09/02/2026
A little history on GM and the V6: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19jaboASnb/
We told this engine's origin story in the Buick 3800 post: Joe Turlay cut two cylinders off a V8 in ninety days. It vibrated so badly that GM sold the tooling and rights to Kaiser-Jeep in 1967. Then the oil crisis hit and GM bought its own engine back. The 3800 went on to sell twenty five million units and Ward's named it one of the ten best engines of the twentieth century. But we left out the chapter where the engine GM gave away went to Indianapolis and put a pushrod V6 on the front row for the first time since Duesenberg's supercharged straight eight in 1931. Fifty four years between American production based engines on the Indy front row. The Buick V6 closed that gap.
Buick's Special Products Engineering group, led by Ron Kociba, developed the Indy V6 from the same basic 90 degree pushrod architecture that powered Regals, LeSabres, and Grand Nationals in showrooms across America. The Indy version displaced 209 cubic inches (3.42 liters), used a Garrett turbocharger producing massive boost on methanol, mechanical multi-point fuel injection, and heavily strengthened internals. Output: 800 to 900 HP and 550 lb-ft from a pushrod V6 with two valves per cylinder. In a racing world dominated by overhead cam designs from Cosworth and Ilmor, the Buick was an anachronism. Pushrods at Indianapolis in the 1980s was like bringing a Flathead to a Cammer fight. But the stock block rules gave the Buick a critical advantage: engines classified as "stock block" were permitted larger displacement (209 CID versus 161 for purpose built race engines) and more turbo boost. The Buick exploited both allowances ruthlessly.
In 1985, the payoff arrived. Pancho Carter qualified on pole for the Indianapolis 500 at 212.583 mph with Scott Brayton second, both powered by Buick V6s. The first time an American production based engine had won the Indy pole since Duesenberg in 1931. Roger Penske called the Buick stock block engine one of the most competitive powerplants at the Speedway. In 1992, Roberto Guerrero qualified on pole at 232.482 mph with a Buick Menard V6. Two hundred thirty two miles per hour. From a pushrod V6. Al Unser Sr. finished third that year, the best ever Buick finish at the 500. At peak, Buick V6s filled twelve of the thirty three qualifying positions. The engine that GM had given away in 1967 was occupying a third of the Indy 500 starting grid in 1992.
The Buick Indy V6 never won the 500. That is the asterisk on an otherwise remarkable program. It qualified fastest repeatedly but couldn't survive 500 miles at maximum boost. Scott Brayton set the one lap Speedway record but dropped out early when the engine expired. The pattern repeated across multiple years: fastest in qualifying, unreliable in the race. Buick's own engineers acknowledged the engine was better suited for short bursts of extreme power than sustained 500 mile endurance. When Buick officially exited IndyCar in 1993, John Menard Jr. continued developing the engine as the Menard V6, winning poles and running competitively through the mid 1990s. The naturally aspirated version powered Indy Lights from 1986 through 2002, making nearly 500 HP and giving an entire generation of young drivers their first open wheel racing experience behind a Buick V6.
The engine that Joe Turlay built in ninety days by cutting two cylinders off a V8. That vibrated so badly GM sold it. That GM bought back because it had no small engine during the oil crisis. That won Ward's Ten Best. That went to Indianapolis and qualified faster than every Cosworth and Ilmor on the grid. That never won the race it qualified fastest for. The Buick V6's career arc is the most dramatic in American engine history. From the waste bin to the front row at the Speedway.
