Pontiac fans--or anyone interested in 60s drag racing and muscle cars--should check out this thread at PerformanceYears.com. Keith Seymore's father raced for the Royal Pontiac dealership in Michigan back in the 60s, and there are some great stories and details about drag racing in that era. After Keith's father quit racing in the early 70s, the '65 GTO pictured below sat for two decades before Keith turned it into a magazine-worthy car just a few years back. Cool stuff! I especially liked the story about the quality of the factory paint job on his father's '64 GTO.
This is Kenny Walters' Procharged LS1 Firebird convertible. He built the car and is running One Lap of America in memory of his cousin, Hal Cantor, also a gearhead, who would've loved to be along for the ride. Can't wait to see this mean-sounding ride out on the track!
This 1978 Special Edition Y82 Trans Am was driven by Burt Reynolds while he was consulting with YearOne on the Bandit cars, and has been featured in Hot Rod twice. Looks pretty solid, though it has patch panels in the rear quarters, so not exactly virgin sheetmetal. Seems like the bidding is off to a healthy start on eBay.
Once more for the record I'd like to say that Pontiac is CRAZY if they don't come out with another Trans Am. And I'm sure Burt would be willing to help out.
Continue reading "Burt Reynolds Trans Am on eBay" »
Ralf just sent me this pic of the new intercooler system he installed in his crazy Supra-powered Lemans. He's testing it out this weekend--I'm looking forward to hearing how it works out.
Now, at least one Solstice forum found out about this week's Showroom Showdown, but I doubt that alone explains the fact that the Solstice won by a 4 to 1 margin. Ouch! Personally, I think the Solstice looks way better, but I'd still take the Miata...
This has to be the nicest '79 Firebird I've seen in a long time, and it's all the more impressive for the fact that it was once a hundred-dollar beater. Brett picked it up in '04 while he was in high school, and has since gutted the interior, swapped and then rebuilt the engine, and even dealt with an accident that left the quarter panel wadded while he was in the midst of the restoration. Check out his great pics and incredibly detailed build on his ride page!
It's always fun to pit domestics vs. imports, and this is a pretty obvious match up. Plus, both Pontiac and Mazda have done pretty well in previous Showroom Showdowns. Let's keep the GXP out of this one and compare the 166 hp Miata to the 173 hp Solstice, since they are priced pretty close. And if you think you're too manly to drive either of these cars, just pretend it's a gift for your wife or girlfriend. So, which would you choose, the Solstice or the Miata?
By David
aka Highspeedhijinks
We've featured a few Fieros here before on the blog, including Paul's incredible fully caged 383 stroker. Unlike Paul's project, Powedoctor's Fiero was built for the street. Running a 3.4 litre V6 with a TWIN Turbo and intercooler set up, he predicts a horsepower number somewhere in the 500 range. Couple that with the car's 2500lb curb weight and you've got yourself a car capable of some quick quarter-mile times. What I'm really impressed with is the fabrication work, from the fully custom intereior to the totally unique intake and turbo setup. Powerdoctor really went all out, even going so far as to fully integrate an OB2 ECM out of a 98 Grand AM. When you really want to be unique there's no question: you can't buy it, you have to build it.
Car makers can spend untold thousands of dollars on market research to come up with the right name for their cars. One old trick to avoid this is to have a competition to see if someone can come up with an exciting name for a new release. Take Alden Giberson; working as a car designer back in 1954, he won a competition to name a new Ford product, and so the Thunderbird was born. Not bad, but the fact that all he won was a suit and a pair of pants kind of sucks--you think they’d at least have given him a car for his efforts! Nearly 60 years later, Pontiac is doing the same thing with their G8 Sport Truck. Come up with the right name and you could win a new Ute when it hits the streets in 2009. Car makers should do this more often--after all, why spend a fortune on market research to wind up calling your latest model the Mazda Bongo (pictured) or the Daihatsu Naked, when the public could probably come up with something better. Personal names for cars are an entirely different matter: I've heard of a guy who has called every car he ever owned "The Beast." I have never given my cars names, however if I do christen the Plymouth it will be "Honey Rider." What do you call your car?
Wow, check out this fantastic prototype on eBay. Designed by John DeLorean in 1964, the fiberglass-bodied Pontiac Banshee's influence on the '68-and-up Corvette design is obvious. It's a shame it never got produced, but the original one-off prototype survived and is in perfect original condition with only 1500 miles. To make it yours, all you need is 1.5 million bucks.
Via CarScoop
Check out this incredible new Pontiac G8 advert. It's Spy Hunter gone Laguna Seca, complete with an Excaliber, something that looks vaguely Landie, and I can't decide between a Monte Carlo or a Grand National. Whatever. Pontiac is back, and this ad is putting the G8 in front of the right people. I love it!
Ok, so maybe its not actually called the El Camino yet. In fact, Pontiac doesn't really know what the hell to call it, so they're having contest to figure it out. One thing they do know is that they're building it—and it'll be here by the end of this year. The new El Camino (yeah, baby!) is actually a Pontiac G8 with the tush cut off and replaced by a pick-up bed. These babies are huge in the land down under, where they're simply known as Utes. Power will be the same as the G8 GT, meaning it will get the same 361hp/385lbs-ft mill. This is good news because aside from hauling whatever you can fill the bed with it will surely haul some serious ass as well. Check out the rest of the pics after the jump.
And remember, people: "Business in the front and PARTY IN THE BACK!!" Long live the mullet.
Continue reading "The El Camino is Back: Mullets of the World, Rejoice!" »
Just not sure if I like this thing yet. I think that Pontiac nailed the styling on the new Solstice Coupe. It has a beautifully sculpted bonnet and rear end, and is powered by either a 2.4L 173hp 4-cylinder for the base model or a 2.0L 260hp Turbo for the GXP. To me, however, it looks remarkable similar to the BMW M Coupe—maybe a little too similar. The other thing is that if you're over 5'9" don't even think about getting into this thing. I needed a shoe horn to wedge my 240lb, 6'4" frame into the Solstice, and a big ole' pry bar to get me back out. This is NOT a car for those with any type of height or mass to them—it just won't work. The interior is nicely appointed with the same look and feel of the Solstice roadster which means it's sporty but not overly complicated. The engine is pretty accessible as well with its reverse-opening hood.
I suppose in the end I like this car because, let's face it, it has all the elements of great sports car. Awesome styling, good power, and that feeling that makes you want to put your right foot to the floor maybe a little more than you should.
This is a car that I'm really diggin' and have been waiting for for some time. You see, when it comes to fast 4-doors, there aren't that many choices. We have the Dodge Charger SRT-8, Chrysler 300 SRT-8 (basically the same thing), Nissan Maxima (yes it's front wheel drive but it's fast so don't bitch), the BMW M5 and M3 but they're a bit out most people's price range. In my opinion, the market is prime for a good ol' American muscle sedan which is exactly what the G8 is. I'm speaking mainly of the G8 GXP: this is the one that'll be priced around 40k, have 400+hp and a six-speed manual tranny. It will also have 14" rotors with some big honkin' Brembo calipers and 19" wheels... nice, right? It'll also do 0-60 in under 5 seconds, and most likely top out around 160mph.
This is good news for those of us who are in the market for a fast sedan. The paint on the show car was some kinda funky bowling ball gold, but other than that though they built a really nice car. The interior is somewhat reminiscent of the GTO, meaning it's nice with some quality materials—and that, combined with the bulldog exterior styling makes for handsome muscle ride. When the G8 comes out at the end of the year I may have to make some room in MR. ANGRY's garage for one. We'll see.
Continue reading "Pontiac G8 GXP: Oh yeah... I like it!" »
I was pleased to hear that Holden is going to be exporting its Ute to America as the newest member of the Pontiac lineup. Here in Australia, we have enjoyed the benefits that Utes provide for a long time: put simply, they are powerful workhorses that still give you the creature comforts of a car. What many of you may not know is that the Ute in its current form, where the pick-up bed and side panels are produced as one piece to provide a seamless body molded tray, was in fact invented here in my Australian hometown, Geelong. In what must rate as one of the best customer-service responses of all time, Ford Australia designed and built the first Utility Coupe based on the request from a farmer’s wife in 1933. The long-suffering woman wrote a letter to Ford asking why they could not produce a vehicle that could both take them to church in comfort on Sundays and take their pigs to the market on Mondays. The request was passed on to a young designer by the name of Lewis Brandt, who designed what would turn out to be a real winner in the Australian car market for generations. GM and other manufacturers quickly followed suit, though the first actual Holden Ute, predecessor of the ones that'll soon be rolling out of Pontiac showrooms in the US, didn't appear until after WWII. Brandt’s original design for Ford produced a vehicle that had a wheel base of 112 inches, with a rear tray that was 5ft 5 inches long and had a load capacity of 1200 pounds. Sadly, Brandt died in a collision with a commercial truck in 1987, while driving a vintage Ford Ute that he had restored.
