[dataway]

I think in another 10 years the performance modification of Pontiacs will become a pretty rare thing. The generations that have an interest in maintaining "Pontiac Power" are dwindling fast, as is the supply of original blocks to work with. Pontiac has been gone now for 14 years, in another 10 years the crop of young people that grew up with parents that owned Pontiacs, or neighbors that owned TAs, GTOs, Firebirds etc. is going to be gone. With no new Pontiacs they have disappeared from movies and pop culture. It's become more and more difficult to find machine shops with the expertise to work on the old hardware.
Unfortunately it won't be many years until they are relegated to the status of Studebaker, Packard, Edsel etc. The average age of Pontiac enthusiasts is reaching the danger zone.
I think there will remain enough interest to maintain a specialized aftermarket for decades to come, but mainstream support of the brand is going to wane very soon I think.

[Jay S]

It does not appear it has anything to do with market shares, or lack of interest in Pontiac. Take a look at the parts that are on the Lunati site for other GM brands, the only parts on Lunati’s website are parts that are old overstocked parts, there is barely anything on that site now across all brands, what is left on the site has large discounts.

Edelbrock group does not appear to be interested in managing more than 1 cam company. Lunati will probably be a small legacy line offered from comp with all Comp cams parts numbers soon.

[mgarblik]

One thing that is certain based on every single private equity group bulk purchase of performance brands. When IOP, (Industrial Opportunity Partners), is done managing all their holdings, the individual companies ie: Edelbrock, Lunati, Comp and all the others will be raided and gutted and worthless. That's the business model. Run the legacy name into the ground, earn big bonuses for the investors, sell off the scraps at auction. I don't think it's a "Pontiac thing". Although I do agree with Dataway in his general assessment of the Pontiac hobby. I am involved with a group of Studebaker enthusiasts and most performance parts are custom, one off pieces.

[mgarblik]

BTW, spent a little time on the Lunati web site this morning. In the last sentence under "history", they mention they are discontinuing "less popular cam grinds and components". This is corporate speak for we will sell cams and parts for SBC, SBF, BBC, LS, new HEMI. They also mention Comp manufacturers all their parts moving forward. At least they are machined in the USA. Olive Branch, MS. Whatever Lunati parts you currently have in your possession, will be your last.

[72projectbird]

Originally Posted by dataway

I think in another 10 years the performance modification of Pontiacs will become a pretty rare thing. The generations that have an interest in maintaining "Pontiac Power" are dwindling fast, as is the supply of original blocks to work with. Pontiac has been gone now for 14 years, in another 10 years the crop of young people that grew up with parents that owned Pontiacs, or neighbors that owned TAs, GTOs, Firebirds etc. is going to be gone. With no new Pontiacs they have disappeared from movies and pop culture. It's become more and more difficult to find machine shops with the expertise to work on the old hardware.
Unfortunately it won't be many years until they are relegated to the status of Studebaker, Packard, Edsel etc. The average age of Pontiac enthusiasts is reaching the danger zone.
I think there will remain enough interest to maintain a specialized aftermarket for decades to come, but mainstream support of the brand is going to wane very soon I think.

I fit into the younger group on here, and sometimes it's hard being a Pontiac fan when all you hear is the same old recipe for making power. The same basic iron heads, same off the shelf camshaft that's been around since the stone ages, and let's not forget that the Q-Jet is God's gift to the automotive world.

Don't get me wrong, there's guys in the Pontiac world trying to push the Pontiac designed engines hard, but they're few and far between compared to other brands.

Other brands have enthusiasts constantly pushing innovation, which results in all sorts of cool stuff. I see it in the Chevy, Ford and Mopar world, not to mention the import and Euro worlds.

It's tough showing up to car meets and hanging out with guys my age, and they're all showing off their stuff with great enthusiasm, and all I have to show for is a set of aluminum heads that haven't changed much since their release decades ago, and a camshaft selection that rivals the clearance rack at a goodwill store.

So it's no surprise that Lunati is killing off their Poncho parts.

[mgarblik]

You can always have a custom cam ground by nearly a dozen companies. Large flat tappet cams will be an issue due to no cores/blanks being available moving forward. Small ones can be reground on an old core many times. Roller cams will be less of a problem. Costs will ratchet up quite a bit as cores dry up. Longer wait times and few choices "off the shelf" will be available. That's life with a "legacy" engine.

[72projectbird]

Originally Posted by mgarblik

You can always have a custom cam ground by nearly a dozen companies. Large flat tappet cams will be an issue due to no cores/blanks being available moving forward. Small ones can be reground on an old core many times. Roller cams will be less of a problem. Costs will ratchet up quite a bit as cores dry up. Longer wait times and few choices "off the shelf" will be available. That's life with a "legacy" engine.

Sure, but there's plenty of other legacy engines running around that are constantly being developed, even long after their respective manufacturers stopped using said engines.

[Sirrotica]

You can complain all you want about aftermarket speed equipment at this time, but in the 70s when they were still making the engines there was nothing but factory parts available overall.

You could buy an aluminum intake, headers, camshafts and that was about it. Luckily Pontiac factory parts were so well engineered, that the aftermarket parts sometime made less power than the factory parts, I.E. the aftermarket intake manifolds were lighter, but many times not as efficient as the factory ones.

I raced oval track cars in the 70s and 80s and we used way more factory engineered parts than aftermarket. I was successful using that formula.

At this time you can build a Stratostreak V8 without using a single factory part. For a brand that last sold it's last performance engine in 1979, I feel we have come a long way since the 70s. Don't complain too hard about aftermarket support for the Stratostreak engine when you haven't had almost zero support as we had in the 70s.

Larry Wenzler made the first aftermarket heads for the Stratostreak V8 with conventional valve arrangement, and when Edelbrock saw he was selling a fair quantity, plus being bugged by Arnie Beswick for years, they finally made some heads. then others started offering aluminum heads too.

Same with engine blocks, Dick Duclow (Indian Adventures) started making iron HP blocks, Kauffman followed.

The thing you have to keep in mind is that our sector is a tiny percentage of chevy lovers, so we have a much smaller pool of people and corporate entities to work with. It takes time to find people that want to invest in a really risky venture that has a small chance of money return. People have risked their life savings to bring some aftermarket parts to market, hoping they would at least break even.

I believe that some of the aftermarket will definitely go away in the not to distant future as we old diehards pass, but I surely wouldn't be complaining about what's currently available, the offerings now are 10 times better than in the 70s. We can't get new products without someone willing to invest the capital.............

I guess this reminds me of people that complain about the USA, they never leave it though. But some enthusiasts do defect, and put brand X between the frame rails of their cars, I call them quitters.......... The real pioneers of the Pontiac faithful made what wasn't mass produced for their engines, that's basically what hot rodding is about, not opening your checkbook and getting online to buy what you want. That's also how the aftermarket got started, someone makes a successful product that there is a demand for, and they start manufacturing it. If it's not available and you want it, simply get working on it.

[kingbuzzo]

Such a shame...at least we have the forum as an outlet and source for parts

[higgenslake]

I miss Boneyard Stan.