This article looks at the design of the new Buick Regal GS. This car now has the sportiest design of all the cars in the Buick Regal line!
The new 2012 Buick Regal GS reflects the designer’s sporty design inspiration and is now the sportiest of these luxury sedans made yet. It has the highest specific output of any production engine that GM has ever offered with its high-output Ecotec 2.0L turbo engine that cranks 270 hp and 295 lb.-ft. of torque.
The GS also offers four-piston front-caliper brakes, a six-speed manual transmission, optional 20-inch wheels, a HiPer Strut front suspension system that can be adjusted by the driver as well as driver adjustable steering settings.
The designer of the new Buick Regal, David Lyon, recently gave an interview about his work on the new Regal’s design. He emphasized that the Regal was the sportiest car in the Buick line and that this new design took that athleticism one step further. “The car has a great stance. The wheels are at the corners of the vehicle, sitting outside the body, which gives it a well-planted look on the road.” But he also wanted to ensure that the vehicle is still the same old Buick Regal that customers know and love, except with a few adjustments. “For GS, we weren’t looking for a personality change so much as an enhancement. Most of all, we wanted a pure expression of Buick performance.”
Because of the new GS’ new power it requires a cooling system that will keep the powertrain and brakes of the new model from overheating a lot more than previous models have. Therefore there is an added element to the new GS that allows for more air intake. But this new element is aesthetically pleasing as well. “…the two vertical air intakes at the corners give the car a very dramatic signature front end, almost catlike. The Regal already had a feline grace, but we’ve enhanced it for GS, making it even more assertive.”
Lyon also explains how the GS’ chrome has been toned down from previous models, giving it a satin finish. The new GS gives a satin finish to the wheels as well as the dual exhausts. Says Lyon, “…the satin-finished dual exhausts are integrated into the lowered rear fascia in a very dramatic way, and help give the car an attractive luxurious look from every angle.”
Lyon goes on to talk about how the GS was very much inspired by nature. “We looked at a lot of shapes from the natural world, including lightweight, agile predators that convey speed, power and beauty,” he said in the interview.
The team who worked on this vehicle even took it out onto the Autobahn and the Nurburgring tracks to test its functioning. They found that the new GS was incredibly aerodynamic as are all the Regal models, but even more so than any other Regals in the past. Lyon explains in the interview that this is because of the new aerodynamic design of the lowered fascia and rocker extensions.
But of course the makers of the new GS didn’t want to change the GS’ design from other Regal models too much. They made sure that they were adding to the old designs instead of taking away from them. Lyon talks about how the GS is still a Buick Regal, and yet like all the Regals it has it has a sense of style all on its own. “Instead of following a specific formula for Buick design, we want each car to have its own individual personality. The Regal has a more avant-garde style than the rest of the Buick lineup, which is reaching a younger buyer and customers who might not have previously considered buying a Buick,” he said.
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