A pristine 1986 Pontiac Grand Am? Effectively, that’s not one thing you see every single day, particularly at a drag strip. Look nearer, and you then notice this isn’t any odd Grand Am. Turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder? 5-speed guide? Simply 6000 miles on the clock? And a cage and SCCA insignia? What’s this?
You’re taking a look at one in all three Grand Ams that GM pulled off the road for testing and growth functions. Sure, the third-generation Grand Am had a 2.0 turbo, but it surely didn’t obtain that till 1987. This was one of many check mules. After growth concluded, GM ordered all three destroyed. Effectively, that didn’t occur. One lived its life as a road automotive. One other became a drag automotive, with a distinct engine getting swapped in. After which there’s this Grand Am.
James Ward, a higher-up at Delco Moraine, a former division of GM, additionally used the automotive to check brake components, which Delco Moraine made. After that, he turned it right into a race automotive, competing in autocross and at his dwelling observe of Mid-Ohio in the course of the late Eighties into the early Nineties. In 2014, James obtained the automotive titled, because it carried a VIN, and drove it round city sparingly. Regardless of residing in Tennessee, James’ grandson Derek grew up across the automotive. He spent his summers along with his grandparents in Ohio. “I keep in mind shifting the automotive round,” Derek remembers. “I pulled stickers off it a time or two. I’ve washed it since I used to be most likely in diapers.”
The Pontiac Gran Am again within the day. Photograph courtesy Derek Brock.
In 2019, Derek drove it from Ohio to Tennessee when the Grand Am had solely 3000 miles on it. “Went up there on a weekend and put a clutch in it that day, and I drove it dwelling on that clutch as straightforward as doable,” Derek remembers. “It was about 360 miles. That’s the primary journey that automotive had completed–and that was 10% of its mileage. Didn’t get 300 miles till I had no clutch left.”
Certain, this Grand Am has no a/c for these scorching southern days nor a radio, but it surely does have energy home windows. However the true kryptonite for this Grand Am is its clutch. Derek cites its measurement as being the first problem. “It’s solely 8 inches–it’s so small,” he says. “It pushes 18 kilos of increase. Because it boosts up, it spools and it spins the clutch.” Derek solved his clutch points by going to a stage 3 clutch from Spec, and Derek says he hasn’t had an issue in 2000 miles.
GM rated the two.0 LT3 used within the ’87 Grand Am SE for 165 horsepower and 175 lb.-ft. of torque. On the Knoxville Dragway’s 1/8 mile, Derek turned a greatest cross of 10.4 seconds–nothing spectacular, however nonetheless respectable. Along with autocrossing the automotive, he’s taken it a number of occasions on the Tail of the Dragon.
“It’ll smoke the tires off in first and second–it’s hilarious for an old-timer automotive,” Derek says. “It’s on a minimize suspension, so it’s like a dart, it darts wherever you need it to go. It’s loopy how nicely it handles, however that’s what it was constructed to do, it was constructed for autocross. It’ll fly across the nook.”
Let’s face it: Posters of the Pontiac Grand Am didn’t adorn many partitions. Its efficiency, although, typically surprises individuals, says Derek.
The Pontiac Grand Am at present, making a cross at Knoxville Dragway.
“Once I was on the drag strip, my brother Jaron took [the Grand Am] down [the strip] twice,” Derek says. “I sat within the stands and any individual was like, ‘Have a look at this man, drag racing a Grand Am. Are you able to imagine that?’ The youthful technology laughs till they hear the turbo spool up. Then they’re like, ‘Okay, there’s something there.’”
Each Drew and Jaron cherish their household heirloom, even when it attracts some side-eyed appears.
“It’s no matter you are taking it as. Everyone has obtained their very own notion of what it’s,” Jaron says. “On the finish of the day, although, it’s simply cool, man.”
Derek Brock.
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Considered one of my latest favourite automotive flavors?
Pre-production/prototypes that had been imagined to be crushed however weren’t.
J.A. Ackley stated:
It is all the time enjoyable to see what might have been.
Nothing there that wasn’t a was 
GM has all the time completed some attention-grabbing prototypes/check mules. I beloved the Feretta too. A V8 FWD beast that was doomed from the beginning. Speak about torque steer…
I all the time appreciated that model of GA. I’ve little doubt that it smoked clutches, these issues are a bit heavier than the J vehicles that trans was meant for and the inventory increase is simply like 7 or 8psi. The Isuzu trans that was bolted into the two.0 turbo vehicles was not very sturdy both – V6 J vehicles obtained a Getrag unit with a much bigger clutch/flywheel and rated for extra energy however the 2.0 OHC had a distinct bellhousing sample.
These Brazilian 2.0 OHC turbo motors had been ticking time bombs although. Head gaskets weren’t the best and when the turbos let go, it just about trashed the engine.
In reply to cobra17 :
The engine was Opel’s fault, no? Daewoo made a model up till pretty not too long ago.
The turbo 2.0 would bolt right into a Pontiac Lemans, since that got here with a 1.6l model. The entire automotive was a Kadett which was roughly a German J-body, made in Korea. The low finish Daewoo-branded automotive (Lanos?) was roughly a Kadett and it used this engine household, too.
It wasn’t the pinnacle gaskets that failed, by recollection, as a lot because it was the cylinder heads cracking after about 60k miles like clockwork. Complete industries had been constructed round repairing them, or new castings.
Humorous this comes up now. Posting footage to the early days of autocross thread, I remembered a father-and-son exhibiting up at one in all our native occasions with some type of furry Modified or Road Ready automotive. The factor broke midway via the day. Undeterred, they entered the dad’s bone-stock Grand Am simply to have one thing to drive and promptly shoved it across the course, entrance sidewalls contributing to traction as a lot because the tread. They had been very expert drivers and much from the slowest on the right track that day.
In any case these a long time, I’ve forgotten whether or not that was the identical day the native VFD took their massive engine via the course and scored a clear run…
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