Marcel's 625HP Pontiac Lemans Street Car

Car is a 1981 Lemans that weighs 3800 lbs with driver and half tank of gas. Has full interior (including back seat so I can put the 3 car seats in for my kids) with power windows, power steering, power door locks and 4-wheel power disc brakes.

1 & 7/8 inch headers dump into a 3.5 inch X-pipe exhaust system with mufflers and tail pipes. Running a Turbo 400, 3800 rpm stall and 3.90 geared Ford 9 inch rear end.

At the track I use MT slicks that are 29.5" tall, 9" wide on a 15" rim (it's the biggest tire I can fit without having to tub the car). On the street I run 245 and 255 series tires. On a good track and without any real tuning, car has run consistent low 10.80's with a best of 10.72 at 126.50 - 127+ mph. I usually leave on the foot brake between 1500-2000 rpm and shift at 6200 rpm and go thru the traps at 5900-6000 rpm. On a 150 shot of spray, car runs a violent, tire shaking/spinning 10.16 at 137+ mph (it literally feels like the rear end is being ripped out of the car).

The mph indicates there is more in this combo. I need to work on improving the 60 ft times. The car usually only 60 ft's in the 1.61-1.68 range. That's with or without nitrous.

The car is an animal on the street, but is an absolute blast to drive. I love to see the look on people's faces when I am in 3rd gear at 55-60 mph and stomp on it and the rear tires just go up in smoke. I usually drive to the track, swap the street tires for the slicks, rip off some 10.80's to 10.70's (motor only, no power adders) swap tires again and drive home (you should see the look on people's faces when I drive down with my wife and kids, haul out the car seats and then do this.) Most people can't believe this is a pump gas consistently street driven car and they really have a hard time when I tell them it's a Pontiac motor.

Some changes were done to the car for 2008. All the changes were made in the suspension. This was done by a friend of mine, Joe Sye, who has also been handling most of the driving chores at the track this year. Anyways, first time out at the track this year with the suspension changes and the car goes 10.60 flat. Yahoo! The best time for the car, on the motor only, this year, has been 10.52 and with a 150 shot, it has now done a wheelie popping 9.81 at 137 mph. We feel that the car has 10.40's in it with the current motor(see engine specs) and low 9.70's with a 150 shot with the current engine. Plans are to install a Pontiac pump gas 541 making 750+ hp in the car in the not to distant future to see if we can get the car to run 9's on the motor only.