[carbking]

B-Man - I will completely agree about the cost of building an ultra high performance 350 and a mildly modified 400 to get the same power. In my neck of the woods, 455's have been "son, haven't had one of those for years" for decades; while obviously the power potential is greater, not sure about the cost.

Much of my weight savings was because I NEEDED different parts, and the aluminum was not that much more:

Steel wheels were insufficient width for the tires I wanted
Desired wide ratio transmission
Using original RAIV intake with no crossover

I still have all inner fenders, insulation, seats, uphostery, etc.

When different parts are going to be used, why not lighter parts.

The problem I now have is the low first gear, the reduced weight, and the power is too much for the tires; I guess I went overboard

Jason - I looked unsuccessfully for years for someone with an English wheel to do hood and deck lid; is fiber even an option for a 1974 GTO?

Jon

[JLMounce]

Originally Posted by carbking

Jason - I looked unsuccessfully for years for someone with an English wheel to do hood and deck lid; is fiber even an option for a 1974 GTO?

Jon

Certain model years and platforms obviously have more or less of that stuff. Here's the VFN catalog for the 74 GTO. The hood is blah IMHO.

https://www.vfnfiberglass.com/73-74gto.htm

There's a ton of people these days that can custom create almost anything from glass or carbon. You pay for it though unfortunately.

[PAUL K]

We build Pontiac 350's occasionally. The builds are usually for older cars that still retain their original motor. We just built two recently. The one gentleman owned his Firebird since 1974 when he was in high school. He originally wanted us to restore the original two barrel. I talked him into doing a period correct build and we used headers, a vintage aluminum intake manifold and a Holley 600. The other guy wanted more power, but to run on 87 octane. We used a 4.25 stroke crank in that engine.

Both guys were happy with the results.