The '78-79 "Turbo Century" was a carbed Turbo V6 that made less than 180 HP in a 3500 lb car. so 0-60 would be in the 9-10 second range (vs 5 seconds stock for the 86-87 Turbo Regals).
It would be super cool to find an incredibly rare Aeroback 2 dr Turbo Century and swap in an '86-87 Turbo Regal drivetrain. It is a "bucket list restomod" idea I have, but I would have to find a nice, rust free one.
The carbed Turbos can't be tweaked enough to keep even with even contemporary late 70's/early 80's "performance cars, and the mid 80's performance cars would destroy even a heavily modded carbed buick Turbo in the 80's.
When SFI came out in '84, all of the buick guys abandoned the carbed turbos. When Intercooling came out in '86, All od the non intercooled SFI guys dumped them for intercooled cars. By the 1990's when some one asked "how do I make a Carbed/non intercooled Turbo car faster?", they were told to "sell it and buy and intercooled turbo Car.
Here is a similar C&D road test for an '86 Turbo Regal (check the 0-60):
Buicks came a very long way in 7 years.
Here is my '86 that I have had for 25 years:
It does 0-60 in the 3's and runs low 11's in the 1/4 mile.
180 hp? Sweet mother! I was assuming they were talking 3800 series 2 type V6’s They had 200 horse from the factory. I did wonder why they put them in centurys at all but for 180 lousy horses, well geez.
I have a 98 Fbird with the series 2 engine and spec wise it looks exactly like the ‘86 Turbo Regal except 10:1 compression. To be honest I’d think they were under-rating the HP except that the time numbers back up 235 HP.
Here’s the thing: Abbot Racing Heads have a 98 Fbird daily driver that they measured at the rear wheels @273 HP. N/A, No intake to speak of. Their own Stage 2 heads. A Comp cam for which they gave the specs mid-high 400s) and long tube headers. That’s it. That must be near 300 HP at the crank.
Buick were seriously choking that engine down or something because it isn’t hard at all to get those humble 231 cubes to stand and deliver
In fact some chick and her dad got 600HP out of a V6 Fbird using a home made double turbo setup.
I’d be willing to bet that any of those Regals still around are 300HP or better now. Some of them that pass me on the highway sound down right NASTY.