Pontiac Pavement Pounders Shootout: Norwalk

Owner Bio: Terry Spidel

By far the most experienced Pontiac racer in this group, Terry, at 67 years old, brought an older-school form of whoop-tail to the bash. Originally hosting a 389, Tri-power four-speed Cat picked up for the handy sum of $600 10 years or so ago, this '62 Pontiac was converted to an automatic because, according to Terry, "You tear up too much stuff." Gotta love Pontiac torque. The Pontiac bug began for Mr. Spidel, now retired from GM as a Delco-Remy engineer, late in 1958 like so, "I had a brand-new '58 Corvette (327, four-speed, 4.11 rear, dual four-barrel) and got beat by a '57 Pontiac...and I mean badly. He was cheating, so he probably had a '59 Pontiac motor in it. We tried again, and he beat me on top speed, so I traded my Vette in for a new '59 Catalina Tri-power, three-speed, with a 3.64 rearend. It ran low 14s at 96 mph back then in Super Stock."

Owner Bio: Jim Wierzbicki

When the need for a four-door sedan became apparent to Jim, the Grand Prix was the hands-down winner. "Pontiac's Grand Prix was the most impressively styled four-door sport sedan. When I saw the 40th Anniversary Special Edition, I was sold." An aerospace manufacturing engineer by trade, this 46-year-old enthusiast has been a street rodder since the age of 16. "It's even more fun now with all my experience and knowledge. Even though the car is his only Pontiac and his daily driver, still, he did not hesitate to modify it and push it as hard as he could for the sake of our shootout. Considering its day-to-day assignments in life and its natural aspiration, high 14s are impressive.Among John's more prized memories with his GP is the moment of taking home the First Place win at the '03 Pontiac Spring Dustoff race event. There he dusted off "25 other fine-looking, late-model Grand Prixes in the class."