Buick Grand National Documentary in the Works

Just as the title suggests, a documentary is expected to drop next year featuring the story of the Buick Grand National.

Note: There is a trailer for the documentary in the link to the story below.

The story from AutoWeek:



Producer explores the Buick Grand National in Black Air documentary

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The Buick Grand National is one of those cars that most car fans have a story about. Its production numbers are some of the lowest in Buick history--today, they're rarer than ever.

Banking on our love of semiclassic (read: '80s) muscle, producer Andrew Filippone Jr. is bringing us Black Air: The Buick Grand National Documentary, set to arrive in summer 2012.

The first teaser video is titled "A Strange and Curious Misfit."

With the recent evolution of the Buick brand into something more sporting and the return of the Regal nameplate, more customers have been recalling the famed Grand National and GNX.

Those cars arrived at a time when most makers were choking powerplants to record low levels of output. Buick threw caution to the wind and unleashed the Grand National in 1982.

It was a misfit, according to Filippone, because "it didn't belong with the cars of its era or even the cars in its brand. It lived in between classes."

Only a handful of the turbocharged V6 Buicks were built, and in '82, the engine put out a mere 175 hp. Power went up to 200 hp in 1984, with 300 lb-ft of torque--a good amount for the time. It was enough to beat the Chevrolet Camaro in a quarter-mile and even give some Corvettes a run for the money.

Still, the Buick is a funny car to choose for a documentary.

"I wanted to do a doc about class and the stratifications of classes. Something about one's station in life," Filippone said. "For some reason, I thought of the first Grand National I saw when I was 16."

Filippone isn't a car guy. He jokes that he knows where the gas goes and not much else. But it was Buick's fire-breather that fit his theme.

The last year of the Grand National was 1987, when the GNX hit the street with McLaren know-how underhood. Output was 276 hp and 360 lb-ft of torque, good for a sub-five-second 0-to-60-mph time and a quarter-mile time of 13.5 seconds.

Filippone says it's a story about triumph. He's almost finished shooting the documentary after three years of work.

"The GNX was the pinnacle of that Buick," he said. "It was the triumph of the misfit."

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To say that I'm excited about this is an understatement. I think that's also true about anyone who has ever had this car in their top 10 favorites.

I've always wanted to own one of these beautiful but hard-to-find cars (and some day still hope to). It's prowess and power are hard to rival even by today's standards and its aggressive look made it a car not to be messed with.

I honestly wish cars today were made like they were when the GN was on the streets - perhaps we would have more pride in some of the cars coming out off what seem to be cookie-cutter factories.

I'm glad to see that a truly one of a kind car is getting a closer look. As an auto enthusiast, this truly brightens my day.

AF has had a strong relationship with the Grand National, many of our members own, or owned one, and one of our best members died in one last year.


Be interesting to see if we could get in contact with the guy making it?