Firebird and the Trans-Am series

[OG69Z]

Great story Charlie! Thank you for sharing.

Most interesting is the front wheels/hubs. It appears to have had six lugs. Very heavy duty....  or maybe just an illusion of the photo?

Bob

[hubleyman]

Hey Jon,

Just wanted to add or clarify a few points.  The whole heater assembly, wiper assemblies, etc. were completely removed when I first got the car.  The entire metal dash frame assembly was completely cut out and the firewall was marked up in preparation for some cutting but not actually cut yet.  The stock wire harnesses were all removed and a custom fabbed harness was started with a control panel down by the shifter.  Aircraft toggle switches and indicator lights were used for that assembly.  Seemed like the car got to a certain point and then the modification process just stopped.

The two pics with the heater box and other parts installed were several years after I got the car when I was in the mode of assembling the car for some sort of use.  I borrowed all the dash and firewall components from one of my wrecked 68 Camaros.

The rear flares were solid steel and a very strange design for back then.  It was a challenge to get a tire and wheel combination large enough to fit the shape properly.

A very odd car with an unclear history.  Like you said, maybe it will ring a bell with someone who is willing to share their stories about it......... 


Bob,  If I recall the front hubs had five lugs but they were Corvette rotors and not the OEM Firebird parts.  You just can't make them out very clearly due to the feeble pics I took.

[Jon Mello]

Very good clarifications, Charlie. Thanks for including them. It's very hard to figure out what the end goal was for that car.
It doesn't seem to be a drag car and yet doesn't really fit a particular class of road racing either. The flares are unnecessarily
large for Trans-Am and A-sedan as there was an 8" max width rule for wheels up until 1973.

[tjs44]

Great reading.I have owned 2 of the 25 built SCCA short deck engines.I have built them as stroker RA V tunnel port engines and have ran them in both a real 69 T/A and a 69 T/A clone.I owned the X ram2-4 RA V intake and correct tall tach drive dist for them also.I am now building a std deck true NASCAR 366 engine also with the RA V tunnel port heads.Because pontiac only made 25 of the short deck engines they were not allowed to run the series.They then had to go to the std deck 303 and ended up running RAIV heads.I also at one time owned a RA IV short deck 2-4 X ram intake.

[Jon Mello]

Neat pieces of Pontiac history. Do you have any photos of those items that you can share here?

[tjs44]

I will dig them out.Just shipped my last complete RA V tunnel port engine out today to TX.It was a std deck engineering 455 engine.Tom

[tjs44]

pics 303 SCCA engine,tunnel port intake,303 stroker on dyno Xram 2.4 intake

[tjs44]

try again

[tjs44]

one more

[Jon Mello]

Thanks for sharing. Those Pontiac tunnel port heads never fail to impress me and that cross ram is awesome as well. Is that manifold a tunnel port piece as well? Do you have any pics with the lid off?

[tjs44]

I think I do,will dig it out.Tom

[mike343sharpstick]

pics 303 SCCA engine,tunnel port intake,303 stroker on dyno Xram 2.4 intake

Wow, what a rare piece! Can you give some information on the power output and characteristics?
Always curious to hear a "real" information on some of these engines that have lots of rumors and hearsay surrounding them. The way those heads look, they would flow to 9,000 rpm or more!, What was the high RPM limit of the block and/or valve train in road racing configuration?

[tjs44]

Both engines I built were 100 percent pump gas street engines.I built them to be able to turn 9K.I have found from years of testing all kinds of CI RA V engines from 366 CI to 455 CI in street trim and with a factory dual plane intake they give up around 6200 to 6500.The 366 engine made 448 HP at 5800.I ran it for years in my 69 Firebird.I ran the X ram on the dyno but with 660 center squirters and it did not like it.Never ran it again.The guy that owns it now has run the X ram engine in his 69 TA with a set of 450 holleys and has not reported how it drives.The 366 NASCAR RA Vengine im building now will have a single plane intake and when we run it on the dyno we will see it it likes it better.Only rub is I dont think it will like the 7in rod in the std deck block.Tom

[Jon Mello]

Wow, a 7" rod is a foreign thought to someone (like myself) who has only played around with small block Chevys.

[tjs44]

Pontiac just went cheap with the 366,they used a std 455 piston and just ordered a rod that would connect the piston to the crank!My short deck engines used a 6in BME alu rod.Tom