I have never seen another car the same color as mine in person. It is very unusual....a kind of gold
metallic. Looks like fire in bright sunlight. Seems to be a love it or hate it color...I am very happy that I
repainted it the original color.
My grandmother purchased this car new in her home of Charlotte NC. I lusted after the car as a teen,
begging her to let my buy it. She loved the car and would not sell it. I am grateful she never did sell it to
me, as a young man I would have raced and torn this car apart. I inherited the car in 2000, with only 31,256 miles on
the clock.
I planned to keep it mainly stock but also wanted a little better drivability and power. The stock
2bbl has now been replaced with an Edelbrock 600cfm, elec choke carb and Edelbrock Performer intake. I also swapped
in a bit hotter cam, Summit 2800, 204/214, 420/442 and replaced all hoses, painted and cleaned up the engine. Throw in a few
chrome goodies and it makes a nice package. Engine pics are are on page 2.
The car runs quite nice with the new cam/intake/carb. Pontiac 350s can not take a lot of cam and even
this mild lift/duration cam has a little rumble at idle. Sounds pretty tuff when the car is cold. Driveability
is very good.
It still spins off the line but not near as bad as with the 2bbl cam. That thing was all low end and
died at 3500rpm. Major traction problems. With the new cam midrange increased as well as top end. Gross
HP increased from the stock 250 to the 280-300 range with these changes.
**Note on mufflers: There is so much confusion on muffler choice. Loudness, power, drone, etc.
I did lots of research before buying. Louder does not = more power. Do a search on classical pontiac, link
is here on my site. Lots has been written. Dynomax (walker) super turbos give a really low, ballsy tone...a
true musclar sound. Still, they have acceptable volume on the highway and don't have the police interested.
The H pipe set up also greatly reduced the drone normally associated with some performance mufflers.
***2004 Update...I wanted a little more GRRR..and switched over to Dynomax Ultra Flows. Louder, deeper
but still not obnoxious. They sound and perform great!
