Improving the Elapsed Time, or ET, is the primary reason for the changes that most of us make to our vehicles. The quicker (lower) the ET, the stronger our vehicles feel. An improvement of one second in ET to a relatively slow car capable of running 16.5 seconds is just as important and just as noticeable as a one second gain on a 14 second car. Although a very low ET is not necessarily a determining factor in winning bracket races, it certainly is important when bench racing with our friends! Read more

Fred Cal from Batavia, Illinois, recently submitted a great list of subjects for possible discussion. Several of those will be covered in this column.

How about those claims for increased airflow through the newer performance mufflers? Does airflow relate directly to performance? As with all factory components, the stock mufflers and pipes were a compromise, with noise, cost, warranty, and space limitations all being considered. The stock type mufflers did cause some back-pressure, which adversely affected performance. The pipe configurations andlor size also caused back-pressure in many applications. Read more

Our last column covered several subjects suggested by Fred Cailey from Batavia, Illinois. We have picked another from his excellent list and will discuss it in this part. Read more

You may remember the letter from John Mino that was published in this column in 1996. John described his good experience when he switched to race fuel in his Pontiac at the drag strip, and suggested we try it in our ’71 LeMans wagon.

In order to provide an accurate test it was deemed necessary to make several runs with the Amoco “Clear” 92 octane pump gas that we normally use, and then drain the tank and add the race fuel. Several runs would then be made with no other changes except the switch to race fuel. Further, we wanted to run on a well prepared track in order to minimize changes caused by possible traction problems. Read more

I received a call last summer from a long time member of POCI, Jon Hardgrove. Jon operates The Carburetor Shop at Eldon, Missouri, which has been in the carb repair/service business for a large part of this century. Jon had noted our consistent and impressive performance with the Q-Jet carbs, and wondered if we had tried a Carter Thermo-Quad. l had briefly tried several in the late 70’s or early 80’s, but was not very successful. After visiting with Jon, and reviewing some literature on the T-Quad, I realized there was much more to this carb than I had previously known. Read more

This month, we have an addendum on our recent gas/fuel test, a technical tip, and we also will mention an enthusiast who is truly dedicated to the Pontiac hobby. A later column will discuss an NHRA approved method of installing a master disconnect switch to immediately stop the engine when a master switch is operated. If you need such  information immediately contact me. Read more

A fairly common occurrence after a lot of miles, or after we rebuild our Pontiac engines, is poor operation of the cranking system. This column will discuss the separate parts of the cranking system, the function of each part, and some suggestions that may help improve your Pontiac’s cranking system. Read more

We have three tips for you in this issue: How to minimize failure of your starter solenoid under high heat conditions, improving cranking with trunk mounted batteries and how to meet the NHRA requirement of a positive shut-off of your engine with the master disconnect switch. The three subjects are closely related and were deemed advisable to print them together. This results in a longer than usual column. This writer may now take a break from an issue or two. Read more