MORE GRIP THAN SLIP
I’ve been a reader for many years, and never so amused as on seeing the GMC Typhoon and Syclone in your July issue. Around the time those two vehicles appeared, I had just returned to my job at Mitchell Manuals in the USA after working in the UK for Glass’s Guide; both companies were owned by Thomson Corp, and both engaged in all sorts of automotive service procedures – parts, labour times, collision estimating, etc – for the trade.
We hosted an executive from General Motors one day, and during a casual conversation I asked him about these two trucks, having owned a Buick Regal T-type as part of my fleet for some time. “Those two cost us the most in warranty repair from any vehicle I can think of,” he exclaimed.
I asked why, and he went on: “It’s the all-wheel-drive system, which means there’s no wheelspin! Tyre spin saves the Regal/Grand National/ GNX powertrains from suffering the same woes, but in those two vehicles the universal joints blew up in testing, so we strengthened them. Then the axle shafts twisted, so we made those heavier, and then finally the transfer cases blew up. We didn’t have anything stronger that would fit, so in the end we turned down the boost and the timing to save the customer aggravation – and the warranty costs.
“But customers felt that there had to be more in the engines, so they put free-flowing intakes and exhausts on, got a performance chip, tuned it up to get horsepower in the high 300s and blew up their drivetrains.” I decided to save myself the trouble and passed on the ‘lightly used’ ex-demonstrator vehicle they had for sale, since it wouldn’t spin its wheels to save my pocketbook.
My fleet did appear in the July 1991 issue of C&SC, just before we moved to England, in a Past and present story about my as-new Slough-built 1955 Citroën 2CV. As you can see in the picture, the Regal had just gone, to be replaced by a big, white Riviera convertible.
Michael Roeder
Via email
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Sun sets on Solara
Roger Pailesʼ letter in August, describing how he overcame the broken throttle cable on Tom Jonesʼ Triumph Stag, brought back fond memories of my childhood.
We were he
