guionM

Buick has been working on getting a coupe in it's lineup for 10 years that I know of. Coupe proposals ranged from a version of the Kappa, to a retractable hardtop Espilon to a production version of the Velite (which would have almost certainly wore the Rivera name, to an actual Rivera concept done up by China. The old GM simply refused to put up the money for a Buick coupe (scarce cash was put towards vehicle programs that had bigger payoffs). Right now, I believe the issue is allocating engineering resources (GM is a much leaner comany now), and I believe those resource's first priority isn't creating a coupe for Buick.

One other thing to consider about ideas for Buick is that the GM divisions left have a narrow focus on it's target market. While the differences between Oldsmobile and Buick or Pontiac and Chevrolet buyers were a little thin, you aren't going to see a Buick that could be done by Chevrolet or Cadillac. In other words, you aren't going to see a Regal that could compete (in performance or in target market) with a Cadillac ATS.

Finally, regarding the Grand National and the GNX nameplate, Grand National name is owned by NHRA if I understand it correctly, so you won't see that name on a Buick. GNX is possible on a future GMHP Regal. But I wouldn't expect it to be like the GNX of the 80s. Even in the wanning days of the original GNX, Buick was almost embarrased to have the car. I'd expect a new GNX to be more Autobaun runner than pavement ripper.

krj-1168

As some who remembers the 1987 GNX very fondly. The Grand National GNX wasn't a turbo charged 4 cylinder FWD or AWD Car. Instead it was a fire-breathing large V6, RWD car with Black Paint . While the 1987 GNX didn't handle or brake anywhere nearly as good as the 87 Corvette, IROC-Z, or Trans Ams for it's day. It was could easily take any of them on a drag-strip.

In My Personal Opinion - any modern package for a GNX (be it by SLP or GM) should also be with a Turbocharged V6, RWD car, and stay true to it's 1980's name sake. A better idea would be for Buick to build a Pontiac G8-style sport sedan with a top-of the-line engine being a turbocharged version of the Camaro/CTS V6 (say around 400-420 hp). That way - you would have a car that could truely live up to the original GNX's reputation.

Since the stock package for the top-of-the-line Regal is the GS (Grand Sport) with it's 270hp Turbocharged 2.0L Ecotec. Then I think SLP's upgraded packaged should be called GSX - not GNX

GSX - is basically the eXtreme version of the Grand Sport.
GNX - is basically the eXtreme version of the Grand National.

There's a big difference.

jg95z28

Most likely its owned by NASCAR. The Sprint Cup series was called the Grand National (1950-71) before it was known as The Winston Cup... and the Nationwide Series was previously the Busch Grand National series.

guionM

Yep.. your right.

Pontiac Grand Prix was once known as a 2 door, big engine, rear drive luxo-cruiser. Yet the best 2 Grand Prixs ever made had 4 doors. One powered by a blown V6 and the other a small V8, both pulling through the front wheels.

The fastest Monte Carlo ever made was the last FWD versions of the SS.

Impala was once nothing more than a family car, yet it was recreated in the early 90s as the car Darth Vader would have bought.


The Grand National GNX you speak of was a car that wasn't made by GM (it was made by McLauren and sold in Buick showrooms), cost more than a Corvette (it was $30,000, while Corvettes started at $27K), and less than 550 were produced... GM's likely to sell twice that number in ZR! Corvettes... which unlike the GNX, happen to actually be made by GM.

The reason I bring all this up is threefold.

1. It's pretty misguided to direct any issue regarding the GNX to GM. They didn't create the original car & don't own the rights to the name.

2. Splitting hairs between what a GNX and GSX is also misguided, since the GSX is what Buick's muscle cars (actually produced by GM for Buick) were actually called.

3. Times change. unless your talking about historic cars like the Corvette, Camaro, Mustang, or even Thunderbird, just about everything else is open to reinterpretation for the realities of today.

The SS name doesn't mean that because in the 60s it featured V8s that everything that label is on today should have nothing but V8s any more than SRTs should be solely V10s because their first car (the Viper) had it.

Buick hasn't had a GSX in 40 years. If it came back as a AWD turbo 4 being that most of all of it's potential buyers would have been barely more than todlers in diapers when GM sold the last one, no one would really give a hoot. If it were quicker than any GSX ever was in history, that would be an added bonus.

When Chrysler brought out the LX Charger back in 05, there were the purist, and the self-proclaimed Charger "experts" who slammed the car because Dodge "soiled" the name by putting it on a sedan instead of a 2 door coupe that didn't have a 440, or any Charger styling. What those so-called keepers of the flame didn't realize was that the car they were talking about hadn't been made in 40 years (the were so focused on the 60s version that they missed the late 70s one and the small 80s version).

That group was flattened as Chargers sold anyway... in large numbers.... and redefined what a muscle car was for a whole new age of people.

The GSX is the same idea.

And if McLaren wants to reserrect the GNX name on yet another aftermarket car, they own the name, they made the last one, and they can do anything they want with it. Write them.

As for the Grand National name, read the previous post.

HuJass

I always thought the X stood for eXperimental.

guionM

GS= Grand Sport.

The "X" much like the "R" a few years ago, and the "i" a bit farther back, is sa letter designating a sporter vehicle.

You may be right in that it may have been initially meant to designate "experimental" since AMC first used the letter designating a concept car in the mid 60s, and carried it into their sportier cars later (AMX, Gremlin X, Hornet X).

Caps94ZODG

so off topic..but you did mention Pontiac..what did GXP stand for???

guionM

"Galaxy Police"..... sorry, that's anime.

"Generation X Production".... naw, that's not it either.


Actually, unlike GTO, or Z28, or SS, the GXP letters used by Pontiac for their performance line are not actually the initials for anything.

If you do a search on the internet, you'll see all types of creative things people came up with. One says "G type, X-treme Performance", but thats something made up by someone.

While the GXP is simply a name made up to denote high performance Pontiacs (Grand Prix, Solstice, G6, and G8 all wore the badge), the former "GTP" version of the Grand Prix actually has a short story behind it.

Pontiac was more than a little eager to bring back the GTO almost from the day it died. The Original Pontiac Grand Am was created as the GTO. The late 70s Can Am was to be a GTO. At least one supercharged version of the Grand Am came within a whisker of reaching production in the late 90s. None got to wear the name because some voices of reason won out each time. The GTP name was meant to invoke the spirit of the GTO, while leaving the GTO name free for some future car with that name. GTP was in some minds, the spiritual sucessor of the GTO.

One last bit of trivia.

During the '99 auto show season, GM took a foam based, GTO concept around the car show circuit. It wasn't taken very seriously at the time, but this car was based on the original plans for a 5th gen F-body that was to be based on the upcoming Sigma platform (which was to include the Camaro... the Firebird name was to be retired).

The project was by that time, cancelled. However, there was a few GM North America people at Holden who were originally there to try to make a few versions of their new RWD cars marketable in the US, mainly the Statesman (Buick) and (ironically)a Pontiac sedan. What became the Monaro couldn't become the Camaro primarily because of the agreement with the workers at Ste Therese. The whole project died, but when Lutz came to GM and visited Holden the 1st time, a bug was placed in his ear to sell the Monaro in the US as a GTO. The rest is history.

Sorry for the long answer, but I guess since we were going to drive off subject, why not throw it off the road completely?

SSCamaro99_3

It is amazing how much that vehicle resembles the 5th gen, particularly in the rear of the greenhouse and the top of the rear fenders.

Z28x

Windows XP
Office XP
AMD Athlon XP
Pontiac GXP

XP was just the popular thing to call your product in the early 2000's.

Hoodshaker

To complete the circle here, you may remember that the the first appearance of those three letters on a Pontiac (although in a different order) was the concept car was the 300 GPX concept, which eventually became the new 1997 Grand Prix.

Much earlier than that you may recall the Pontiac xp-833 concept

I can speculate that they played with the order to allow for the Grand Prix X concept, but years later when they decided to apply it to different models they could go back to the original order "XP" and add the "G" to round it out and adhere to the 3 digit RPO code format. (This paragraph is 100% speculation by me.)

jg95z28

I'm pretty sure all GM prototype concepts get an "XP" designation, regardless of brand. It has nothing to do with Pontiac.

HuJass

Don't forget the Sea-Doo XP.

HuJass

My take on the Pontiac thing is this:

They lifted the GTP name from the class of cars in the LeMans type racing series.
Then, when Pontiac came out with more powerful versions of the cars that had carried the GTP moniker, they changed it to GXP. Again, maybe the X stood for experimental.

And for some reason, I'm thinking that there was 1 year when both the GTP AND GXP trim levels were available.

Eric77TA

I remember when the 300 GPX was shown thinking that there was no way (based on past experience) that the production car was even half as cool. I was absolutely blown away when the production version ended up being 95% as cool. The 1997 Grand Prix was a great looking car and a huge success. Hard to believe only a little more than 10 years later, Pontiac would be history.