[Steve Barcak]

This topic was originally in the parts wanted section. I feel it is better seen here. Agree? Steve

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It was asked on this board. In reference to aftermarket components, including heads and blocks, "When is a Pontiac not a Pontiac anymore"? When is a Pontiac not a Pontiac anymore if it has aftermarket parts? Corporate chebys with "pontiac" on the valve covers? What kind of crap is this? What is a Pontiac? First off, call a spade a spade. A corporate pontiac (pontiac is not capitalized on purpose when referring to corporate stuff). is a chevy based engine design PERIOD. pontiac in the 80s started designing parts to fit a cheby block. Because of this, pontiac lost its identity and many new car customers (myself included). Do you know how much the cheby boys chuckle about this? To the bow tie gang, pontiac changed to making cheby parts because the original (real) Pontiac engine was, in their mind, junk. Nothing is more degrading than seeing "pontiac" on a cheby engine such as prostock, etc. By running that corporate stuff, you are basically saying the same thing whether it is consious to you (them) or not. Is there anyone here stupid enough to think that Warren Johnson is a Pontiac man? If you beleive that you are in for an awakening, he is a bow tie man but, pontiac is throwing money his way so he whores to the pontiac name. It is all about money. All the current ads from pontiac about their participation in NHRA Pro Stock with WJ and others crack me up. Do those market people at pmd think that their ads are selling grand ams in the show rooms? They are wasting their money on those ads. Then they drop the Firebird and decide to bring back the GTO as a foriegn car. How more humiliating to us can they be?
On REAL Pontiacs. If you change the cam to an aftermarket one is it still a Pontiac? Damn right it is! Same goes for ANY other component you change, even a block. Why? Because you are still using the basic plans/blueprints from the original design and are making an improvement on an existing part to replace it. This is called development and it is very critical for our out of production (for 20 odd years) engine. This applies to cams, intakes, timing chains and, yes, even blocks and heads. Sure, it isn't factory anymore but, who cares? The factory obviously doesn't so, what do we do? Let the motor die by using up whatever parts are left? After decades of aftermarket development by the other brands, I am thrilled to see people/companies putting in time and money into the engine design that I love so much. Anytime a new component comes out that is designed to fit a Real Pontiac it is a blessing for us all. This is because , whether you use that particular part or not, it "waterfalls" to other potential ideas for componants for our engine. It further improves or potentially improves the design. Hey, the people at GM (or Pontiac division, whoever is/was responsible) gave up on the design but, that doesn't mean it is dead. Far from it. Again, I applaud companies like Edelbrock, Wenzler, IA, BOP and others who put time and money into developing good, quality parts for the engine design that is so near and dear to my heart!
That is what a Pontiac is, our motor with parts to fit our motor. God bless them and I hope more companies will do the same. I am even planning to make available some competition parts for REAL Pontiac engines after more testing is done. One goal of mine is to have a REAL Pontiac that is faster than any corporate powered anything and it is not a dream, it is closer than anyone may think. More?
www.pontiacheaven.org
A REAL Pontiac site for REAL Pontiac people!
and remember......REAL Pontiacs ONLY! NO corporate nonsense! I invite all REAL Pontiac fans to my event- "Pontiac Heaven Drags & More V" coming to Phoenix in April.
Proud to be a REAL Pontiac man.
Steve Barcak