Have you ever wondered what retired NASCAR legend Richard Petty is up to these days? Having left the stage nearly three decades ago, The King has engaged in a plethora of activities, but, for now, we’ll focus on Petty’s Garage, the customization shop he owns. And this 1984 Buick Regal the specialist built to honor the legendary driver’s 1981 Daytona-winning Regal racecar is here to help us with that.
Many of us have had times when it was difficult to choose between various vehicles for a certain task. As you can imagine, NASCAR drivers are no strangers to this dilemma—more than once, Petty has had a hard time choosing between the Big Three.
And it was back in ’81 when he attempted to get back behind the wheel of the Mopar machines that earned his fame, but couldn’t, due to the sub-par top speed of the war chariot provided by Dodge, a Miranda. As such, the driver decided to stick with GM, getting behind the wheel of a Buick Regal. Now, while The King did have his complaints about the vehicle (he only grabbed three wins for that season), the Buick managed to get him to the top of the podium of the all-important Daytona battle.
Naturally, Petty didn’t want to miss the opportunity of building a road-legal nod to his 1981 racer, which is why his current team modified the hell out of the ’84 Regal we have here, which is now up for grabs.
From the outside, the beefed-up fenders and quarter panels stand out, even though we can say that about the whole speedway-style look of the G-body. And while the cabin partially resembles the spartan interior of banked oval weapons via a partial cage and motorsport-like seats with five-point harnesses, this comes with AC, an Alpine audio system and others, such as Holley digital clusters.
More importantly, the thing packs modern motivation, including an LS3 V8 that works with a Tremec six-speed manual and a 9-inch rear end. The Wilwood brakes ensure the deceleration abilities are there, while the Ridetech suspension is ready to show naysayers what a “left-turner” can actually do.
In fact, you can check out Petty himself talking about the Regal in the brief clip below.
