Feb 02, 2005
Hi Everyone, As I look outside this morning, Sunday Jan. 30th, its cold, but a bright sun - getting warmer and the day light hours longer. Two months from now - the cars will be coming out again. That's a good thing.
Hey, the meeting of January 15th was attended by 18. Amongst the regulars, we had Grant Farmer, Andrew Bates and Dave Andrews present. It was good to see all of you. Also, find enclosed a club list for your reference.
Jerry Thompson donated a couple bottles of wine and very nice Sears screw driver set for the raffle-- and NO- Steve Bayes did NOT win it-- I did! Now I can't say I never win anything. Thanks Jerry!
The Track Rental is still on for two race day events- April 24th and Sept- 9/11. Make a note of those dates. Even if you do not run your car- come out with the family, because- its more about camaraderie than anything else.
I brought up the issue of having Jack Cotton attending the race event on 4/24. The deal was, he would come out for a fee and tune on anyone's car. The cost was NOT approved by the members at this meeting - so, its a no go.
Our next meeting is set for February 19th and the same place and time- 6 pm at the Athens Rest in Cheek. We are focusing on raising money for the track rentals and the family outing. Your ideas are needed and appreciated.
Plus, at this next meeting, we will discuss the upcoming Norwalk Ohio, Bowling Green Ky (Nationals) and Buick Performance Group outing in Salem Ohio.
If there are any of you who still have not ordered your club T- Shirt- you need to contact Ron Turch right away- 825-4042.
One final note. On the upcoming indoor car show at the Erie county Fair Grounds. Myself, Steve Bayes and Mark Burnam were going to enter our cars. That has been snuffed out because of time constraints.Hopefully next year it will work out. Plus, we have this entire summer to get out to shows and cruises.
Now onto the Technical side to this letter and who else would be best prepared than out own Bus Covert. See you at the next meeting. Larry
Some of you know our GN came from Canada. Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to be exact. But what does that mean?
It means that of the 20,194 GNs produced in 1987, 1,695 were exported to Canada, or about 8% of production.
It means that our GN has some unusual RPOs. Among them:
Also, although engine block heaters were indicated to be an unavailable option for extended build cars, our GN has the K05 ENGINE BLOCK HEATER. So much for rules. We suspect all 1987 Canadian GNs got K05. Our 1987 Canadian T got K05, too.
Our GN was produced on November 16, 1987. The production sequence number is 463161. The dealer was Rond-Point Pontiac Buick GMC Ltd./Levis, PQ. For reference, the last GN was produced on December 11, 1987, and its production sequence number is 465288. Ours is a very late car.
Both our GN and T have been documented by General Motors of Canada Limited, for the sum of $96.30 Canadian. Owners of Canadian cars have the advantage that General Motors of Canada Limited maintains such records. You might keep this in mind if you ever purchase a Canadian TR, or other make/model for that matter.
OK, that's fine, but what differences would the average TR enthusiast notice? Well, the most obvious difference is that the speedometer has primary units of km/h and secondary units of MPH, 140 and 85 full scale, respectively. Over the years a few folks have mistaken our speedometer for the 145 MPH speedometer face plate decal Kirban and others sell. Nope. In keeping with the metric theme, the odometer and trip odometer are in km.
There is a decal in the RH quarter window declaring GM Canada/Official Sponsor/XVOlympic Winter games/Commanditaire Officiel/Xves Jeux Olympiques dhiver/Calgary 1988. You know - Katarina Witt, Alberto Tomba, Eddie The Eagle Edwards, Bonnie Blair. Hey, remember Tomba tried to hook up with Katarina? Bet he crashed and burned.
Under the hood, on the heater box, the VEHICLE EMISSION CONTROL INFORMATION decal is P/N 25523102, and reflects that the vehicle conforms to TRANSPORT CANADA emissions regulations.
There are 11 other decals you will not be familiar with, 6 under the hood, 2 on the driver's side door and 3 in the trunk. Most are in French, a few are bilingual. Some have GM part numbers. Some French decals were simply applied directly over the English decals you are familiar with. Your JACKING INSTRUCTIONS is our INSTRUCTIONS DE LEVAGE. Hope we never get a flat.
Moving on, we signed the check for the car on March 7, 1999. At the time the odometer read 5,876 km (3,649 miles). However, the car remained snug in the garage of its previous owner in Montreal, waiting for better weather. We are patient. We cleared Customs in Alexandria Bay, NY on July 11, 1999.
Clearing Customs was a relatively simple exercise as our GN, like all GNs, was assembled in Pontiac, MI. Thus, it met EPA and DOT standards at the time of manufacture. Preparatory to clearing Customs, we obtained a letter from General Motors of Canada Limited documenting that it did, for the sum of $69.55 Canadian, and which we presented to Customs. Best of all, as the car was assembled in the US, there was no duty. We liked that a lot.
We registered the car at Wheatfield Street the following day, including paying a substantial sum for sales taxes, for which we received, um, the right to register the car? Here's where we'd normally go into a tirade about Erie County/New York State, but we digress. Today the odometer reads 27,486 km (17,069 miles).
Our GN has seldom been to the track. Its best ET and MPH were at the GS Nationals in Bowling Green, KY on June 15, 2001, when it ran 12.010 @ 118.12. Crummy ET, nice MPH, you say? Well, at the time the car had a PT52, but the stock D5, a poor marriage, as reflected by a 60' of 1.941. The car now has a PTS 9/11. On September 17, 2004, at WNYTBCC's track rental at Leicester, NY, the car ran a best of 12.222 @ 110.19 on 93 and methanol, at 23 PSI, 18* timing, on worn out slicks. While we're pleased with that, it's not our track car, so we have no particular goals for it. For that matter, who knows if it will ever make it to the track again?
So what we have here is a low miles, extended build, hard roof GN, with every available option at the time of production excepting California emissions, t-tops, power driver's seat and the factory alarm, 4 options about which we are not enthused.
We bought the GN because the T was never going to be on the street, and thus we were stuck with nothing to cruise. We intended to leave it stock, as we already had one toy in the T, and had just restored/modded the GN we sold to Chris Chestnut, at substantial cost. So much for good intentions. They did say Going /Fast/ With Class, didn't they?
We close by saying thanks for letting us ramble on about our GN, think Spring, and peace! Our build-up follows: