Buick Grand National - I can't decide what I like best about this car: the fact that it did 0-60 in 4.8 seconds, or the fact that it did it with 235 horsepower. It's actually comical: the current Nissan Altima 3.5SE has 250 horsepower, does 0-60 in 6.9 seconds with its automatic transmission, and weighs 3001lbs. In 1986, Buick actually expected us to believe that a vehicle with 15
less horsepower weighing 520
more pounds was a full
TWO seconds quicker to 60mph.
As Car & Driver says in their July '05 50th Anniversary Issue:
- April 1986: "...we test a $122,000 Lamborghini Countach (0 to 60 in 5.1 seconds)..."
- May 1986: "We test a Buick Regal Grand National that weighs 3520 pounds, is shaped like a dishwasher, and makes an advertised 235 horsepower. Somehow, the car blasts to 60mph in 4.9 seconds - quicker than the just-tested Countach. We ask Buick what the car's actual, you know, real life horsepower rating is. Buick asks what the definition of 'is' is."
Chrysler Prowler - seeing a Prowler is rare, but seeing a Chrysler Prowler is rarer; the Plymouth version was manufactured from 1997 to 2001, but the Chrysler model was only sold in 2002.
I was thinking this wasn't real, because real ones are worth like $500k, but Carroll Shelby signed it. Anyone want to give their opinion? Or some fact? It was at a show along with three replicas, and it looked a lot more worn and aged than those three.
NOTE: this is Sage's favorite car.
BY THE WAY: Duke, you're off the hook on the ACR numbers if you can tell me whether the Cobra is real.
