With the new wheels and tires,...
With the new wheels and tires, our Goat looks even better than ever.
Some of you may have been following our 2005 GTO in blogs, and soon, the pages of our magazine. Coming from F-Bodies, I was pleased with the ride and comfort of the GTO. There are, however, several drawbacks to the Goat.
At an estimated curb weight bordering the 3,800lb mark, it's no lightweight. One solution used to combat such a heavy curb weight is to lower the ride height and add more tire underneath. Sadly, the GTO is already pretty low and there isn't any more room underneath for additional rubber. Some owners have successfully stuffed a 275 in the rear, and that may be in the future plans. As for right now, we decided it would be best to add a stickier tire to our 18-inch wheels. We decided on the 245/40R18 Falken Azenis RT-615 for its full four-wheel rotation ability and reputation for increasing cornering traction. This made a large improvement, but there is still more to be had by adding an R-compound tire.
With an entirely stock suspension...
With an entirely stock suspension on our 2005 GTO, it's obvious by these photos to see that body roll was excessive. We eventually plan to rectify this.
For suspension, the GTO uses an independent semi-trailing control-link with gas pressure dampers. For drag racing, this design might as well have been made out of glass because it doesn't hold up very well. It doesn't take too much abuse before you're picking up parts off the track. Knowing this, and having already built a drag car, our sights were focused in on cornering performance with the overall intentions of bringing the Pontiac out to an open road course. With small tweaks here and there, the GTO can be made into quite the formidable corner carver.
Our next installment on the GTO will be an increase in power of about 70-90rwhp by installing free-flowing heads and a performance camshaft. This will really wake up our 1 7/8-inch headers from American Racing Headers. Stay tuned to the pages of High Performance Pontiac Magazine for the full story and results of our install.
 Autocrossing is a lot of fun...  Autocrossing is a lot of fun and is relatively cheap. You don't eat up your tires or brakes too much, and it usually costs about $30-$50 for a day of track time. Now that the entry fee to some dragstrips has risen to $20-25, this has become very alluring, especially since you will only average 3-5 passes at a dragstrip. We made over 15 laps on the autocross and only stopped because we began to feel bad for the car. |  Approaching all of 85mph on...  Approaching all of 85mph on an autocross! |  Do to poor driving on your...  Do to poor driving on your author's part the tail of the GTO came loose around a corner. Thankfully, every mistake became a lesson, thanks to our professional driving instructor. |