[wheelspin]

Hi Greg,
My driving experience may not mirror yours since the GP's motor is mildly modified with 240 cfm heads, 224* @ .050 sp ft cam that provides around .550 lift with 1:65 Comp roller lifters, Doug's headers & a 2.5" mandrel bent exhaust system, and a Cliff's Q-jet carb on the RA 4 ported stock iron intake. It moves out strongly from any speed and it chirps the 225 Cooper Trendsetters on both up shifts @ full throttle. When I race it, I have to soft pedal it out of the hole until the narrow tires get traction and then lay into it. Where it shines is in the grand touring mode where it has plenty of torque to flatten the Rockies when we take our cross country trips. I had dual quads on it for a few years which gave me two more mph in the quarter mile, but lowered the mpg.

I raced my 3960# 66 GTO with 3:08 final gearing down to 12.6 in the quarter mile, but it does have a 700R4 trans with the 3:06 low gear. I think that Pontiacs' significant torque advantage allows using tall rear end gears for improved mpg and still delivering impressive performance.

My 4100# 72 Trans Am clone has 2:73 rear gears, a 500hp 462 engine, T-400, and it knocks down 15 mpg @ 75 mph .