM did not have a FWD transmission that they felt could take the torque and live through the warrenty period, the 4T60E is considerably stronger than a 4T60.

Considering how many electronic modules are stuffed in the console and bell-housing area that RWD would require for the transmission, I wonder what on the RWD prototypes worked.

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JWC 1,000+ Points

JWC

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Much of the 1st year I worked at the Reatta Craft Center we were building cars that were called "Pilot Cars" these were cars that they worked out any problems and went to be crash tested, I'm not sure what happen to all of them.

I wish I knew then what I now know, I would have saved so much info, but it was just another job and JUST another OVER PRICE car back then and I threw away lots of pic's and spec. sheets called "P.A.D'S (Product Asm. Documents)

I think it would have sold more and went on if it listed for around $17,000

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Guest F14CRAZY

Guest F14CRAZY

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There was a supercharged Regal back then, I think with 230 hp. No s/c Reatta prototypes.

I call dibs on driving the RWD prototype first <img src="http://forums.aaca.org/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

My car's drivetrain is already out, maybe I should look into a RWD conversion. Too bad I just bought a new truck and have payments, and a girlfriend...

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JWC 1,000+ Points

JWC

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Phil I parted out a 89 and took the complete drive train out, I was told the motor has about 10,000 miles on it but I can't confirm, it ran good and drove with no problems, if you or any one you know wants this complete motor and trans I'll let it go for $200

Funny you mention the RWD I was watching "GEARS" on espn2 the other day and Stacey was putting a 5.0 into a Miata, so I got to thinking about a V8 RWD Reatta.

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Barney Eaton 25,000+ Points

Barney Eaton

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I believe this is what you are looking for...my provider has been down since Sunday night and I could neither view or send messages..........

Sometime during the winter of '88 spring of '89 Buicks built some fun cars. In the Spring issue of Inside Buick, much the entire issue was devoted to the cars and the people that developed them. Inside Buick is a magazine given to Buick employees and I was fortunate to find my issue at the Olds musuem last September when we attended the Reatta Homecoming.

Dave Sharpe was Buick's general engineering and plannning manager at this time.

He had Michael Doble, manager of advanced comcepts and specialty vehicles build the following cars and they were presented to the press in Phoenix Firebird Raceway.

There was... (1) Electra Estate Wagon (wood trim) with a Grand National turbo engine 0-60=5.18 sec. (2) A red Regal with a supercharged 3800 (0-60=8 sec) (3) A two tone silver Regal with a bump on the hood, rear drive turbocharged and intercooled 3.8 (Note that the 3.8 is the old rear drive version used on the Grand National ...now the Reattas (4) Dark grey Reatta with bump on hood, ground effects, rear drive turbocharged 3.8 (no mention of intercooler) 0-60=7 sec. (5) Front drive Red Reatta "low" boost turbo 3800 front drive 0-60=8 sec. (6) Front drive Red Reatta "high" boost turbo 3.8 0-60= under 6 sec. This "high" boost car was the one that was wrecked.

The story in Inside Buick is a good read with lots of pictures and covers 6 pages. The cars were also covers by some automotive magazines, I have a copy of Car & Driver July 1989 issue, you might find that on Ebay.

Someday I am going to contact Mike Doble and get more information. I had someone looking for his contact info but we never found it. We believe he is retired.

'

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Guest TommyH

Guest TommyH

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<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: nic walker</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Woul;d be GREAT if a printable and readable copy could be made of this article????</div></div>

I have a printed copy of this from a Reatta Press kit. I am still strongly considering scanning and posting all the pictures.

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Barney Eaton 25,000+ Points

Barney Eaton

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There is a 6 page color article about these cars in the Spring 1989 issue of Inside Buick

If there is enough demand, I would be willing to run color copies.

I would need to get prices (color around here is in the .80-.90 cent per page) plus a large envelope and shipping.

I suspect it would run $6.50 minimum.

Here is a page from the article with the wrecked Reatta blown up in the second picture

post-30596-143137984866_thumb.jpg

post-30596-143137984868_thumb.jpg

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Barney Eaton 25,000+ Points

Barney Eaton

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This article mentions several people that had a hand in these cars.

* David Sharpe

* Michael Doble

* Darwin Clark

* John DeCou Jr

* Larry Baker

* Mike Thodoroff

If you know any of these people, invite them to the July meeting in Flint....or send me their contact information and I will invite them. I communicated with Sharpe by email and he gave me Doble's contact information. Doble never responded and through another contact I learned he was not interested in talking about this subject.

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Howard 5,000+ Points

Howard

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I think the article you are refering to is in Automobile Quarterly Vol 28 No 2. The article has two pictures posted of a FWD turbocharged prototype and a 245hp RWD that states it was derived from the Regal Grand National. The article does mention supercharging, but does not state the any Reatta prototypes were built. Several years ago, myself and another member transcribed the entire AQ article. I have not tried to find it through search, but by searching my posts (Howard) and go back several years, you might come across it.

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