Gentlemen, start your engines! Not in the future plans for Buick, but that's why I'm here. Click to see this Black Beauty larger.
C H O P — The sophisticated new 2010 Buick Lacrosse is a million light-years away from the snarling Regal Grand Nationals from the 1980s. . . until now, lol. I created this new Grand National last year as a response to a question on a forum as to what one might look like.
A copy of the original press photo I started with of the 2010 Buick Lacrosse, for those not familiar with this beautiful new domestic car.
I think my fellow forum members were expecting a modern-day 4 door coupe with performance overtones. I re-created this demonic GN in all of its Darth Vader badassness instead. In a perfect example of how far the design game has moved on, I actually had to make the original Lacrosse donor less coupe-like, ie more of a notchback instead of the fastback, to make this car a coupe in the '80s mold.
The original mid-80s Regal Grand National coupe. In black, natch. (Image from Google Images.)
Great job ! Love seeing the return of an aggressive bad ass coupe !
ReplyDeleteNow the trick is getting the big three to pay attention.
Nice, but where is the "wind wing"?
ReplyDeleteI don't think we'll see those days again... unless there is a Volt supercar someday. Stranger things have happened, lol.
ReplyDeleteCAsey,
ReplyDeleteBefore I read your comment I thought it looked like a badass Mercury Milan! It would be amazing if Buick could actually do something like this with the LaCrosse. They seem, at this time, to be pinning their performance hopes on versions of the Regal.
Paul, New York City
I just started seeing Regal commercials on TV, they're pushing the German-ness of it. It also starts out at $26,995 I believe. How much is the LaCrosse? I thought that started out at the same price. The commercial also mentioned Regal's standard 12-way power driver's seat. That seems more like it should be an option on their smallest car. I haven't gone around to dealers to get their brochures in years, but I might have to go get some Buick ones and see what they're really doing.
ReplyDeleteCasey,
ReplyDeleteOne of the criticisms of what Buick is doing is that this is priced so cloely to the LaCrosse -- which I think starts just $1,000 or $2,000 higher.
I find brochures not as interesting as they used to be -- I was an avid collector as a youth and still get them all at the NY Auto Show but after I leaf through them once, that's it. They are pretty forgetable. Online is where it's at -- I love to "build and price" online. You can check out all the new Buicks there (but I'm sure you know that!). In fact, I may do just that as soon as I send this in!
Paul, New York City
Casey,
ReplyDeleteAs promised, I just checkt he official Buick website and the starting price that they list is the same at $26,245. That seems very odd to me. Were I e=in charge of Buick (well, first of all there would be a Riviera hardtop [pillarless, of course] and a Wildcat convertible [both could be based off the LaCrosse if a RWD platform is impossible at this time -- those are about style, after all) I would drop the lower-trim levels of the LaCrosse to give the Regal some room to breathe. Regal could stay with the same startign price but have a $3-4,000 jump to the LaCrosse.
If only they would listen...
Paul, new York City
that DOES seem an odd marketing decision. I wonder if they'll change the 'mix' after a while? I'm not sure the average buyer will 'get' that the Regal is a performance model and the LaCrosse is a premium offering. I think they'll see small and large, even though they're not all that different in size either. It will be interesting!
ReplyDeleteI like YOUR product ideas of course!
That does look like a mean car to me with attitude : )
ReplyDeleteReminds me of my high school days! My friend back then bought a Monte Carlo SS blacked out everywhere with a super bass system that till this day has killed a few hairs in my ear.
On a lighter note, check this out:
http://www.saabsunited.com/2010/08/photoshopping-a-saab-9-5-coupe.html
thanks for that link, Woody! believe it or not, I just downloaded a bunch of new 9-5 photos last night to start a coupe version one of these days. Now I really want to do it. I don't think that red one quite hits the mark. The guy has great skills, it's a seamless chop, I just don't like the way he sloped the roof so much, and the black window trim is odd with the chrome 'hockey stick' molding. I"ll have to get on it one of these days! I spent almost 10 hours today working on images for future posts on this blog!!! that would have been chopping time before. Oh well, this is fun too.
ReplyDeleteBadass, indeed. Call me crazy, but I think Buick would sell every Grand National of your design it could build.
ReplyDelete