1994 Pontiac Firebird Formula
414 rw hp ~455 hp at the motor
(Atlanta 1999)
12.340 @116.22mph
R/T: .567 60ft:
2.044
660ft: 8.044
(Gainsville 1999)
Petunia started as a stock 1994 Firebird Formula. I got her with 18,000 miles on odometer in 1997 from a Chevy dealership in Tally. I raced her a couple of times with my buddies from Ferrell's F-body garage, mostly against other stock F-bodies, but I would run anyone. Even then she loved to kill GT's (4.6L and 5.0L ponies); I had a lot of fun, but I realized she needed some pep. The first mods were the driveshaft, gears, programming, 52mm T-body, Random tech exhaust and full synthetic AMSoil. Again I raced her on Tuesday nights and did fairly well, I knew however that my days of having one of the "faster cars" were numbered (a couple of the guys were getting new LS1's) . I then took the plunge, and picked up the 4.5# powerdyne blower, fuel pump and MSD ignition. She ran well but I was not beating the LS1's easily so I upped the boost to 6#, dropped in ceramic coated headers, removed the cat and put on some 305 street slicks. This is when the problems started, I had a lot of trouble with the rev limiter cutting off fuel at about 5 grand. I worked on it for 2 months and eventually got it running right. I raced it on the track and clicked off a 12.88 @ 109.2mph. This was good but like always, I got greedy. 24# SVO injectors, 1.6:1 Crane roller rockers were only the start. After running over a mound of rocks and completely destroying my exhaust (Thanks to Jack Daniels), and shortly after that running into a dumpster (with help from the Coors brewing company), I purchased new headers, a Mac off road pipe, Borla exhaust, GM 12-bolt rear end, Zexel torsion differential, ASD "big block hood", rotors, subframes and a new paint job all to the tune of about 55 hundred. Again this wasn't enough, I called up Powerdyne and picked up the new BD-12 blower with 9# of boost. Five days later my stock 4L60E crashed. It was time for the real deal, I bought a rebuilt 4L80E truck tranny and a 2800rpm stall converter. On the dyno in Atlanta she cranked out 414 ponies at the rear wheel and 2 days later I ran her on the track at Gainsville and clicked of a 12.34 @116.22 yeowww. Next, I think I'm ready for .030 over block, forged pistons, blower cam and ported heads. A buddy of mine also talked me into a 50 shot of Nitrous to fog the intake. Bring on the Mustangs now baby... I hope to be in the mid 11's.