[L78steve]

This is correct the early test cars got the 041 spec. cams installed. All were supposed to get that cam but emissions nixed it for the 744 spec. cam instead,which is still no slouch.The board on the shaker and the crossflow muffler system killed the performance even more,I'm sure the test cars had this opened up. The quad air valve would never fully open in stock form.[ QUOTE ]
I think I read somewhere that the very early road test SD cars were ringers with a different cam. They were running mid 13s when anything else in '73-'74 couldn't get out of its own way. It seems that even the production ones ran pretty well. In the sixties, Pontiac wasn't above a little creative advertising as in the Ferrari-GTO road test comparison so nothing surprises me there. In '68, I had a warmed over RA 400 Firebird, later a '69 GTO, and more recently a '72 Lemans Sport with a warmed over '70 455. These can be mild mannered, smooth as glass to drive and still run 12s with very little work done to them. Not bad for a basic design from the '50s. Those 454 Firebirds were built here in Canada where they built the 302 Firebirds that Titus raced in the TransAm series in the late '60s.

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