Congratulations are in order to Rick Holladay and his '65 GTO convertible. On 93 octane gas, no power adders, the 3,700 lb. GTO went 10.98 @ 123.8 at Virginia Motorsports Park Saturday. Rick's performance always makes our shop look good!

440 CID Pontiac V8, Edelbrock heads, Comp XR294HR cam with solid lifters, iron TriPower, Doug's headers, a true street car that FLIES!

Jim

www.centralvirginiamachine.com

right on. 2 questions.
1) what block was used? I assume a 428 bored .060 over?
2) whats the fastest engine only pontiac you have built?

Chad,

It's a 455 block bored .030" with a 4" stroke (421) crankshaft. Next one will be a 400 block, to reduce the main bearing size.

It depends on how you "measure" it, what Pontiac is the nastiest I've built. One out there for several seasons has managed 10.0s over 130 in a 3,400 lb. GTO. Another, a 535 CID aftermarket version, has been mid 8s in a 2,900 lb. GTO. The "Drunken' Injun", a top alcohol funny car, equipped with a 475 CID Pontiac, is about to debut at over 2,000 horsepower. The owner and electrician of the car have been "dragging their feet", so we don't have actual performance times on that one yet. "Stay tuned!"

There are couple of "high end" Pontiac shops that have cars well into the 6s over 200 including one "door car". Our shop's "niche" is the pump-gas street engine. We have several packages including one 461 CID version with aftermarket heads, that makes an honest 600 horsepower on 93 octane, and has plenty of vacuum for brakes and other accessories. It's a big block Chevy's worst nightmare...(:- A Pontiac that runs AND lives! These guys are all in the mid-11s to high 10s in street trim, in cars well over 3,500 lbs.

Jim

Given that quick time..... would the tech inspection require Rick to have a roll cage in that convertible?

Whoops, a search answered the question right here (http://www.highperformancepontiac.com/shootout/hppp_0611_norwalk_shootout/1965_GTO.html)

MR,

Yup! Full cage, ladder-bar rear, 4.10 gears and a Jericho 4-speed. The car weighs 3,650 "race weight" and runs on 93 octane. No nitrous on the car, cast iron TriPower intake! Crazy old man behind the wheel!!!

To be fair, Rick has been a serious racer for many years. In the '60s, he campaigned a '65 GTO called "The Jolly Green Giant", a 389, TriPower car that went 12.60s on a 13.50 index in NHRA "Stock". It held a couple of records for a while. Arnie Beswick was his engine builder back then. In the '70s, he drove for Sox & Martin for a while, and their Hemi-Cudas (ProStock). He took about 20 years "off" to raise his kids, then bought the old Goat and has been back at it for about 15 years now. He's an awesome driver and a fun guy to be around. He will NOT put an automatic in the car, no matter what... (:-

Jim

so how high does this one rev? and has it ever been on a dyno?

Chad,

He shifts at 6,100 and goes through the traps about 6,600. We tried a Torker II on it with an AED 850HO a while back. It DESTROYED the tires, but pulled hard to 6,800.

Nope, no dyno in current form. Last year, it put 395 HP and 410 lb. ft. on a chassis dyno. There have been some upgrades since then. Multiply by 1.2 for a resonable "assumption" of flywheel power. IMO, far too much attention is paid to dyno numbers. Others have had cars dyno higher and can't beat him. This is why only the highest-level shops ($$$) can afford to "race" dynoes, like in Engine Master's Challenge. And while that's all real impressive and everything... there are MANY "tricks" to increase dyno output that would leave rods on the ground at the track. Dynoing an engine is nice, but most customers aren't willing to ante up the additional $800-1K it costs. Chassis dynos are more reasonable.

According to various track horsepower calculators, it's making about 600 at the flywheel, and about 625 lb. ft. based on weight and MPH.

BTW, Drunken Injun ran again last night, and I was there this time... It sounded just like those TA/FCs I saw at VMP a couple weeks ago...(:- I can hardly wait!!!

Jim

p.s. If anyone can tell me how to post a picture here, I have a couple nice shots of the Drunken Injun...

if you click on "go advanced" instead of quick reply you can post an image by clicking on the icon that looks like mountains with a yellow background.http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/665/dsdsds9gr.jpg

or you can put [img] and close them with a [ /img] (no space though)