twobirds

I found this in the "Firebird Illustrated Buyer's Guide, by John A Gunnell. Third Edition. 1988's page 190.

I had never heard of this till now. Here is what he writes.

A more down to earth treat for firebird freaks was an aftermarket-modified Formula 350 concocted by Greg Carroll, an engineer who liked the P-words Pontiac and Paxton. His Carroll Supercharging Company, of Wyckoff, New Jersey, produced the very high-output (VHO) Formula for sale through selected factory dealers in the Garden State. The car's belt-driven Paxton centrifugal blower gave a five-psi pressure boost, raising horsepower to 400 at 2,500 rpm and torque to 475 foot-pounds at 4,000 rpm. High Peformance Pontiac featured the VHO, printing a six second 0-60 mph time and 13 second quarter-mile.

The Carrol supercharging package retailed for $8,500 and Carroll's CSC-103H trunk stereo system was a $2,495 option. The conversion voided the normal factory warranty, but Carroll stood behing the powertrain for one year or 12,000 miles, as long as proper service was done.Few VHO 350 Firebirds were built.

Question 1: Does anyone know how many a "few" is?

Q2: Does anyone know the price of one of these?

And for that matter has anyone seen in person or photo one of these cars?

85 T/A WS6

Here is a teaser 4 U

85 T/A WS6

I just bought that High Performance Pontiac issue, Gunnell was quoting from that article. I bought the June 1988 issue because it had a great article on the Banshee.

85 T/A WS6

The two dealers who contributed to the article were:

S & M Pontiac
Rt 23
Sussex, NJ

and

Jim Salerno Pontiac
1005 Rt 10
Randolph, NJ


The base car was for the most part a stock Formula 350 but required a 1500 mile break in before the conversion.

It used the stock PROM and TPI. A Jacobs ingnition was incorporated. A tranny oil cooler with 2 muffin fans was mounted to the underside and a 4th gear pressure switch made the converter lock up at 4th gear.

A water injection system was used with a big capaicity tank monted near the radiator shroud but Carroll recommended winshield washer fluid instead of water. The reason was the methanol in the fliud was an enrichment at WOT.

My Standard Catalog of Firebird shows the 1988 Formula factory priced at $11,999 so the cost would be about $20,500

twobirds

Sweet! I'm going to order that issue.

Conrad

TAdan

Wow, thanks for all the info Don. I have never heard of or seen a "V.H.O." and I am in NJ. I do know that Jim Salerno Pontiac is still in business though...

Cool, now Ill have to pay very close attention to all the Formies I find for sale in my area...

kanuck

Wow, somebody used the 82-84 T/A and Formy hood for what it was supposed to be originally, like a Turbo boost gauge like the 80-81 Turbo T/A. Cool!

gearhead0384

iTrader: (7)

That hood was on some 85 TAs also. Just providing some more info.

Kevin

kanuck

That doesn't sound right. 85 T/A's were the first with the "louvers" or whatever you call them on the front of the hood, along with the big GFX. They discontinued the powerbulge hood after 84.

gearhead0384

iTrader: (7)

Nope. My best friends 85 TA (jeff1367) has that hood on it, Yes it is the right hood if ya check the emission sticker under the hood it the correct LB9 sticker. It also is not base model, its got a lotta options on it too.

Kevin

TPIterror

Absolutely not. The "power bulge" hood was available on 82-84 Trans Ams and 87-92 Formulas ONLY. Somebody added that hood to your friends 85..I've seen it done before.

okfoz

IF you take a picture of under the hood there is a part number on the Left hand side toward the front, I think right under the part number there is a date stamp, The stamp indicates the fiscal month, the shift, the day of the month, and the model year, and that will tell you if it an 85 or not...

I have an 82 Hood, and under the part number is this number "6A 29 82" 6=June A=1st shift 29= day of month 82 = Model year

Keep in mind the model year starts in late 81 for 82 example, so an "11B 24 82" number would have been produced in November of 1981 for the 1982 model year.

I would really like to see the number because that would make an interesting anomoly...

John

Air_Adam

HP peak at 2500? TQ peak at 4000?

I think thats prolly backwards...

gearhead0384

iTrader: (7)

Yep, I was wrong. For some reasome I thought it was stock. But thank you for bringing it to my attention. Now I know better.

Kevin

K2000

Only three were built, the prototype is still running around somewhere, one was totaled and the only one remaining is on the cover of the June 1988 and May 2010 HPP. Check out the link http://www.highperformancepontiac.co...ird/index.html

TTOP350

iTrader: (8)

Holy OLD thread Batman!
There is one more. its been verified by vho that it was built
I have pix of it. Black 89 350. I'll c what I can find..

Edit: here is what I have

Speed Racer X

Tony, I see you found a home for the pix I sent to you. Cool!

Well, I am excited to report that the 2nd surviving VHO, the one in the pix above, now sits in my driveway. The car is technically my 16 year-old son's but I think I am more excited than he is. LOL.

I will make a complete post and thread - with a ton of pix - either tonight or tomorrow. The car turned out nice and even more unique than I thought because it is nearly identical to the Red VHO that you've seen in the magazines yet this one has a couple of neat little differences which I will share shortly.

Stay tuned...

TTOP350

iTrader: (8)

VERY COOL!!! glad you ended up with the car!!
Keep in touch with progress pix!

I put guages in mine in the very early 90s waaay b4 I knew about these cars.

Speed Racer X

^ I love your gauges in there. Very nice.

okfoz

I am not sure who or what to be more afraid of 1) Your 16 year old son having a VHO 350 car, 2) others on the road, or 3) The car getting totaled.



I hope he drives it, stays safe, has fun and doesn't get tickets.

John

Speed Racer X

^ Yes, thank you. It worries me as well since as a former teen owner of a much less powerful f-body, back in the day; this combination of teen, f-body, and power is a potent mix. He will be under my close guidance.

In all honesty, I think this will be more of a project, weekend toy, do some shows, etc. I don't know how long we will keep it yet and it certainly won't be his DD.

okfoz

To be honest, My first car was a 1967 Buick Riviera, don't Laugh, but it had a 430Ci BB Engine, with a 10.5:1 Compression, and a mild cam, we estimated it at 430HP, For a 4300# beast it really moved, I could burn tires all day long... Never Got a ticket either in it. So depending on his maturity I am sure he can handle it... Hopefully it will wear off that he has a land rocket and he will drive it respectfully...

If it was me... I would get him a regular Formula 350 to drive, save the VHO for shows and when he graduated college, give it to him then..

John

AmorgetRS

iTrader: (6)

I think god my parents said nothing bigger then the 6 when I got my 92 Camaro when I was 16... nearly wrecked that enough times that having the V8 would have meant totaled car for sure. Most of the time it wasn't doing anything stupid, either...

Drew

iTrader: (58)

I was 17 when I got my first Camaro, just a slow LG4 auto. I did plenty of stupid things that could have gone horribly wrong. When I got my 91 Formula I was 20, and I distinctly remember thinking that car would kill me. If I'd started there instead of with a LG4, it probably would have.

okfoz

To be honest, the best thing I ever did for learning how to handle a car was to go to a huge OPEN (yes that is emphasized) and Empty parking lot without any light posts, or curbs. When it would snow, or get icy I would drive my car and put it into spins doughnuts, Reverse spins, whatever I could to put the car out of control and try to correct it.

I could do doughnuts and stop the car pointing in any direction I want within 5°

It has saved my butt more than one time, and I would recommend it to kids learning to drive. The natural reaction to a car is critical, when you hit the gas and have the back end spin out you know how to make it go one way or another. Of course I was using an old 1977 Electra 225 with a 350, but it was enough to learn on.

A piece of advice... no events longer than 5 or 10 min as you do not want the po-po showing up.

John