Hannibal Smith

iTrader: (1)

For it's time, the Countach was a fast car. Not to many cars in the early 80's were exactly fast so 13-14 second quaters were pretty damn quick. Now, by todays standards you are correct - the Countach is slow and could be raped by any number of cars including the EVO.
As far as the T/A goes. The Trans Am in the first Smokey movie was a 77' SE which sported a Pontiac 455 engine. Pontiac built a limited number of special edition T/A's avalible for sale to the public called the "Bandit" edition, based off the car in the movie, which had a real Pontiac 455 stroked out to a 462 pumping out around 380hp and 420 ft/lbs of torque instead of the weak Olds 403 which only had around 245, and a 5-speed Doug/Nash manual trans instead of the slushbox automatic. The Bandit T/A's were significantly faster than the run-of-the-mill T/A's of 1977 they ran low 14's on the crappy factory tune and spin happy tires. Now if your talkin' about the T/A's from 70 1/2 - 76 with the H.O and Super Duty 455's, those were not 16 -17 second cars - they were more in the 13 - 14 second range. Not all 70's model T/A's were in the 16 -17 second range - get your facts right. You can't compare the cars of yesteryear with todays highly advanced automobiles - there is simply no comparisson. The only cars that may be contenders for some of todays cars would be the 66' Shelby Cobra 427, 1970 1/2 LS6 Chevelle, 1969 427 Yenko Camaro, 1970 Hemi Cuda, or 1970 1/2 H.O. Trans Am. Back in the 70's a 13 second car was considered fast, a 11-12 second car was considered bad a#$, and anything faster - you were a god.

GPTourer

^^^Exactly^^^

Late 70's cars were neutered because of the fuel crisis. The Camaro and T/A were some of the last big block cars left, but were such low compression they produced crappy power. The party was over by like '71 or '72. I had a '74 Cadillac with a 472 engine. It only had like 215hp, and like 400lb/ft of torque or something, but if it had 11:1 compression instead of the 7.5 or whatever it was....hmmm.

They also made a limited edition Trans Am in 1980 with a turbo 4.9L. Carburated + turbo + gas shortage = crappy power, but still.

Hannibal Smith

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, the damn EPA killed the musclecar with all of their "low emission" crap. Super low compression ratio's, weak cylinder head combustion chamber/runner design with small valves, small lift/duration cams, and the Rochester Quadrajunk carb killed the once great American musclecar. Pontiac tried to hold on but finally gave up on the musclecar in 1976 with the last 455 Super Duty T/A which, with all the emission junk, only put out a pathetic 270hp or so. It was the last gasping breath for the Pontiac built engine. Shortly after Pontiac switched to the Oldsmobubble and Chevy small block engines. What a crying shame. I used to build small block Chevy's for 13 years and they are teriffic engine's. I had the honor of building a 455 H.O. motor out of a wrecked 1970 1/2 Trans Am once. I bored it 30 over, had the H.O. heads ported and polished, installed a Warrior intake with a Holley 750 Dominator, used a Isky 306 Megacam with Harland Sharpe roller rockers, and lit the whole thing off with a Mallory Uni-lite distributor and MSD 7 series ignition. The short block used the stock crank, Oliver Rods, and 12:1 Arias pistons. My Trans was a TCI TH400, reverse valve body, and a 10 inch 3,000 TCI stall. Out back I had 4.11 gears in a 10 bolt rear with a Moroso Brute Strength diff. I was also using a Denny's alluminum driveshaft with Spicer U-joints. Now here's the kicker - this setup was in a 1973 RS Camaro. I did it just to be different and because everyone in my neighborhood bashed me for wanting to put a Ponch in a Camaro. I proved them wrong. The motor went in easy once I put the T/A frame mounts on, and the Hooker Super Comps went right in with no problem. That car was a beast. It ran 10.90's - 11.20's on M&H Racemaster streetslicks. Even with weld in subframe conectors and a 12 point roll cage, the torque from that Indian twisted the subframe based Camaro - I sold the engine and reverted to building Chevy small blocks. If I ever get the money I want to build another Ponch with all the cool crap that is out nowadays for these engines. Back in the early 90's performance Pontiac parts were hard to find. To this day, that 70 Camaro was the scariest monster I have ever had the pleasure of owning and yes, it was my everyday driver that sucked down 6mpg in the city and about 8-9mpg on the highway maxing out at a whopping 50mph because of the gears. At that point in my life I did'nt care about the gas milage because gas was not 3.36 a gallon and I loved driving that thing on the street. Mothers would pull their children inside when that car came down the street breathing through a full 3in exhaust with 2 chamber Flowmasters. Sorry for the rant, but I loved that car.

mikejam1688

kinda a lil late, but isnt the new f&f movie called tokyo drift? im almost sure no one has said it but how easy do u tihnk it is for those stunt drivers to get an awd car sideways. and they HAVE to have an EVO in a fast and the furious movie. so dumb it down and make it less hard to get it sideways and voila. makes sens to me. i bet u it will stiil look fast as hell in the movie.

GPTourer

My neighbor is trying to build a 455 for his T/A now. I hope he has the money to complete the project, or to even make it half way as nasty as yours sounds. IT would be so easy for him to give in and just go SBC, but the Pontiacs (and Buicks and Olds) just have that mystique about them.

Hannibal Smith

iTrader: (1)

Yes they do. Tell your friend to look at Butler Performance, they have some wicked sh*& for Pontiac engines. Small block chevy's are great but if your friend has a T/A tell him to stick with the Indian - he will be glad he did in the long run. The Pontiac engine is a beast when built up. Plus it's cool when you lift the hood of the T/A and have a wicked Poncho engine sitting between the framerails instead of a Chevy.

GPTourer

Thanks, I will tell him.

trinydex

iTrader: (12)

which type is that...? is what i stated not true? tho crass and perhaps full of agenda i believe my comment has made you think in a different way... one that isn't necessarily untrue.

i'm not sayin' it is a good idea. i'm also not sayin' that someone didn't make the best of it.

8urv8

Just because it is in a movie doesn't make it fast. That is pretty slow though. They just have to look good, special effects make it look fast. One of the Skylines used in 2 Fast 2 Furious was for sale on Ebay a while back. Half the stuff on the car was not hooked up and was just for show.