Pontiacs

[oldskool]

For you guys who won't race a GT car unless you can run more than a half sec under, you can quit reading this post now.

When I was racing, I never had enuff money to go as fast as I wanted to go, either in Stock or bracket. But, in bracket racing, we learned that you don't have to go quick, to win. You have cut consistently good lights & run consistent ET's.

Most Stock/SS racers really HATE it when you relate their chosen form of racing to bracket racing, in ANY way. BUT, IF your car is legal & can run it's index or a little quicker, then each round that is NOT a same-class heads-up race uses bracket race rules.

Since this IS true, no matter how many Class racers don't like it, any car that is legal & can run it's index can win any race, in which they don't have a heads-up run.

So, with this in mind, IF a guy really wants a GT car, but don't have the funds to build a high dollar car, he could run the '77 Pontiac 350 engine & get by with enuff car to run mid 11's.

That means that he would not need any more traction than a high 10 sec or low 11 sec Stocker would need. To me, that means that a decent low 11 sec Stock roller would be enuff car to run GT, with the 350P engine.

Or, if you had to, or wanted to, build from scratch, you wouldn't need any trick suspension. The basic leaf springs with Cal-Trac bars should work just fine. It appears to be working for Larry Maxwell, down into the 10.80's.

The '77 350, running in the lowest GT class, would require a min weight of 3500 + 170 driver weight. The '79 Bird is listed at just under 3500 with both a 403/auto & a 400/4-speed. So, one of these late 2nd gens should work great, as a GT/QA car, with an 11.75 index.

Brad Koivisto runs a half sec quicker than that easily, & has run some high tens, with his '74 350 GTO Stocker. IIRC, Mike Morgan has run below 10.50, with his '77 350 powered Bird

So, I'm thinkin that a real mild '77 SS 350 should easily run mid 11's, or slightly above, certainly quicker than 11.75.

Ya'll check my calculations. I could easily be wrong. How does this combo look for a low budget GT car ?

For those who don't think it would work, lets hear your recipe for a from-scratch low budget GT car.

Obviously, IF you can find a suitable & cheap roller that needs little, other than an engine & trans, then that might be cheaper, and a LOT less work, than building from scratch.