1967 GTO project thread

[Nicks67GTO]

One last update and I think i'm current...

I decided to do Midwest Musclecar Challenge. I knew the car wasn't really ready for it and I would surly get my butt handed to me. That's precisely what happened but hey...you cant be a pansy your whole life right? So I bought in. I was however, seriously concerned my tired old 455 would throw a rod through the block or chew up bearings on the road course. Remember this is a bone stock 455 I got on Craigslist for $800 bucks. Fearing this, I bought a used 3qt accusump setup from a guy on the performance years board. I was going to get one later on, after I built a new engine but this came up, it's in awesome shape and I got it for a great price. Unfortunately that didn't get installed and its still sitting on my workbench. LOL.

All in all, the GTO went 1100 miles, 4-20 minute road racing sessions, 8 auto X runs, a cruise and dinner at Raymond's Performance. I got a professional instructor on the road course which was priceless, that alone was worth the cost of entry and one of the main reasons I chose this as my first road racing event. I learned a lot about the driver and the car and where there are weak spots in both that need to be addressed. I also learned that a tired, stock, cast everything, Pontiac 455 can take an absolute pounding and come back for more. I hammered on that old bucket of bolts as hard as I could and it never bat an eye. Downshift decel from 4200RPM in corners? Not a problem. Flat out as hard as she will go on the straightaway? Sure. In and out of the throttle endlessly? No big deal. I almost want to run it until it blows up and kind of make a game out of it. I couldn't have been happier with the car, taking the beating it got over 1100 miles and without a single issue. The event was fantastic, everyone was extremely cool, and racing a big track like that was by far the most fun iv'e ever had in a vehicle before.



I loaded up the trunk, took off from Waterloo and made it to the hotel in Indiana without issue...





Headed into Putnam Park the next day...



Getting ready to run...







And were off!



A cruise and a little dinner at Raymonds...



Some Saturday autoX...



And a nice 7hr drive home!