Pontiac Pavement Pounders Shootout Lone Star Pt. IV

It was a southern affair with proper grilling on the barbecue, the sun blazing, and hot Pontiacs burning up the quarter-mile at the Texas Motorplex. If you've been reading the last few issues, you know that we've been bringing you some quick Pontiacs lately and this month is no exception. The HPP staff made the most of our track rental in Ennis, Texas, by inviting nearly 25 cars to slice and dice elapsed times, while we snapped the shutters on our cameras. What we have for you this month is the last of the Motorplex madness, but mark our words, these won't be the last Pavement Pounders.

Mark Doyal of Georgetown, Texas, banged the gears in his Tremec 5-speed-equipped '79 Trans Am, while it was smooth shifting for Tim Fisher of Ft. Worth whose '98 GTP slid down the track gracefully while knocking down mid- to low-13-second elapsed times.

Grace was not in Manhattan, Kansas' Mark Zafron's dictionary, as his big and brawny '67 Firebird belittled the race surface with 10-second times. Representing the late-model musclecar crowd was Brandon Barr of The Colony, Texas. Slammed on the ground with attitude, Brandon's LT1-powered Formula sniffed plenty of giggle gas, which made its trip down the track all the more enjoyable.

The weather was hot, in the low to mid-80s all day with 50-60 percent humidity, but it was the track and not the weather that most of our contestants fought during the day. The track surface was on the slippery side, which left many of the high-horsepower Pontiacs looking for traction.

Putting together a shootout of such magnitude requires more than just a few magazine staffers, so we'd like to thank the Dallas Area Pontiac Association and members Randy Allen and Bob Cook for helping to organize the event and assisting the HPP staff in keeping everything working smoothly throughout the day. We must also thank Kadin Betts and Thom Reaves for manning the grill and providing everyone with hot dogs and hamburgers, as well as Arriba Fire-Roasted Mexican Salsas for providing its products . Lastly, we thank Sewell Pontiac and in particular, Saadallah El Jundi who loaned us a '04 GTP so we would be spared the misfortune of driving a mundane rental car. So here is the final installment of our Lone Star shootout for 2003, but fear not as we have plenty more pavement pounders coming in the future.

Owner: Mark Zafran
Mark was raised in a Pontiac family, but it was his brother-in-law, Jerry, and his friend, Steve, who would convince him that he needed his own Pontiac. "They would come pick me up and take me to the races with their black '67 Firebird," recalls Zafran. In 1979, he purchased a red '68 Ram Air Firebird, which was soon running 12.90s, but his itch to go faster led him to buy this '67 model. When not wrenching on his own vehicles, Mark works as a mechanic for the Kansas National Guard tuning M-1 tanks among other things.

Owner: Brandon Barr
Contrary to the 177,000 miles on the odometer, Brandon Barr's Formula looks fresh and new thanks to some shiny Fikse FM-5 wheels and a lowered stance. Brandon actually owned a '96 Formula before this one, but he has more time and money in this white wonder, and its performance shows it. Brandon was in the middle of an LS1 Trans Am body makeover having only fitted the rear clip to the car, but since our shootout, he has finished it to give his Pontiac the LS1 look.

Owner: Mark Doyal
The story of Mark's Trans Am is quite interesting and it began with his parents purchasing the Pontiac for him as a graduation gift. "I sold it in 1986 and found it again in 2000 and bought it back. The car wasn't running so I did a complete mechanical restoration," said Doyal. Mark also made note that one of his most memorable moments with the Pontiac was on prom night, when he raced a new L-82 Corvette and sent it packing. These days, Mark has the Firebird set up for the occasional autocross course, and the 5-speed overdrive allows him to cruise on the highway and keep up with the traffic.

Owner: Tim Fisher
Producing 291 hp at the front wheels, Tim's GTP is definitely making solid supercharged power. "I liked the styling, comfort and power that the Grand Prix offered, and about a month after purchasing the car, I met a few other GP enthusiasts and began to learn about the potential of the Pontiac," said Fisher. No doubt he has released that potential, having run a best elapsed time of 12.93 seconds in the quarter.

At The Track
Mark Zafran
"I was impressed with the times that my Firebird ran considering the shifting problems," said Mark. A gasket in the transmission would not allow the automatic to shift properly, but he still ran in the 10s. "On a whim, I tried leaving the plug in the scoop and it actually ran the quickest time of the day. I've got an air filter on it now and it has run 10.60," noted Zafran.

Brandon Barr

Mark Doyal
There's no doubt that Mark's Trans Am would make an excellent street racer. By all outward appearances, it looks just like any other overweight, underpowered, screaming-bird-on-the-hood T/A, but its motor made 515 hp and 503 ft-lb of torque on the engine dyno, and a best trap speed of 118 mph indicates that low 11-second times are possible. At the shootout, the combination of drag radials, a short first gear and big Pontiac torque made it difficult to gain traction on the greasy track surface, but the T/A still scorched the quarter-mile to a best of the day 11.93 at 115 mph. Mark informed us that he just picked up a set of M/T ET Street tires and hopes to reduce his elapsed times further.

Tim Fisher
Despite having the weight of the engine over the drive wheels, Tim's GTP is now making enough ponies to overpower them and the lack of consistently quick 60-foot times prevented him from keeping his GTP in the 13.20-13.30 range. Tim also had issues with the Poncho shifting at the proper rpm, and this too affected performance, but there's no doubt that this is one fast daily driver. And it's comfortable, too.

Conclusion
Hot air and a slippery racing surface don't make for a great track experience, but our Pontiac's showed they had plenty of muscle despite the adverse conditions. Also note that if you compare the comments of these racers regarding the track to those of the other 3 shootouts in this series, you'll see that the traction issue affected each differently depending upon the combination. Some had little problem with the surface while others had more. This installment of the Pontiac Pavement Pounders marks the last group of cars from the Lone Star shootout, but we have plenty more mean Pontiacs coming in the future. Will yours be one of them?