Quote:In the early 80s, they raced in the Indy 500 stock-block category against such purposed-designed race engines as the Cosworth V8.

Then there was the Buick Grand National 3.8, that could outrun a Corvette 5.7 V8 some days.

Sure, there were problems, like the fact that all 90-degree V6 engines vibrate annoyingly (now solved by counterweight shafts). Also remember the plastic cam gear teeth that all GMs had around 1980. The even-fire crank tended to be hard on those ... but even the Chevrolet smallblock had the same problems too.

The GM 3.8 V6 has one of the more interesting histories. Originally developed by Buick and used in the 1961-1963 mid-size cars, once it appeared that americans weren't too interested in "new smaller" engines, the design was sold to Jeep. The jeep engines before this were shall we say lacking in power ... later on Jeep merged with American Motors. AMC had little need for a V6 engine, having their own line of sixes. Then came the gas crisis and downsizing. Buick thought it needed a V6 again and AMC needed money, so it was sold back to Buick ... the rest is history as they say.

My sister's 1993 Buick mid-size car (3600 lbs) with 3800 engine pulls like a freight train and is surprisingly smooth. They've come a long ways.