I've seen some early car mag articles do ignition and carb tuning on those years and pick up like 30-40hp. H-O Racing also picked up about that much back in the day by doing similar mods. (think they also recommended a cooler t-stat, like 160 or 180)
RARE makes the manifolds that are 2.45" exit, and with mandrel 2.5" exhaust is said to flow within 8% of a header setup.
http://www.ramairrestoration.com/rm-...oversized.html
Pypes has a cross flow setup for 2nd gens and it supposed to be pretty good, but personally, I use the 'traditional' 2x muffler setup.
I've back in the day heard that some got 5-15hp at the rear wheels, peak, by opening the scoop, but think that may have been inflated. When they did that, think it was in combo with the carb mods, but digging through some cobb webs on that one.
I think with some attention to detail, you could probably pickup 50+ hp, maybe more, certainly with a cam swap. Some minor intake mods would go a long way too.
The guys who do FAST would be good folks to brain-pick, since they have to keep it under the wire, probably get some good tips there in the race section.
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1970 GTO Judge Tribute Pro-Tour Project 535 IA2
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1971 Trans Am 463, 315cfm E-head Sniper XFlow EFI, TKO600 extreme, 9", GW suspension, Baer brakes, pro tour car
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