A few days ago, Buick announced that two of its engineers were entering the upcoming Regal GS into Nevada’s Silver State Classic speed challenge. Bill Rietow, GS lead development and John Townsend, GS drive quality powertrain engineers drove a stock, 270 horsepower sport sedan in the 120 mph Grand Touring class and walked away with the hot-rod Regal’s first official victory. Entrants into the class were given a time to complete the 90 plus mile road course on public Nevada roads and the Buick engineers came closest to that 45 minute time.
Finishing the challenge with only a .019 second difference in the set-forth time, the Regal GS and its drivers earned the “Most Accurate Rookie” award. They were up against 34 other rookies and in their class, were not allowed to travel any faster than 140 mph. “The Regal GS did extremely well at course speeds, delivering stable, balanced performance throughout the run,” Rietow said. “Our racing experience prepared us for the challenge of maintaining a high average speed over a long distance.”
“While our maximum allowed speed in this class was 140-mph, we only needed to push it to 137-mph to maintain our course speed average,” Townsend said. “This car has a top speed of more than 150 mph and we had plenty of power in reserve.”
Source: Buick
