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| V8Rumble's 1989 Pontiac Trans Am GTA | |||
V8Rumble's 1989 Trans Am GTA This car was originally equipped with an L98 Tuned-Port 350, 700R4 automatic, aluminum driveshaft, 3.27-geared 9-bolt positraction rear, WS-6 suspension, 4-wheel discs & the steering-wheel-mounted stereo controls. Most of that still remains - but I'm in the process of making some targeted improvements...  I'm currently in the process of building my GTA as a dual-purpose street/motorsports car. My short-to-medium-term goal is to get my name into the '150 Club' on the Bonneville Salt Flats (shooting for the 2007 season). Longer-term goal is to maybe take part in some Open Road Racing (ORR) events such as the Silver State Classic, or the Sandhills Open Road Challenge. To that end, I have the following parts currently installed: * Firestone SZ-50EPs all the way around (245/50/ZR16s front, 255/50/ZR16s rear) - One of the BEST mods you can do - their wet traction is awesome, & has twice saved me from wrinkled sheetmetal! * Jet-Hot coated SLP 1-3/4" stainless headers (I used graphite header gaskets & Stage 8 locking bolts, as well as a starter heat shield, cut-to-fit 90* plug wires w/ heat shields & MFY looms - no heat-related problems yet!); * Full 3" exhaust (3" cat, & the quietest 3" performance muffler I could get - I'd rather not advertise it when the car is "built"  );* 24# injectors (stock injectors died); * "Homebuilt" AFPR (A threaded nut & bolt, a drill press & a little brazing - MUCH more economically efficient than an aftermarket unit!) - you can use this link to see how it's done.; * Custom cold-air w/ K&N (why pay $200 for something YOU can do??); * An MSD 6AL ignition box (w/ adjustable rev-limit dial); * MSD Blaster coil; * A/C delete pulley (I got rid of the entire A/C system - and then moved to Houston for a year...  );* New distributor (after the stock one died); * BMR adjustable LCAs; * New polygraphite transmission mount (seems to be taller than stock, which appears to have caused a sm oil leak @ rear of engine  );* Weld-in SFCs; * Most of the "free mods" - Ported plenum, coolant bypass, modified MAF, etc.; * A Kenwood CDR/CDRW MP3 deck (the DJs in Houston pretty much sucked); * Aftermarket 6x9s (Pioneer?) in the stock locations; And the following parts sitting around here, ready to install: * Holley StealthRam intake manifold (w/ AFPR); * AFR 195 heads (100% CNC'd, L98 angle plug, 7/16" studs, provisions for coolant temp sensors, etc.); * A Billet dbl-roller timing set; * A BMR "Trak-Pak" adjustable torque-arm kit (takes the torque-arm stresses off of the tranny's tailshaft!  );* Some of the "little stuff" needed to conform to SCTA rules: A set of metal valve stems (mandatory for the speeds I'll be running), a sealed battery relocation box (for more weight over the rear wheels - I'm reconsidering this one, it may be a temporary move...), things like that; * An inexpensive 10" sub (still need an amp though); The engine parts above are "sitting around" because I've pretty much decided to go the 383 route & figured I'd just do it all at the same time. One of the local guys has a block I can use, & Ithink I've finally figured out a camshaft that'll get me the numbers I need for the salt while still passing emissions & being driveable - that alone has turned out to be a bigger challenge than I'd expected... I've been doing a bit of study regarding anything that will help me achieve my goal, & man, there's a lot to learn. Aerodynamics, gearing, weight distribution, driving technique, camshaft selection, weight reduction... Too bad there's not a school that'll grant a degree based on all of this!!  Future plans include: * A 6-speed manual tranny - Simply a "MUST" for what I'm planning to do; * Bigger brakes - see above! * A 6 or 8 point rollbar - because no matter how good you are, things happen really quickly sometimes... * New wheels & tires - as crazy as it sounds, skinny tires work best on the salt, so the wide stuff will have to stay on the trailer... "Wish" list: * Turbocharger - and all of the supporting mods of course! EDIT: I've just taken a (somewhat blurry) pic of the new intake system, just so I'd have a pic to post. Somewhere around here I have some good digital pics of the car, & I'll post them when I find 'em... EDIT 2: Figured that this page was incomplete without a pic of the car, so I took a (less than perfect) pic of the car in the air during the LCA install. Yes, it has a bit of dust on it in this photo. I'll get it back on the road (probably in late Aug/early Sept.), & take some better pictures... EDIT 3: SCORE!!! One of my local F-buds took me to a local boneyard today where I found a Camaro with the ill-fated 2.5L "Iron Duke" 4-banger. A lot of people don't know that they came with Aluminum bumper supports, & lucky for me, it was still on the car!! I'll be swapping the aluminum one onto my car this fall, I'll weigh the original piece, weigh the aluminum one, & post both weights... Given the size of the piece, I'm guessing that it'll be fairly significant!  Update - it wasn't as significant as I'd hoped - I was hoping for a 12-15 lb difference, it was closer to 10 lbs. Still, that's weight saved from the very front of the car, I guess...[Aug. 3, '06] EDIT 4: Finally got the SFCs welded in (FYI - Hotchkis SFCs don't play nice with SLP headers...), & I can see why people recommend them. It's a bit tough to describe the "before & after" comparison, but driving the car afterwards, it felt like for the first time the front & rear suspensions were working together. Overall, it's a worthwhile mod, but I still feel that the tires were the best mod I've done... [Aug. 18th] EDIT 5: Added a couple of better pics here, a wonderbar (steering brace) & under-hood fuel pressure gauge to the car. Still a lot of big plans... [Sept. 4th] EDIT 6: Finally got around to installing the 6AL tonight, & went to Bandimere for the final test-n-tune night of the season. The air seemed pretty good, I was getting wheelspin off the line, which didn't happen much when I lived at sea-level!! According to a member of our group who tracks these things, the DA was 7400' which is just crazy. The track scale said that the car weighs 3730, which is even worse - going to work on changing that this winter as well! My best RT was .036 (not too shabby for a first-timer), best 60' time was a 2.336, & my best time was a 15.873 @ 86.67. Plugging the numbers from the night's atmospheric conditions into this calculator gives a corrected ET of 14.33 @ 95.07. The 60' & the 1/4 time were from my first run, when a car fire caused us to wait for 20-30 mins at the line. I suppose this is worthwhile as a baseline before adding the new HSR/AFR 383... [Oct. 11th] EDIT 7: Finally warming up enough to where working on the car is a possibility again! Thanks to my buddy Garett, it looks like we may have gotten rid of the clearance issue where the exhaust was rattling against the SFCs, so I'll again be able to drive the car without going nuts! Got a Momo steering wheel for Christmas, so the stock steering-wheel stereo controls are no longer on the car (didn't work with the MP3 deck anyway). My beautiful wife says that I've got an exhaust e-cutout being delivered within the next several days, that'll be a fun toy to play with! Also got a TA Performance differential cover to strengthen my 9-bolt a bit, I'll probably install that fairly soon as well. [Apr. 13th] |
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| Author | Comment | Date |
| blyth18md | Big plans! Keep me updated. | 06-10-2006 |
| JT | Thanks for your submission, we've added your vehicle into TGO's Gallery | 10-10-2006 |
