As the school year draws itself closer and closer to its close, my Pontiac Firebird becomes closer and closer to its day of reawakening. After graduation, the car will be driving itself into my garage under its own power for the very last time. Once there, the 305 cubic inch Chevrolet small block v8 engine that has sat neatly nestled between the subframe rails since 1989 will be removed from its 20 year home. The car will no longer be able to drive itself anywhere, other than where it is pushed. However, the car won’t have its heart ripped out for no reason. The small block which acted as the car’s original heart and soul will be stripped down to merely a cylinder block, a crankshaft, and eight pistons, and this is where it’s rebirth will begin.
Once the engine has been torn down to its bare essentials, it will be reassembled with a new and more aggressive camshaft, better flowing cylinder heads, new exhaust and intake manifolds, and ignition system. These pieces serve to increase the engine’s ability to spin faster, due to more air and fuel being consumed at wide open throttle. Currently, the engine has a maximum operating speed of 5200 revolutions per minute (RPM). With the new components, it should easily crack 6500 RPM, and make roughly 350 horsepower, a far cry from the estimated 220-240 horsepower the car had the day it rolled off the assembly line. In essence, the heart of an asthmatic elderly man in being rebuilt into the heart of an Olympic athlete.
With all these preparations still underway to prepare the car for this massive operation, it is easy to forget how far the car has come in the last year. Under the car sits a newly rebuilt track oriented suspension, large diameter brakes, and a brand new limited slip differential with lowered gears. Because of these changes alone, the car can rocket itself from a dead stop to sixty miles per hour in a mere seven seconds flat. After some impromptu testing, involving a frightful encounter with someone texting while driving, I know from personal experience that the car can haul itself downward from a similar speed in only one and a half seconds. And finally, the car handles corners at speed like a purpose built racecar, with the only exception being the comfortable ride which it still can provide on even the most frost-heaved Maine roads. In fact, I would almost daresay that the car is exactly what I want it to be.
However, having been raised in a household where motorsports is the predominant hobby, I’ve been given the opportunity to ride in some very impressive cars. One of those was a Ford Mustang, which had been fully worked over by Shelby American, a tuning house in Venice, California. That car pushed 400 horsepower, loved to be driven hard, and although it was 100 pounds heavier than my car, still offered acceleration and top end which was simply awe inspiring. Although I don’t miss the racecar-like, bone-shaking ride quality, or horrible fuel economy of that Mustang, the power was simply impossible to forget. And so I will continue with the work on my car, with the hope that by the next time you see the car, it’ll have two long, black strips of burnt rubber on the road behind it.
