BLACK AIR: THE BUICK GRAND NATIONAL DOCUMENTARY!

Filmmaker Andrew Filippone Jr’s feature-length documentary showcases the Bad Boys from Flint: Buick Grand National & GNX.

With the Rumor Mill churning out buzz worthy chatter alluding to Buick returning to the performance car marketplace with modern versions of the 25-year-old Grand National and GNX, the public release of BLACK AIR today couldn’t have been timed any better. Today is the 25th anniversary of the day the last Buick Grand National was built. The final assembly of the last GN on December 11, 1987 is featured in the film and the actual car is on the poster and DVD cover.

Buick’s menacing monochromatic black Grand National and GNX are many things to many people. To some, they are simply cool rides. Others see them as the answer to: What would Darth Vader drive? To rockers George Thorogood & the Destroyers, the GN/GNX was Bad to the Bone.

If Buick were to bring back the Grand National and GNX nameplates, possibly using the all-wheel-drive Cadillac ATS platform with a twin-turbo direct injection 3.6-liter V6, it would be one kick-ass machine. And a natural successor to Bad to the Bone would be AC/DC’s Back in Black, belted out by consummate car guy and Sarasota Café Racer, Brian Johnson!

Andrew Filippone Jr. sees Buick’s uncharacteristic GN and GNX, above, iteration black cars as more than merely modern muscle. “They’re survivors,” he says. “These cars were limited in so many ways – styling, pedigree, chassis, cubic inches – and yet they transcended all of that. In spite of all the obstacles, all of the unfortunate circumstances, they rose.” He respectfully tags the Bad Boys from Flint, “strange & curious misfits.”

Filippone has spent four years tracking down GN and GNX owners, racers and collectors, media who road tested the cars, and the key players responsible for engineering, styling and marketing at Buick & GM. He steers BLACK AIR into novel territory for a car film, exploring issues of culture, social class, inheritance, and privilege ingrained in the turbocharged V6 Buicks, and away from the usual focus on mechanics and performance. Yet, there’s no shortage of GNs and GNXs doing what they do best – smoking tires and intimidating people!