Slicks & Giggles Racing

We had a very successful day testing the Pontiac… once the weather stopped acting like it had a personal problem with us.

First run was nice and gentle — no heroics. We treated it like a first date: just making sure the Powerglide behaved itself, the torque converter wasn’t doing anything weird, and nothing was shaking like a shopping trolley with a dodgy wheel. All good. No burnouts, no transbrake — we were on our best behaviour.

Second run, we tried a 3400 RPM burnout… which, frankly, felt about as effective as trying to warm your hands over a candle. Not enough heat. Lesson learned. Gave it a bit more throttle off the line, still keeping things sensible.

Third run — now we’re talking. Upped the burnout to 4400 RPM, tyres actually woke up, foot-braked the launch and… bang — 9 seconds. That’s more like it.

After that we had a few more runs, just playing around with burnout RPM and shift points, because apparently we enjoy tinkering more than sitting still.

We have been holding back slightly — mainly because we don’t currently have a wheelie bar, and launching it on the transbrake without one seems like an excellent way to meet the sky unexpectedly. So we’ll wait until that’s fitted before getting too brave.

Also discovered a burnt transbrake wire where it decided to chafe itself on the steering coupling… because of course it did. So that’s on the to-do list before the next outing.

Next stop: Nostalgia event in 3 weeks, where the track prep should (hopefully) be better than today — and we can lean on it a bit more.

Overall? Absolutely thrilled. The car goes straight as an arrow down the quarter mile, behaves itself (mostly), and casually runs a 9 @ 132 mph… even while we’re “taking it easy.”

So yes — we’re happy. But also… it’s got more in it. And we know it.

First session for the Pontiac at Santa pod , first ever strip run in the UK just want to make sure it runs straight gears are workin fines d she stops very happy only half to 3/4 throttle,

Cleaning up the MSD wiring and relocating the control boxes