Updated November 2023

Joe Tripodi's 1987 Buick Regal Limited T
Racing at Bristol in 1997

1987 Buick Regal Limited -T 3.8 SFI Turbo V-6. 1 of 1035 made for 1987. 1 of 35 special ordered and delivered in October of 1986. Dark red metallic paint code 79L with gold pinstripe, side marker cornering lights, full chrome, landau top, rust proofed, undercoated, crushed velvet plush interior, drivers 6-way power 40/60 bench seat, power windows, p/locks, p/antenna, and p/trunk, carpeted trunk, hood ornament. Digital dash, column shift, am/fm stereo cassette, twilight sentential, rear defogger, tilt leather wrapped steering, air conditioning, cruise control, 3.42 posi rear end. It is loaded with options.

Production codes

AG1, AM6, AT6, AUE, A01, A31, A90, BC1, BF2, BS1, BY1, B34, B35, B48, B51, B85, B93, B94, CD4, C04, C49, C60, C90, C95, D64, D68, D7I, D85, E5Z, FE3, FFL, GMD, GU6, G80, G87, J41, J50, K09, K34, LC2, MW9, MX0, NA5, NP5, NQ5, N33, N89, PDN, QYZ, TT5, T1Y, T47, T63, T82, T87, UA1, UM6, UQ1, U52, U66, U75, VD6, VD7, VK3, V73, WG1, WO5, YR1, YS1, YT1, YT9, Y56, 55A, 6YX, 7YW, 79D, 79I, 79L, 79Q, 79T, 79U, 799, 8PZ, 9SJ, J47....

The car freshly washed and waxed

1/4 Mile ET- 12.294
Mph- 110.17mph
60foot- 1.738 on bald street tires
What I ran back in 1998! Using a stock turbo @ 23PSI boost, 34 degrees timing, C16 gas, stock injectors with ATR 7th injector, Duttweiler modified neck intercooler, stock unopened motor and slipping transmission, 2800 stall D5 converter, injecting denatured alcohol through a single nozzle deadhead alcohol kit, ported turbo elbow, 3"DP, test pipe w/ open dump exhaust, walbro 307 shimmed, the MaxEffort fully programmable thumbwheel chip, and a stock MAF with no screens.

Here's some 2023 Pic's and Updated Mods


Mods

Race: @25psi boost VP C-16 gas 26*/24* timing. Mid 11's

Street: @25psi boost 23*/21* timing Sunoco 93 gas with my Dual staged deadhead alcohol injection using VP M1 methanol.

*Limit Engineering* - TA-49 Turbocharger with .63AR exhaust housing freshly rebuilt by Cheetah Turbo in Walton, NY.

*Hallman* Pro Series in cockpit manual boost controller with heavy spring and stainless ball bearing.

*Comp Cams* - 980 valve springs shimmed to 1.697"

*Turbo Tweak*- Axis Interface and Axis chip, Delphi 3.5" LS1 MAF, and flow matched Siemens high impedance 60lb injectors.

*Jay Carter*- Adjustable alternator voltage booster set to 15.8v, Walbro 307 fuel pump with shimmed pressure relief valve.

*Joe Tripodi*- Me :-) Dual Staged Deadhead Methanol Injection Kit using VP fuels M1 methanol, 120psi inline fuel pump, full cone fogger nozzles M5(on at 4psi) and M10(on at 14psi). Under hood 1.5 gallon methanol tank. Hood mounted 2" 150psi methanol pressure gauge with 150psi stainless pressure transducer, pump ON LED using power injection idiot light on dash, and also using a 65psi brake light pressure ON switch with LED in dash. Low fuel idiot light on dash used for methanol tank level sender.

*ATR*- 7th injector with a Lucas 30# (on at 14psi), fuel pump hot wire kit, Bosch style adjustable fuel pressure regulator, Badboy cold air system with 14" K&N air filter, charcoal canister relocation kit, 3" stainless MAF pipe, heavy duty intercooler hoses, 160 degree stainless thermostat, K&N valve cover breathers, magnetic drain plugs (oil pan, tranny pan, rear end cover), TA-49 billet turbo inlet bell, driveshaft safety loop, B&M tranny supercooler, front connecting frame brace, under radiator hot air deflector plate, air-fuel ratio monitor with Larry Fisher knock detector circuit with piezo speaker, that I built and added into it.

*R & R Racing*- Mark "Red" Burnam Youngstown, NY.  Rebuilt TH200-4R race prep transmission with Raybestos "Blue Plate Special" performance friction clutches and bands, hardened spline pump stator, hardened drum, shift kit.

*Torque Tech*- Transcrafters 2800 stall red stripe converter.

*Terry Houston*- 3" Mild Steel integral wastegate downpipe, 2000 degree heat coated black.

*Modern Musclecar*- Mike Licht.  3" aluminized test/dump pipe with a 3" electric exhaust dump, Performance Fuel Systems fuel rail pressure gauge.

*Pypes Performance Exhaust*- 3" 409 stainless steel CAT back Y-pipe using 3" Dynomax Ultra-Flo welded mufflers (no tailpipes).

*Westberg Mfg.*- 2" 1700F  Exhaust temperature gauge K2C2X with a type K thermocouple 712-2DWK.

*Bowling Green Customs*- 23 row stretch stock location intercooler. Chromed mounting brackets.

*Jay Jackson*- Stock throttle body ported to 62mm & port matched upper plenum inlet with EGR boss removed.

*RJC*- Stock Plenum Power Plate - BEST MOD MONEY CAN BUY !  It equalizes the amount of air per cylinder and in turn also equalizes Air/Fuel and EGT ratios in each cylinder. Very Important !

*Southside Machine Performance*- Boxed rear lower control arms (also known as Southside lift bars with added and welded pinion angle ears), SSM 1" longer performance upper front ball joints.

*Gbody Parts*- Tubular front uppers with greasable spherical 1600 degree bushings and UMI tubular lower A arms with greasable Energy Suspension bushings and Moog lower ball joints, Stainless braided front and rear brake line set with new rear brass block, center cap adapters for vector 8.5" rear wheels, larger Powermaster brake accumulator ball.

*HR Parts n Stuff*- Solid rear upper non adjustable control arms and axle ear bushings.

*Kenne Bell*- Adjustable waste gate rod kit, pinion snubber, urethane end links & sway bar bushings, front frame V brace kit, GNX style rear seat body brace, VDO boost gauge, modified 6 switch panel includes: TCC 2nd gear lock up switch with LED, 2 or 1 fan selector, fan on manually, Alcohol injection prime/test switch with LED, ECM on-off reset, and exhaust dump open close switch.

*Dams by CORY*- Air dam: Driver side opening feeds ATR Badboy 14" air filter, center is sealed to intercooler. Fresh paint to match body color.

*Casper's Electronics Inc.*- Digital dash upgrade (No more blinking at 85mph), fuel rail tap T valve (the drain side feeds the ATR 7th injector), custom GN-XFI MAP adapter, Intrepid Dual fan relay harness, custom TPS breakout adapter to power fuel pressure transducer on fuel rail and also power a 3 bar MAP sensor for logging, fuel pump test tap splice.

*Bob Bailey*- Power Logger scan tool using a 10" windows tablet with a Delphi 3 Bar MAP sensor, and 100psi fuel rail pressure transducer.

*Cooling*- Cold Case GMB57A oversize 2 row aluminum radiator with stock location oil and tranny coolers, with Intrepid Dual cooling fans.

*Ignition*- D47 Methanol coils on Type II ignition module, Taylor Spiro-Pro 8mm silicone spark plug wires, AC CR43TS spark plugs gapped at .032.

*Tires*- Mickey Thompson ET Street drag radials 275-50R-15 rear tires on 71 Corvette Vector 8.5" wheels, BF Goodrich Comp TA 215-65-15HR front tires on stock 7" wheels.

*Springs*- TRW CC627 variable rate rear coil springs, Moog 5606 variable rate front coil springs with new insulators.

*Shocks*- Monroe Sensa-Trac 5840 front and 5802 rear.

*SKF USA*- Brute force U-joints 2-3011BF front and back then re-balanced drive shaft.

*Brakes*- Raybestos Element3 brake calipers painted gold, Performance Friction Z-rated front brake pads 0154.20 and Raybestos Element3 Soft rear brake shoes 514PG, PG Plus professional grade rear wheel cylinders WC37625. Summit Racing Extreme performance silver zinc coated cross-drilled and slotted brake rotors SUM-BR-62013LC, National inner and outer front wheel bearings, DOT 3 premium brake fluid.

*Red Line Oil*- Synthetic racing ATF, 75W90 gear oil with GM Posi differential additive, Water wetter cooling system treatment, SI-1 fuel system cleaner every once and a while.

*Motor Oil & Filter*- I only use Castrol GTX 10W30 motor oil because it does not start to turn black till 1300 miles (all others I've used start to turn black at 700 miles). Baldwin B35-S oil filter.

*Other*- 140Amp modified stock alternator, EGR block off plate, re-welded driver side header primary tubes, engine tie down strap, Thermo-Tec thermo shield tape wrapped up-pipe and MAF pipe, Lyle Simons A-pillar dual gauge panel, digital volt meter in right side idiot light section on dash, Fel-pro BS40613 rear main seal and OS30521R PermaDry molded rubber oil pan gasket, Denso 234-1001 O2 sensor, Lucas Oil Red "N" Tacky grease..

*Stereo System*- Alpine 7180 tape deck, Alpine 3331 11 Band EQ, Soundstream Reference MC245 Class A 5-channel amplifier with crossovers, rated at 45Wrms x 4 + 120Wrms x 1 into 4ohms @ 14.4v, Pyle NW102 3.5" 2-way 90Wrms front, JBL TL410 4x10 2-way 80Wrms rear, 2 MTX Blue Thunder BTW1048 10" 8ohm subs 100Wrms each in sealed cabinet running in 4 ohms parallel. Crystal clear all the way to full output.


The dual deadhead kit on my motor in 2000.
Click the logo to see the first methanol kits I use to sell.

Run more BOOST on pump gas!

Current up to date pictures. 

 

 

  When I first purchased the car in 1987.

Between runs at National Performance Buick day 1997 Canada.    Back side view


Air Dams by CORY
Fitment of the air dam before painting.  Click the ad for a bigger picture.

Cory air dam first installed     

First Annual Buicks at Bristol 1997 car show & drags
 
Best Turbo Regal Street Machine category winner.

Me accepting a trophy for the car show from Jim Hass

Me at the old Bristol Raceway entrance.    Me racing a GN at bristol.
Check out this race on video of me racing a GN.
Who do you think will get to the other end first?    Check out the size of my internet I in the back window.

National Performance (Ken Seggie) Buick Day 1997 at
London Motorsports Speedway Ontario, Canada.
Superstreet class winner.
(With Jay Carter street 94 octane chip @ 17 PSI boost)

Consistent runs all day long @ 13.1xx seconds
    Me accepting trophy from Ken Seggie.

The final race for first place super street class.    Me launching in the final race

Me, Ken and Billy T talking about Billy's .501 reaction time slip    Winners of the day. The two race winners are Billy T and myself. Were both wearing purple shirts.





MaxEffort Chip Support for Buicks

If you have any questions or comments please E-mail me at alcohol@rochester.rr.com

 Click here for my Home Page