How come GN's didn't all come with faster speedo's than 85mph?o No: Right out of the box they can do all of that, and im sure that they can go way faster than what they say!ou: My car's speedo says 100, and when new, it could do all that very conservatively with the little non turbo'd 231 V6. Is there any after-market speedo's that can fit a GN's applications and have a wider MPH range. You can easily break an 85 mph speedo in a GN, especially at a track when your looking for good E/T's. GNX's came with 160 mph speedo's. Is there any wider ranged speedo's out there for GN's than an 85 mph one? Thanks -Cody
Cody, When these cars were designed, the Federal Government mandated that all cars be capable of displaying only speeds up to 85 mph. The theory was if you couldn't see how fast you were going, you would have no reason to go that fast. I believe that law was repealed in the mid 80's sometime, thus you have the 1987 GNX that would display 160 mph. Buick (and GM for that matter) knew the G Body cars were at the end of their cycle and would be replaced shortly, so they elected not to redesign the speedometer on the Regal's. The GNX had a completely different instrument cluster, so putting a higher reading speedometer was no big deal. There are companies out there that do re-calibrate the 85 mph speedometers to read higher, but I don't have there name off hand.
Thanks Brad. I just thought it up at the moment and wondered about it. I know them GN's can go faster/way faster than what they read.:bglasses: -Cody
AFAIK, aside from GNX's they all had 85MPH only from the factory, even the digital dash cars. I have heard of getting a Metric speedo for a GN and recalibrating it to be MPH. That's one way. Another is that Poston sells a 140MPH faceplate and reduction gear set that makes it look like a factory job. For the digital dash guys, Poston sells a modified MPH LED set that will display up to 199 (plenty fast!) instead of just flashing "85" when you go faster. I'm not trying to give an endorsement either way on Poston, I just remember seeing that stuff in their GN catalog. A third way is to retrofit a dash cluster from an early 90's Cutlass Ciera. It's major surgery, but it looks the way that the GN dash SHOULD HAVE looked from the factory. Look here for a guy to email for pictures, if you're interested: http://turbobuick.com/forums/showth...&perpage=10&highlight=ciera dash&pagenumber=4 - Freed
I believe the GNX were able to have the faster speedo because it was done off campus, i.e. at ASC McLaren. Federal law didn't cover the "non-manufacturer" conversions. That is how auto manufacturere got around roll over standards and continued to provide convertibles after 1976 (remember the $40k 1976 Eldo converts, last ones to ever be built!). It took the manufacturers a few years to figure this out, though (hard to find a late 70's convertible). This brings into discussion the high cost of all these off campus conversions, including the GNX. Other than rarity, I could never see the bang per buck in the GNX parts when new at $10K over a good GN. The same holds true for early-mid 80's Riv/Eldo converts, which were really expensive conversions when new. Dan
Actually, Casper's Electronics does the digital dash 199 mph conversion...All that is replaced is an IC chip on the circuit board...The display already has the triple digits to read km...
The converson also screws up the odometer due to the reducer. 100 miles driven will only register 68 on the odometer. This is of course for the analog dash.
I've even thought about sending my digital dash out to Poston, but that would ruin my excuse "officer I was only going 85??"
Just send it out to Casper's...He's closer to ya(Just north of Chicago), and he's the one who does them for Poston's...John Spina at Casper's is the guy who owns GNVenom, the GN powered Cobra kitcar that has been at the NATS...Poston's will have to send it out to Casper's to have that mod done...It would just be quicker to cut out the middleman...
