VMP Edition
Last month, High Performance Pontiac brought you Part II of the sizzling strip action of the 2009 Pavement Pounders Shootout at Virginia Motorsports Park. The event, held the day before the annual Pontiacs in the Park show, allowed specially selected Pontiac drag racers from across the United States to have private use of the NHRA-sponsored VMP quarter-mile track for the day, show off their engine combos, and experiment with alternate tunings and techniques to achieve their lowest e.t.
This month we're back with more excitement, as we conclude our series with two Pontiac racers who both utilize 428s and No. 16 heads in their engine combos. While one built up a relative's 7,994-original mile grocery getter into a somewhat-stock-appearing sleeper, replete with original paint and velour interior, the other began with a high-mileage classic, maintained a low-buck look, and put all of his budget into the drivetrain. Now, let's meet the racers.
Dan Albright of Frostburg, Maryland, told his wife's great aunt that he was going to get some groceries in her '80 LeMans station wagon, but not without first treating it to a stroked 428/467 engine, a Turbo 350 trans, and 4.10 gears.
Bill Black of Bartonsville, Pennsylvania, was prepared to push the limit on his primer-gray '68 GTO. It features a 428 engine bored to 433 cubes, a Turbo 400 trans, and 3.73 gears.
Weather Report
The temperature at Virginia Motorsports Park during our Shootout started warm and got hotter, 82 to 87 degrees to be exact. Barometric pres-sure was measured at 29.69 hg and the dew point was 64.4 degrees. The track is 98 feet above sea level and density altitude ranged from 2,083 to 2,368 feet, so we'll use a factor of 0.9731 for e.t. and 1.0283 for mph for 2,300 feet to chart the theoretical best performance at sea level. This will be done on the best pass only based on e.t.