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Extract from Car and Driver’s October 1993 factor.
The little old Pasadena has a large parterre of white gardenias, but parked in a rickety old garage there’s a new super-stock bright red Dodge logo … – Jan and Dean, 1964
If Jan (Berry) and Dean (Torrance) were born 30 years later, their little girl terrorizes the community in a large Dodge. Believe it or not, your horror tool would be a new 1994 Buick Roadmaster. Just as Granny’s comfortable bun with gray hair and pointed-rimmed glasses masks a manic lead-footed soul, this Roadmaster’s octogenarian skin hides the center of a beast.
This beast is known in General Motors warehouses as LT1. GM turns out to be in the philosophical phase those days with the exhortation of His enthusiasm, Dr. Ruth, who makes a living telling the old that they will not have to give up any of the passions of youth. Otherwise, why would Buick upgrade the Old Roadmaster V8 5.7-liter Engine from the Roadmaster, as it did, with an edition of the hot-stemmed Corvette engine? Sacred cooked plums! Buick put 260 horsepower and 335 lb/ft of torque under Granny’s orthopedic shoe, giving him a chance to win the pink underpants of the MTV generation while leaving those unfortunate young men in a real fog of Uniroyal tire smoke.
This proven Roadmaster can thank your siblings for this transplant. The 18-foot-long Cadillac Fleetwood needed extra firepower to boost its 4,500 pounds. And Chevy’s new Impala SS needed a heavy respite to live up to its magical wheels and ambitious graphics.
Dr. Ruth is side-framed, Roadmaster’s top homeowners probably stayed with their ten-second time from 0 to 60 mph. But in order to reduce platform complexity, LT1 engines have the standard in all areas. And for Buick homeowners who can use some throttle restriction, there’s a 1 mpg improvement in the city’s EPA fuel economy, now up to 17 mpg (road figure is still 25 mpg).
Corvette’s obsessives will wonder what happened to the 40-horsepower and lack of five-lb-foot torque. For starters, the engine has been calibrated to use normal lead-free fuel (premium fuel only, as we do with our control cars, increases strength and torque by approximately five and five percent). The cam profile has been dimmed to make it smoother and decreases the idle speed at the expense of a high-end maximum growl. Intake and exhaust systems are more restrictive, but not due to area constraints (a set of paddles can be played between the engine and the radiator). By contrast, GM was just looking to stifle things for the luxury car audiences. Finally, Buick’s LT1 gets cheap cast iron heads instead of the Corvette’s lightweight aluminum heads. It appears that minimizing the weight of the Roadmaster was not a priority.
Stand on the accelerator when you go out or pass and the remote roar of a Corvette is evident. But the sound is muffled, as if Buick had hijacked the engine and filled it in the Roadmaster compartment. Keep your foot on the floor and the rugged LT1 rushes to a more sensitive speed of 108 mph, at which point the acceleration shakes like a dog that has reached the tip of the leash.
On the track, we were only able to deal with a time of 60 mph of 7.8 seconds. Forget braking torque: This baby turns on his right rear tire to anything near three-quarters of the throttle. More revealing is our impressive 90-mile-per-hour trap speed in a quarter mile. With increased grip, the time of a quarter mile may have been reduced from 16.0 seconds to approximately 15.7 seconds. By comparison, last year’s style ran the quarter at 17.5 seconds at 79 mph.
Traction control, popular in Brother Fleetwood, should not be on the Roadmaster. Without it, oversteer is a danger to anything that is more slippery than dry asphalt. You should have a limited slip differential for only $100 and consider it as mandatory equipment, if only to make some uniform wear on the rear tires. However, nothing catches the eye and the eyebrows are astonished, as is the sight and sound of a large Buick Roadmaster of chrome and white walls that makes a smoke full of smoke.
At cruising speed, the pleasure of driving is a popular Roadmaster. The remarkable Dynaride suspension remains unres replaced and offers the same airy, heavenly cloud tower that visitors expect. He replaced management and lost speed only under the fierce protest of those confused tires. We probably wouldn’t know the full picture of the transmission of this platform before testing an Impala SS, whose giant 17-inch tires and suspension fit are much more suitable for the type of driving we prefer. The 4L60 four-speed automatic transmission receives electronic controls this year (now a 4L60-E), but the feeling of replacing the equipment is not as silky and imperceptible as with the 4T60-E crossbar.
Inside, the Roadmaster features a new logo dashboard, redesigned to accommodate a passenger-side airbag and full-width knee brace. The air conditioning controls are above the radio and are available without problems without having to lean forward. The minimalist board is only an indicator of speed, fuel and temperature. The four-pronged guide wheel is new and features a more compact airbag with a lid that powers the impressive four-note horn.
Okay, it’s overwhelming and unprofessional, but then what? This super inventory from Dodge too. Let Dr. Ruth and Cocoon’s crowd have fun. Geritol will never update the daiquiri. So, if you stop in a quiet place and hear a four-note explosion coming from a little girl on a Roadmaster next to you, don’t do anything stupid in your pink underpants.
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