some cars were only available in one color... like the GNX

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/5-iconic-muscle-cars-that-were-available-in-a-single-paint-scheme-258330.html

Did you see the Buick GNX half time show? Damn, using a circus clown car routine where an unreal amount of people come jumping out of small vehicle, that's a good trick for a half time show! And the incredible amount of good publicity that the Buick GN/GNX has had recently continues

I saw the car on the stage before the halftime show, and wondered what that was about... 

Road and Track dug into it, and reports that GNX is the latest album name, for Kendrick Lamar who  was brought home from the hospital when born, in a Regal (base of the GN and GNX)

https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a63727200/kendrick-lamar-brought-a-gnx-to-his-super-bowl-halftime-show/

https://www.mensjournal.com/entertainment/kendrick-lamar-super-bowl-car-gnx

a stolen '87 GNX was reacquired 12 years later, it was located just seven miles away. But the cops didn't want to reunite it with it's owner without a fight. It's worth TOO much to let go. (roughly 150k)

It was stolen in 2012 from the front of a restaurant, but the GNX was seized with around a dozen other cars in a Newark drug and gambling operation bust in 2019.

So, that's 7 years of being in the hands of the car thieves, but just because it was found didn’t mean it was returned to it's lawful owner who it was stolen from... nope, it took 7 years to prove the car was his. 

Why would it take so many years to prove who was the rightful owner of a rare vehicle?

 After Essex County law enforcement seized the car along with $1.1 million in drugs, weapons and luxury watches, officials claimed the GNX belonged to the county. 

The owner was required to go to court to obtain it. Studies have found that authorities almost always win in civil asset forfeiture cases and frequently make big money for local governments, which use the funds for padding budgets and funding community programs and equipment upgrades for the police force.

During the hearing, the drug dealer insisted the muscle car was his, stating he bought it in 2012 and it was one of the six Buick Grand Nationals he had previously owned.

However he had tampered with the VIN and scratched off the serial number to obscure the true identity, and ownership related to the VIN and serial number.  A mechanic testified that the car showed signs of tampering, including oddly spaced VIN numbers and a scratched-off serial number.

The drug dealer also claimed the documents proving ownership were all seized by law enforcement and had no proof.

The judge allowed the owners’s mechanic to inspect the car. A 19-page report proved that the car was the same Buick that the mechanic had worked on before it was stolen. To top it off, it was found that the VIN on the car which appeared to be tampered with matched another Buick Regal GNX that was previously reported as a total loss from fire and rollover damage.

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/recovered-1987-buick-regal-gnx

A seriously good documentary on the Buick GN (I never heard of the 1982 hoj)

http://gmauthority.com/blog/2017/10/in-its-heyday-the-buick-gnx-was-quicker-than-a-ferrari-f40-video/

Buick had quite a few of the GNX engines left over, so Pontiac picked up the turbo V-6s and put them in the 1989 20th Anniversary Trans Am.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/g790/10-surprising-facts-about-american-muscle-cars/

the last GNX produced by GM, the one they call No. 547, was just accidentally found, and it's only got 67 miles on it. It was bought, coveted, and taken care of, but not really ever enjoyed

GNXs were being sold at dealer-only auctions, with prices skyrocketing to $75,000 in some instances—more than double the car’s sub-$30,000 MSRP, that was in 1987, when $30,000 was one hell of a lot of money for new factory muscle.

Northside Buick in Pittsburgh was advertising its last GNX for sale. Ron immediately called the dealership and told the salesman that he would take the car sight-unseen for $32,000 cash.

 Ron went to the dealer right away to pick up his gleaming trophy

A month later Ron received a call from the dealership. “We have a problem,” the conversation started. “Turns out number 547 was the last off the production line, and GM would like to have it back.” Now, Ron really loved that GNX and had every right to own the car. So he did what most muscle car guys would do. He said no.

He never titled the car, so GM would really never know where the car was, or even if it still existed. It was kept on its Manufacturer’s Statement of Origin.

Every six months or so he would take it out and drive it, if only for a few miles. The car racked up about 50 miles over the years, mainly on twice-yearly trips around the block.

But the need to drive a GNX soon got the best of him, so he did what most car guys would do if they had the means: He bought another GNX.

His wife was selling a car for a friend, and let it slip that 547 belonged to her husband, and the person she was talking to is incredibly rich, and made an incredibly big dollar offer. So, now it's onto it's 2nd owner.

http://www.hotrod.com/articles/mythical-no-547-1987-buick-gnx-real-know-not-telling/

The largest collection of GNs in the world, and a warehouse of GN parts, includes a GNX that has never been tanked up and turned on

Richard Clark's shop in Burlington North Carolina

http://www.letskolab.com/the-worlds-largest-collection-of-buick-grand-nationals/
https://gbodyforum.com/threads/turbo-buick-nationals-at-richard-clarks-shop.37553/
http://www.autoblog.com/2012/12/06/movie-review-black-air-the-buick-grand-national-documentar/

The Buick GN gets it's own movie doumentary!

found on http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2012/07/19/coming-soon-the-other-dark-knight-film/

Next month, Buick performance enthusiasts will get a sneak peak at a documentary film that shines the spotlight on the hottest car to roll out of Flint in the last 25 years when the first 20 minutes of Black Air: The Buick Grand National Documentary will be shown at the Buick Performance Group Nationals on August 4 at the National Trail Raceway in Hebron, OH. The film is scheduled to be released in early December.

Filmmaker Andrew Filippone Jr. has spent four years tracking down Buick GN and GNX owners, racers and collectors, as well as members of the media who road tested the cars, plus the key players responsible for engineering, styling and marketing at Buick and General Motors.

In the documentary, Filippone said he attempted to explore new territory (for a car film), delving into issues of culture, social class, inheritance, and privilege as it related to the turbocharged V-6 Buicks, and away from the usual focus on mechanics and performance.  

http://gnmovie.com/

Another dealership with an unsold musclecar, this time an '87 GNX, last one was a '69 Daytona

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/dec/10/business/la-fi-autos-buick-gnx-20101211 for the GNX with 136 miles. The Los Angeles dealership bought it from GM, tried once or twice to make a killing by auctioning it off, and never succeeded. They eventually decided to keep it as an investment they can one day cash in.

http://www.hemmings.com/newsletter/newsletter.html?volume=1&issue=45 for the 1969 Charger Daytona that kept getting shifted between two dealerships but never sold from it's Virgina home... til in 2004 someone recalled they had a gold mine stuffed away in the attic of the dealership and it went to Mecum auctions. I read about it in a magazine, but can't recall much about it.

tipped to the GNX from Jalopnik

2008 Clairemont neighborhood park car show

Mike's latest, and soon to be on it's way (with a snowmaker for an AC system) to Hot August Nights in Reno. Last year Mike drove his roadster (Grand National Raodster Award) runner up... and it was a bit sweaty through the desert.
Very well restored, and painted in his driveway (really nice job too!) he bought it for a couple hundred from a high school body shop class. With the parts from a donor car in his backyard, and lots of swapmeet searching, it's a great transformation.
And the liscense plates? I asked about those, seems the US Olympic celebrational plates of 1984 were a bit confusing when he read about them on paper... and he got them with the notion that they would have a certain diplomatic effect

This is what he traded the purple 33 3 window for... straigh across, he was tired of the 33, and looking for something a little more streetable
The purple car is the last photo in this post: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2007/03/2007-del-mar-goodguys.html

the first time I've come across this radio

Looks backward to me. Possibly a prank by a car club member?

Long ago, like in the late 60's and 70's, an 8 track player was a common upgrade... but never seen anymore
Plymouth grill with a new perspective
A different Plymouth, '33 and very cool

Real aged patina

I dig the circle around the number of the speedometer, rare feature in all those I've seen

Corvair side ramp, and the first I've had good lighting to take photos of