A Beautiful Bonnie, Rad Riv, And More Fantastic GM Front-Drivers Plus Tahoe Lot More: Members’ Rides

Last time on Members’ Rides, we looked at a couple of awesome GM cars from Alison, as well as a scooter and a unique motorcycle that I am now slightly obsessed with. Today, we get to continue looking at rad GM cars. This one is near and dear to my heart. As a kid, my family always had FWD GM cars, including a Pontiac Bonneville not too dissimilar to what we will see below.

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Will has an awesome collection of Radwood-era GM front-drivers, though he did resist the urge to add yet one more when I attempted to help him expand his fleet. Will lives an hour west of Chicago, and works at The Parts Place Inc, a classic GM restoration parts company.

How did you get into cars?

I don’t remember exactly when I caught the bug. As a baby, I never used to sleep unless my parents tossed me in the back of their 89 Bonneville and drove me around. My whole family is into cars to a degree, my dad used to race a 73 Mach 1 every weekend before I was born. Mom made him sell it so I wouldn’t be a car guy and potentially be injured or killed.

And how did you specifically get into the FWD GM cars?

My love for the FWD GM cars started very young, some of my earliest memories center around my dad’s 89 Bonneville. My dad kept that car for 22 years. I learned how to drive in that car.

At 18, I bought a minty 01 Bonneville SSEi to drive daily and met a community of helpful and intelligent people in the Bonneville forums. It was the car that broke me out of my shell and made me become who I am today.

I was deeply depressed as a teenager. One day, I was on vacation in California visiting family and decided to see what was up in the forum chat room. My best friend was logged in, and we were talking about life and how I felt about things. He really helped me figure myself out, it was with his kind words of encouragement and his friendship that I gained the confidence to come out as gay. That’s why I’m sentimental about these cars, they force me to remember all the people I’ve met along the way and how much I appreciate the difference the small things make in life.

These cars love to eat up the miles, they made sure the interior was comfortable as well. The quality went up over the years (as opposed to DT’s i3). Even the squishy plastics fit nicer than older cars did.

What’s currently in the garage?

• 1991 Buick Riviera
• 1992 Pontiac Bonneville SSE Supercharged
• 2002 Pontiac Bonneville SSEi
• 2003 Buick Park Avenue Ultra
• 1992 Chevy Lumina
• 1999 Chevy Tahoe
• 2005 Acura RL

What is the story behind the Riviera?

It was a pandemic project. My best friend’s neighbor was on end-of-life care, and the caretaker who came every day drove this tan 91 Riviera 40 minutes each way with only third gear. The car itself was a little rough here and there, but not rusty though. I chatted with him about it a lot, and one day he mentioned he wanted to sell it. $700 later the Riv was mine!

Staying in third gear is the default limp home mode for these transaxles. My ex and I spent a large number of hours wiring bulbs to solenoid control wires to make sure the ECM was commanding, every sign pointed us toward not a mechanical failure, but a solenoid failure. We took the side pan off, replaced the solenoids, and suddenly it had gears again!

How was it after you got that fixed?

After driving it for a few months I remembered something I didn’t care for about my Le Sabre that shared the same series 1 NA 3800: it was slow. Since I had a spare series 2 3800 supercharged laying around, because of course I did, I started doing research on feasibility of the swap. It has been done but not been documented very well and a lot of info has fallen off the internet, it was very much an exercise in part interchange, lots of trips to the junkyard, the engine and trans going in and out of the bay a couple times, and finally I had my dream Riv!

Was it hard getting all the electronics to talk with the new engine?

In the spirit of getting it running, I talked with a tuner I knew of from back in the internet forum days. He had tuned SC Reattas before, so he was familiar with it enough. He adjusted things here and there to make the computer basically think it’s running the stock engine, but the parameters that are set actually match up with what the S2 requires to run happy. It all works like the factory put it there, even down to the on-board diagnostic system in the cluster.

What do you love about this one?

The reactions it gets when people hear the blower, or when they see the engine room, there are a couple things I have done visually that are sort of a wink and a nod for those who know these cars. The centered fog lights, “supercharged” trunk emblem, Bonneville crosslace wheels and the obligatory “Eaton inside” sticker, but if you aren’t paying attention a lot of people don’t realize what it has going on.

Besides that, it’s a really smooth, quiet, cushy velour sofa. I mostly bought it as an impulse buy, and wasn’t set on keeping it at the time but now after all the work I’ve done, and the results I came out of it with, it’s a favorite of mine and it will stay with me as long as humanly possible!

 Now how did you end up with the 92 Bonneville?

The 92 SSE supercharged is a car I found about 7 years ago down in southern Illinois. It only had 64k miles on it, and I learned that the one previous owner was a Sheriff’s officer and worked in town, which explains the low mileage.

He kept it under a carport and the back end was slightly exposed, I still need to get that paint repaired, but that and the sagging headliner are really the only things to complain about, it’s not perfect but it’s as close as I’m comfortable with, I like to use my cars without being on edge about every nick and scratch.

The SC engine was initially only in the SSEi, but in the second half of the year they opened it up to be optional on all trim levels, technically. GM was into letting people pick and choose their own options back then. Which is how you end up with some oddball cars like mine.

How do the ’92 and ’02 compare?

The ’92 rides and handles well for being what it is, it doesn’t feel as heavy on its feet as the newer one, and it really feels like a time capsule with the thin pillars and low beltline. The 2000 and more recent H-bodies are significantly stiffer, which is definitely noticeable. The older ones aren’t very rigid, but it’s not awful. I love the character of both iterations, so instead of picking between the two, I just have both.

How did you get the ’02?

A good friend from the Bonneville forum texted me saying he was ready to part with his black SSEi and he asked me first if I wanted it, I couldn’t resist. So last February, we went to Kansas and drove it back home.

How similar is it to the Buick?

The Park Avenue is a fantastic car, more like an old luxobarge, while the SSEi feels more like a sport sedan. It’s a lot more athletic feeling than my Buick. In the near future, now that I’ve fixed a lot of what had gone wrong over the years, I’ll be upgrading power a little bit by installing a supercharger from the last generation Grand Prix, it’s got a more efficient blower and has larger rotors. Even if the cars are similar in their mission I like them all to feel very different.

And what’s the story with the Park Avenue?

The Park Avenue Ultra is a car I wanted the second it came out refreshed in 03. I always liked Buicks, especially the Park Avenue and Lucerne. As weird as it is for an at-the-time 11-year-old to want a full-size Buick, if you know me it checks out.

I found this car browsing Marketplace while I was recovering from a surgery. The best thing about it is how clean it is, the brake lines still have part number tags on them from the assembly line, these cars always seemed to have a high resale value, so finding one in a price range I could afford meant having to deal with some compromises, some paint issues, wear here and there, occasional elderly bumper scrape, etc. Oh, and the mileage, right now it sits at 214k but it won’t ever tell on itself.

Have you done anything to it?

I wanted a little more of a performance feel to the ride and handling of the car, so I upgraded the sway bars to the FE5 spec from a Bonneville GXP, upgraded the rear air shocks to ones from a Lucerne. I also upgraded the front brakes to 13” Grand Prix GXP rotors and C5 Corvette dual piston aluminum calipers.

All of that combined made a tremendous difference, it still has a little bit of the Buick float, but it also has some tension to it, it rides more like a car with Gran Touring suspension should, not just grandma touring. I try not to do too many drastic modifications because it’s a triangle of power, efficiency, and reliability from what I’ve found, I like a reliable setup for something I’m going to drive as much as I use the Ultra in the summer.

Have you had any issues with it?

The transmission was rebuilt shortly after I got the car. Since then, it’s been rock solid. The plans for the future mostly just involve fixing the paint, re-chroming the wheels which are peeling on the inside portion, and just continue enjoying it.

Now what’s the story behind the Lumina?

Back in 2014, my best friend really wanted a 96 SSEi that I was delivering pizzas with at the time. After much arm twisting, I decided I’d sell it to him, and I jokingly told him “You owe me a fifteen-second car.” A few days later he sent me a link to a Marketplace ad for a Torch Red 92 Lumina Z34 for $1k. The car had 170k miles on it, but the body was fairly clean and the paint was still very shiny.

I messaged the seller and he started telling me things about the car, and then mentioned he was a GM service technician. He had been through the whole engine twice in the eight or so years he had it, and kept it running like the oil-seeping sewing machine it’s supposed to be. So I hitched up a trailer to my Tahoe and drove to Cedar Rapids to snag the deal.

How do you like the DOHC 3.4?

The Twin Dual Cam LQ1 3.4 V6 is a wild little engine. When I was in high school my dad picked up a 91 Cutlass Supreme coupe, that was a weird car. Since then, I was always on the lookout for a decent one for cheap money.

This car feels entirely different to drive compared to anything else I own. The W body is a lot tighter and more suited to twisties than the big cars. When I got it the only modifications as far as the engine goes, besides diligent maintenance, were the cams are the higher compression cams from a 1995 LQ1, as well as the intake manifold, I added injectors from a 1997 LQ1 when one of the originals died and stranded the car.

Have you had to do much to it?

The suspension and brakes. I immediately put it on Grand Prix crosslace wheels, which are eight inches wide, I replaced the front strut cartridges and rear struts with KYB replacements, new control arms up front, and replaced the trailing arms with square welded tube ones from a police/SS 2008ish Impala. These were fun cars out of the box, but those changes made a big difference, the car handles really well.

What do you love about the Lumina?

What I love about the Z34 is the way it makes me feel, and the attention it gets. These cars used to be on every street corner, and now they’re rare. It puts me right back to being in high school driving my dad’s Cutlass, listening to that goofy exhaust crackle. The Z34 always gets a lot of compliments when I take it out. It isn’t the nicest one out there, but that doesn’t seem to bother anyone at all. Everyone who sees seems to have a warm memory re-enter their head.

These aren’t exactly known for reliability, how has it been?

As far as the burning question, this LQ1 has been very shockingly reliable. It has started to leak oil again. I’ll figure that out this year. Other than that, that car has always started and ran beautifully for me. I even drove it daily for a few years, cold days only sucked because of the door handles and wipers. It only complains about hot weather if it sits and heat soaks for too long. I’ve seen 3800s that are more cantankerous than this car has been for me. The previous owner must have incorporated some voodoo. I don’t know if I would take another Twin Dual Cam engine on at this point though, unless it was thoroughly gone through like mine was, simply for the factor of how much time it takes doing everything necessary.

I really feel like they probably don’t deserve the hate, it just hangs out in the halls of weird GM engines from around that time. GM had targets to produce around 300hp out of it, and they did, but the torque limit of the transmission couldn’t handle it.

Now how does the Tahoe fit in?

Ahh the Tahoe, what a truck. I bought this at the exact right time, when they were still relatively cheap. Back in 2014, one of my friends knew I was looking for a truck. He had a friend whose family had just moved to Illinois a year or two before from Mississippi. The Tahoe was the dad’s truck until the son started driving. Being 16 or 17, he didn’t’ like driving it and wanted something sportier. Turns out I had just the thing, he wanted to sell the truck for the same price as what my rusty red 96 SSEi with 250k miles was worth. I let him drive the SSEi around the block and next thing you know we swapped titles, even trade.

Have you done much to this one?

In the ten years I’ve had it now, I’ve had to do pretty much everything you’d expect on a truck with 280k miles on it, but it still isn’t rusty. I’ve also upgraded the fuel injection unit to an MPFI style, I tuned it with extra timing and fiddled with torque management and some shift settings, so now it runs on 93 octane but it actually moves out a lot better than they did stock. I added an Escalade 120mph cluster, and Escalade chrome inside door handles. Then I also upgraded the brake master cylinder to one from a GMT800, and put 1 ton/Police front brake calipers on it, combined with the 13” drums out back.

What’s next?

My plans are to finish fixing everything mechanically, then start on the cosmetic side of things. Some paint is faded, the leather is wrinkled, stained carpet … it is a well-used SUV. It started out as the daily, but once I bought the Acura, it’s basically been a storage queen until I need it – which ends up happening a lot in the summer. I’ve taken it on camping trips, road trips, off road, it’s always done everything I asked of it, it owes me nothing. It’s definitely a forever truck for me.

Now the only non-GM: How did the RL come into the picture?

I wanted a fancy daily driver, and I was eager to learn about something other than GM for a change. Just over two years ago when a coworker mentioned his son was selling a car, my face lit up when he said “Acura RL”. I detailed cars in high school, and one of the regular customers had a black over black RL. I really liked that car. Everything about it was just nice, but it didn’t feel like it had any pretentious aura about it. Knowing the J series was one of the best engines of the world, I took a chance and bought it.

How was it?

Heavily hail damaged, shredded interior, melted glovebox door, some manner of thing has made the doors rust from the inside out, and myriad issues regarding lack of maintenance, or just bad maintenance. I only paid a couple grand for it, so I took the chance to learn new things. I did the timing belt service, valve adjustment, replaced brakes, control arms, serviced the driveline, threw new tires on and started driving it. I’ve now put over 40k miles on it.

What do you love about it?

It’s absolutely one of the best cars I’ve ever owned, and I’m at almost 30 notches in my car belt. It can drive through any conditions thanks to the SH-AWD. Everything is designed very smartly and functionally. It goads you on to drive with precision and excitement that a lot of cars in the executive car class don’t really seem to do. The RL is just in an entirely different league than my GM cars are, I’m a lifelong GM fan, but the Japanese cars have impressed me over the years. They just seem to do no wrong when it comes to how their cars make you feel.

Have you done anything to this one?

I’ve installed an open intake to hear the VTEC better, that J35A8 really makes a beautiful song. Other than that, I added Bluetooth, tinted the windows, and installed an A-spec spoiler. I may put some sort of 18” wheel on it, but I haven’t decided yet on that. I’m happy with the car the way it is, so it might earn its way into some cosmetic work instead of more modifying.

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