Building on an incredible year, the sixth studio album from Kendrick Lamar is here, and not only is it called GNX, it features the most desirable Buick of all time on the cover. Obviously, we weren’t going to miss the opportunity to blog this, because when great music and a great car collide, great things happen.
In case you aren’t familiar with Kendrick Lamar, the Compton native is one of the greatest rappers of all time. We’re talking 17 Grammy awards, the Guinness World Record for the most BET awards won by a male artist, a freaking Pulitzer, and a discography that’s nothing short of impeccable. From reviving jazz rap to elevating consciousness over consumption, to inspiring David Bowie to make Blackstar, his influence can’t be overstated.
Lamar has had a hell of a year, with a rap beef with Drake that kept everyone on the edge of their seat, while dropping tracks that are absolutely anthemic. “Not Like Us” wasn’t just a killshot on Drake, it’s the anthem for the West Coast right now, and to an extent, America. Beyond going number one on Billboard, it scored the most single-day Spotify streams of any hip hop song ever, became the fastest rap song on the platform to reach 100 million, 200 million, 300 million, 400 million, 500 million, 600 million, and 700 million streams, and as a result, it has reach. Serena Williams C-Walked to it at the ESPY awards, the Argentinian soccer team used the track to dunk on Team Canada and Drake at the Copa América, we’re going to be hearing it for a long, long time.
As such, it shouldn’t be surprising that all eyes are on Lamar right now, and with his sixth studio album surprise-dropping on Friday, all eyes are also on both the name of the album and the car on the cover — GNX. Yeah, the Buick GNX. The album itself is an outstanding West Coast rap album, and I can’t wait to hit replay, but first we need to talk about the car.
So, what makes the GNX so important? Well, it started with the Regal Grand National, a midsize coupe rocking a turbocharged 3.8-liter V6 and often known for a popular black monochrome look. Model year 1987 was the end of the line for the rear-wheel-drive Regal, so Buick built 547 black Grand Nationals with the interior trim package and sent them to ASC McLaren for some special tweaks. We’re talking about a special T3 Garrett turbocharger with a ceramic impeller, a sizeable intercooler, a high-flow exhaust system, a reworked 200-4R automatic transmission with a new torque converter and valve body, a panhard bar to keep the rear end located, 245-section front and 255-section rear tires on mesh wheels, and some big flares to cover the new rubber. Pushing 16 psi of boost, the GNX was officially good for 276 horsepower and 360 lb.-ft. of torque, and unofficially good for a whole lot more.
As a result, the GNX became an instant icon, not just for its menacing presence and sheer rarity, but for the fact that it offered genuine supercar acceleration for the time. In Car And Driver instrumented testing, it ran from zero-to-60 mph in 4.7 seconds, meaning the only thing on the market in 1987 that was quicker was the Porsche 911 Turbo. However, the automatic transmission in the GNX made it easier to strike the cue ball in the middle every time, meaning that in the real world, nothing on a showroom floor could touch it.
From the moment it hit dealer lots, the GNX was a dream car, always carrying collector appeal that’s since soared to new heights over the past decade. We’re talking six-figure transaction prices on Bring A Trailer, and not just as a peak, as a floor. A stock GNX hasn’t sold for less than $100,000 on the platform since early 2021, and as the bulk of the collector car market was cooling off earlier this year, a 26-mile GNX set a new Bring A Trailer record of $200,000.
There’s something fitting about an iconic artist who did it all his way celebrating an iconic car that was an undeniable trailblazer. As Lamar raps on the intro to “tv off,” the seventh track on the album, “All I ever wanted was a black Grand National.” Same here. They rule.
(Photo credits: pgLang, Bring A Trailer)
Support our mission of championing car culture by becoming an Official Autopian Member.
-
The Next Buick Grand National Should Be This Wicked Dual Motor EV
-
Buick Made A Second Grand National Out Of The LeSabre Then Forgot To Add The Grand Part: Glorious Garbage
-
I Just Learned That The Cult-Classic Movie ‘Baby Driver’ Is Literally A Two-Hour Version Of A Music Video
-
Watch A Barbie Pink C5 Absolutely Murder Its Tires For Our Driving Queen Charli XCX
Got a hot tip? Send it to us here. Or check out the stories on our homepage.
Obsessed with this car since Regina King drove it in Watchmen.
I remember the first time I saw one as a kid on the road, my dad pointed it out with a type of reverence he hardly used for cars. He said “that damn Buick was faster than the Corvette that came out the same year”. I remember thinking it looked rather unassuming, and a lot like my buddy TJ’s dad’s car (an 82 Malibu), just a lot quieter.
Of anybody, Kendrick deserves to have this.
IIRC, and I might be wrong, Grand Nationals could be had in more than one color, but the GNX was black only. I’ve seen a GNX IRL only once, when it was at the dealer in the 80s waiting to be picked up by the person who bought it as soon as the dealbook opened on it.
This is an exercise in perspective though: Take the $50K or so it cost to buy one of these new (and with dealer charges, it was about like that), and put it in the S&P or Microsoft at the time, and well, you’d be able to easily buy one now and a few other things.
1984 and later Grand Nationals were only available in black. 1982 and 1983 models were available only in a silver and black two tone paint job. You could however get a Regal t-type with the turbo 3.8L in just about any color.
Grand Nationals are all black. There was the T Type Regal which was a Grand National you could get in any color.
I have never gotten the point of cars that accelerate really fast in a straight line, but don’t actually go that fast, and can’t stop or turn worth a damn. And that sums up one of these in a nutshell.
If I want my internal organs re-arranged by g-forces for a few seconds at a time, a ticket to Six Flags is a lot cheaper.
And I have never heard of this dude. I suspect I would hate his music.
it would cost you zero dollars to say nothing.
And that goes for you as well. <shrug>
The GNX would do .80 G on a skidpad from the factory, where a similar year Corvette would only do a .87G, and an 86 911 would do .86G.
A 13.5 second quartermile time is certainly nothing to sneeze at, consider a Corvette from the same year would only run 14.1, and the same 86 911 Turbo would do an 13.1.
Then again, with someone that would rather get a Six Flags ticket than drive a car, and doesn’t want to listen to a music artist based off a photo of them, that’s rather telling of your character.
Sure, on a SMOOTH skidpad in a steady state turn, they do OK – but a Volvo 240 with decent tires on it will pull a .8 on skidpad too. Try hurtling one down a bumpy, windy backroad in Maine as I have done and get back to me. Handles like a pig on ice in my section of the real world.
My whole point is that how fast car is in a 1/4 mile is THE most pointless performance metric there is. In the real world, a regular 911, never mind a Turbo, would run away and hide from one of these fast off the line for a short while (aka 1/4 mile), but by no means actually fast, sleds. If you tried to cross Germany in one of these at it’a (not that high) top speed as you can in pretty much any German car, you would blow it up in 50 miles.
I love to drive, but I have no need of bruising acceleration because that is the least important aspect of driving. Better to have a car where you never have to slow down because the handling is superb and confidence inspiring than one that can speed up really fast.
The GNX comes with a panhard bar which helps with handling immensely. But someone with what seems your extensive knowledge of suspension setups should know that. Even a stock Malibu with a panhard bar is leaps and bounds better than anything else.
The car wasn’t designed for driving in Germany, so I don’t know why that’s even a conversation here, but a GNX was governed to 124MPH because a lack of V rated tires in the sizes they wanted to put on the car, not because “it would blow up in 50 miles”. 124 is only 3700 RPMs in overdrive on a 200r4 with the 26″ tall tire.
Acceleration is the most common denominator that everyone can experience,. which is why the 1/4 mile is used as a measurement tool, just like a skidpad or any other test that car magazines do, and the car was designed as a goodbye to the 3.8 turbo platform and the be fun as a stump pulling torque acceleration car.
it’s a car. It should be more than a one-trick pony, which is all these are. A panhard rod on an antediluvian live-axle car does not decent handling make, and these things were *expensive* back in the day – yet built with the fine quality of a Chinese toy. If hurtling from stop-light to stop-light in a straight line is your idea of a good time, you do you. I think it is rather juvenile.
I hope you’re saying you wouldn’t like his music because you don’t like hip hop, and not what it sounds like you’re saying.
I loathe hip-hop. And I am black.
OK, boomer.
That’s my mother.
Two things.
First, KDot is the GOAT.
Second, watch GNX values go up (again). They were already pretty high.
Next, he will be doing the same thing with a Lexus like Biggie Shorts did…
As a fan, a GNX with only 26 miles really irks me. What a total waste of one of my childhood dream cars that one could buy in any color they want, as long as it’s black.
My husband turned me on to Kendrick well before “Not Like Us,” and I’m glad I could show him this article. Thanks, Thomas.
I’ll never forget the first time I saw a Grand National. I was in high school, and it was parked at the house of my neighbor who worked on everybody’s cars. He had it at his house for a few days, but then I never saw it again. G-bodies in the mid-late 00s were kinda trashy-looking cars, but this one, all black and sinister, left an impression on me. Can’t say I’m familiar with Mr. Lamar, but he’s got good taste in that Buick.
Mad beef with this clown. Wanted to buy one once I’m not poor. Guess I’ll start scamming people on altcoins to afford the black beauty.
I think you meant “cannot be overstated” up there.
I’ll have to check out that album.
I’m glad he likes cars, and I’m sure he’s a very nice young man.
There was one in my hometown always parked, backed-in, to a notch cut in to a hillside almost exactly the size of the car. I have no idea how the owner got in or out, but I always loved seeing it, and the Jolly Roger front plate on an otherwise undecorated and immaculately kept car was perfection.
I guess this is the ‘87 he bought for the weekend.
I believe the headline was supposed to read:
A Kendrick Lamar Explainer For
Buick GNX FansDavid Tracy, A Buick GNX Explainer For Kendrick Lamar FansI didn’t know who Kendrick Lamar was. I did know what a GNX was.
I still don’t know who Kendrick Lamar is. And I’m fine with that.
Only heard the name. Not sure why, but I thought he might be a country guy. As dumb as it seems, naming the album after the GNX is going to get me to check him out.
I thought he was a football player.
Don’t like rap, don’t like hip hop, never done more than heard the name is passing. I definitely could not have told anyone that he was an award winning rapper.
Is Lamar the one having some dispute with the astrophysicist who gave us the Drake Equation?
It’s a less timely add-on, but a GNX was also featured in the album art for Run The Jewels 4.
Great car (and album).
Killer Mike owns that GNX.
That’s a good fact. He seems like a he’d have impeccable taste in cars, so that tracks.
I can’t find the article, but I read somewhere that he has a large collection of American muscle. He dailys a Hellcat.
It is also in the video for “Ooh LA LA”
The grand National features in their music and videos from before RTJ4.
Saw them open for rage and was really impressed. Hip Hop isn’t really my genre but enjoyed their show.
GM needs to have a “ah, fuck it, let’s go!” department again.
We need more small production WTF cars & trucks again a la GNX, Typhoon, Syclone, etc..
Drop in the motors from the Hummer EV into the Equinox, fat tires & tweak the suspension. Range would be terrible, but who cares.
Always thought the ATS V should have had an NA small block and they should have spun up an alpha platform Regal just so a new rwd grand national with a turbo 6 could exist… Then build an appropriately batshit crazy gnx as a sendoff just to prove that they could.
Yes, bring back the factory hot rods!
EVERY car company needs to have an “ah, fuck it, let’s go” department. I’m actually in the middle of reading Steve Lehto’s book about the Chrysler Turbine car, and it absolutely rules – both Steve’s book and the car.
As much as there were many things in the 60s that weren’t exactly going so great, the Turbine Car project is one of them, and done for seemingly little more reason than “Can we do it? Fuck it, why not”.
I second this. EVERY car company should. There is no reason we should not be “oo’d” and “ah’d” every year by low volume specials.
What’s so cool about the GNX is that it’s always been this completely dark legend.
Even when it first came out, it was spoken about in whispers and rumors by teenagers, you never really saw many on the road, and the ones you did were often being driven sedately. And as the years have gone by, it’s of course gotten even rarer in our everyday lives. No bespoilered racetrack Porsche or look at me pony car, it’s so mercilessly functional. The very nature is like a coiled cobra (sorry Ford)…exuding this quiet but capable menace.
Huge fan of To Pimp A Butterfly.
I’m listening to this now and I’m not mad at it.
Kendrick is one of us. The GNX is one of the ultimate “if you know you know” cars.