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Skoal Bandit Buick Regal

1984 Buick Regal with Skoal Bandit Package. Owner Bill and Beth Griffin.
(Picture contributed by Roberta Vasilow, BCA President)

Some people remember these cars running around back in the mid-eighties. I recently ran into Bill and Beth Griffin who happen to have one of these cars. Below is an e-mail I received from Beth regarding their Skoal Bandit Regal.

Rich,

In 1984, Harry Gant was driving a Buick on the NASCAR circuit.  It was my understanding that Buick took 300 cars off the assembly line and "painted" them like the Skoal Bandit.  They were not all Regals, I understand that there was at least one Grand National.  Anyhow, the one we have is a 6 banger.  The sales reps drove these cars as they made their rounds selling and stocking their product.  They drove these cars for two years.  In 1986, we found one of the cars on a sales lot nearby.  The used car dealer had bought several of them from the leasing company.  Most of them had their decals slashed, and spray painted so that they had to be repainted.  The used car dealer was supposed to repaint them all, but he had this one on the sales lot and we bought it as it was.  This was my driver, and I drove it as a grocery getter until '91, when we put it into storage. We now have dug it out and hope to get it back into driving condition so that we can drive it to shows.  It really attracts a lot of attention.  - especially from the patrol cars.  More than once, I have been driving down the interstate and had a patrol car pull up beside me and roll the window down, and listen to what it sounded like.  I am not sure just how many of these cars have escaped the repaint job, but I have been told that there is at least one more of them out these someplace, or at least there was 5 or 6 years ago. 

When we saw it on the used car lot, we had two teenage daughters.  Bill saw the car, and asked how much that one would be, sort of in jest.  Both of the girls said that they'd never drive a car that looked like that!  My car was badly in need of replacement.  When Bill called, the dealer gave us a price that was very tempting, and since my car was the one the kids always "borrowed", I thought that maybe they wouldn't borrow it quite as much. Well, the girls found out that the boys thought the car was really "cool", and they grew to really like it.

It's been a really fun car.
Beth Griffin

GRIFFIN BUICK PARTS
635 N. COLUMBIA ST.
UNION CITY, IN 47390
765-964-6647
bgriffin@wesnet.com

SKOAL BANDIT DECAL PART NUMBERS
Note: These numbers are discontinued by GM

Damaged 1982 #33 Skoal Bandit Regal after Harry Gant's first Winston Cup victory.
(Contributed by Roger Harden.)

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