Believe it or not, there's more to modifying your Pontiac than the promise of improved performance. Some hobbyists want the world to know that their machine has been heavily modified-be it for bragging rights or to collect lots of show trophies-by providing a visual road map to each upgrade. Many HPP stories deal with how to modify for power with a subtle appearance so you can surprise the guy in the next lane. Even our Pure Stock Shootout series and the accompanying build-up stories are examples of how to tweak the engine, driveline, and suspension to get fantastic performance from a stock combination.
This story isn't one of those. It takes an opposite tack in highlighting 12 wild mods that not only make a dramatic visual statement when applied to your Pontiac but some of them can also greatly improve acceleration, handling, or braking. Applying these mods takes some forethought on your part, however, so each section will be broken into two sub-sections: "Why you want it" and "How to live with it" to help you make the right decisions for your project.
Huffed And Puffed
Adding a supercharger to any Pontiac offers instant eye-pop (turbos, too, depending upon the mounting location). A polished Roots-type supercharger poking through the hood of any Pontiac will stop traffic anywhere it goes. Centrifugal blowers and underhood Roots-types, though more subtle, also offer eye candy when the hood is popped at the drive-in or show.
Why you want it:
A supercharger or turbocharger can offer a huge power increase and a menacing visual presence.
How to live with it:
Going overboard with supercharging can be very enticing because all you need to do is dial up the boost for more power, usually through a pulley change. Don't! The result can be premature engine component failure if you go too far. Thankfully, manufacturers of most blowers or turbo bolt-on kits designed primarily for stock or mildly modified engines take into account that the fuel system, compression, cam, bottom end, drivetrain, and other components weren't built with the addition of a supercharger in mind. These companies usually recommend and dial in just 5 to 7 pounds of boost, and provide fuel system upgrades and tuning. They also offer standard or optional air-to-air or air-to-water intercooler or power cooler-style systems to safely extract more power. Should you decide to build a blower motor, for instance, strengthen the bottom end, run a cam designed to work with a supercharger, and beef up the driveline, most blower companies offer upgraded kits and/or smaller pulleys so you can increase boost safely.
Have A Laugh
"Laughing gas," "spray," "on the bottle." Regardless of what you call it, nitrous is a quick way to make big horsepower. Though we've seen some pretty elaborate kits under the hood, the biggest statement seems to be made with very obvious bottle placement. In the hatch of Third- and Fourth-Gens, visible through the rear window, or in vintage Pontiacs where the rear seat used to be, are a couple examples. Sometimes the bottles are left as-delivered with the company logo proudly displayed. Other times they're custom painted to fit the visual theme of the Pontiac.
Why you want it:
Nitrous equals power; the more you add, the faster you go. There are up to three wild visuals with nitrous: 1) you can plumb an elaborate fogger system under the hood with polished lines and solenoids; 2) the bottle can be mounted in a very visible location; 3) purge systems can be mounted in obvious areas such as the base of the windshield, the grilles, or even the front license plate cover like on this month's '00 T/A cover car. When purged, the Pontiac can resemble a snorting bull ready to charge.
How to live with it:
The temptation to over-nitrous your engine is great because, like a turbo or supercharger, it seems like you have a dial to twist that just keeps pouring on the power through added fuel and nitrous jet upsizing. Resist it. Nitrous companies design kits to work with stock engines all the way to full race combos to ensure that a safe amount of nitrous and fuel is applied for each application. Nitrous cams, nitrous pistons, and so on exist for a reason. If you want a big shot of nitrous, you must build the engine and drivetrain accordingly to handle it and fully exploit the potential power gain.