Will This $200,000 1987 Buick GNX Set An Auction Record?
A Buick GNX is on the block. One of the rare 1987 muscle cars is currently up for auction on Bring a Trailer and the bidding is already sky high.
Buick built just 547 of the black coupes, which were developed in partnership with ASC and McLaren. It’s 3.8-liter V8 is fitted with a Garrett AiReasearch T3 turbocharger that cranked it up to 276 hp and 360 lb-ft. Those were the official numbers, at least. Independent testing suggested it was significantly more powerful than that.
Power was sent to the wheels through a four-speed Turbo-Hydramatic transmission and limited slip rear differential. A contemporary Car and Driver test found it could accelerate to 60 mph in 4.7 secs. and cover a quarter-mile in 13.5 secs., making it one of the quickest cars of the era.
Many of the cars have survived with extremely low mileage, even down to the single digits. The example up for auction is #447 and shows 1,174.8 miles on its odometer. It is all-original, but is missing its factory floor mats and its battery was last replaced in 2024.
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The car is being offered with a GNX jacket and detachable rear center armrest with the build number embroidered in it.
With two days left in the auction that ends on Sunday, Dec. 28 at 1 p.m. ET when this story was posted, the bidding had reached $200,000, suggesting that it is a hot ticket item.
The all-time record for a GNX was set in 2022 when a 568-mile car sold for $308,000, but the highest price paid over the past year was $255,000 for an 843-mile car.
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GM President Mark Reuss was an engineer working for Buick when the GNX was in development. His father, Lloyd Reuss was running the brand at the time and originally gave the project the green light.
“He had a saying about the Grand Nationals: ‘Fast With Class,’ And I think that’s why Grand National, and especially GNX, resonated with customers back then, and why it still does today as strongly as ever – because it’s so fast,” Reuss told GM News. “It would beat Corvettes, Ferraris, all the exotics – it was the fastest car on the road in America.”
“When you drive one, even now, it’s frighteningly fast from 0-60,” he says. “But it isn’t bad at all, ride and handling-wise – it still rides like a Buick. You can drive it all day on the highway. It’s very nice to drive… all the comforts, like air conditioning, T-tops, concert sound, power seats, power antenna if you remember those… it was a fully loaded Buick. But brutal. In the best way.”