These days, the bar for the amount of power that is considered impressive has been raised substantially. With econo-boxes producing as much horsepower as the big dogs did in the 90s, it’s quite difficult to stand out in the landscape of big number builds.
With that in mind, this Pontiac Firebird Formula doesn’t leave much to be desired as it punishes each and every foot of the quarter-mile. At the heart of the beast is nothing other than a 425 ci. LSX topped with a pair of PT7675 cast turbos tuned to make 37-psi. When the power meets the ground thanks to the help of a Powerglide transmission, 1700 hp is left to put the car in motion, quite quickly if we do say so ourselves.
When that amount of power is able to hook, the launch tends to get a little bit rowdy and this dirty bird is most certainly no different. As the powerhouse of a car is able to make light work of the first 60-feet every time, getting down the rest of the quarter-mile nothing more than a piece of cake. The hard part is done and throttling it out yields some satisfying rewards.
The combination that weighs in at 3650-lbs. is good for consistent mid 7-second passes after some super hard launches; including a wheelstand that has us believing that the car was built by NASA and is about to shoot into orbit. This machine shows off efficiency at its finest; that poor sap in the GT500 in the other lane didn’t even see what was coming as “LS2 Formula” was gone in a flash!
Jesse is currently a senior at the University of Delaware and has been around cars his entire life. From a GTO and a C5 Corvette, to a CTS-V and a C6 Z06, he’s always seemed to have his fingers in LS performance. He is a student by day and a YouTuber and automotive journalist by night!
