What Does GNX Stand For On Buick?

Though Buick has delivered a few legit speed machines, it is, perhaps, not a name commonly associated with the muscle car movement. That was particularly true in the 1980s, with Buick's lineup shifting more towards luxury-minded automobiles. But even amid that shift, muscle cars were seeing a renaissance in the U.S. and beyond, and Buick ultimately got in on the high-octane action in a major way.

The company did so by turning its design crew loose to radically re-imagine the capabilities of its long-running Regal build, with said team debuting the Grand National — named in honor of the NASCAR Winston Cup Series — in 1982. Buick's Grand National would eventually spin off from the Regal, evolving over the next few years to deliver more raw power than one might expect from such a large vehicle. By 1987, the ahead-of-their-time muscle car builds were also fronting a new suffix, in the guise of GNX. While some Buick devotees were no doubt confused by that suffix, it was quickly revealed that they stood for Grand National Experimental.

The world would soon realize that the Buick GNX was more than just a wild experiment undertaken by the American automaker, instead a pointed attempt to deliver a true king among kings to 1980s muscle car-loving masses. And to the shock of many in the scene of the day, the brand some had come best to know for luxury managed to deliver.  

On the surface, the Buick Grand National Experimental presented itself like the four-wheeled yachts of years past. Under the hood, however, the GNX was anything but, with Buick teaming with specialists at McLaren Performance Technologies to give the build a serious makeover — one that would enable it to take on with the likes of legendary Italian speed house Lamborghini.

The GNX did more than tangle with Lamborghini in the late-1980s, with the wildly experimental Buick narrowly besting the Italian brand's iconic Countach in terms of 0 to 60 mph get up and go. Believe it or not, the GNX's astonishing 4.7 second 0 to 60 mph time was also enough to topple virtually every notable sports car of the era, including the Ferrari Testarossa (5.0 seconds), the Chevrolet Corvette (5.8 seconds), and the Ford Mustang 5.0 (over 6 seconds). Those numbers ultimately made the GNX one of the most impressive supercars of the 1980s, if not all time. 

Perhaps as breathtaking as the GNX's 0 to 60 numbers is the fact that Buick's and McLaren's designers were able to achieve it with just a V6 under the hood. The 3.8L power plant was, of course, also outfitted with a Garrett Turbocharger and intercooler which — along with other upgrades — produced a recorded 276 horsepower and 360 lb-ft of torque. But independent tests put those numbers at 300 hp and 400 lb-ft of torque, which helped make the Buick GNX the fastest production car in the world when it was released. With Buick producing just 547 of them, the GNX now also ranks among the rarest.