THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 15, 1996 TAG: 9602150513
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines
In the summer of 1994, some 18 months before the public unveiling of the 1996 Pontiac Grand Prix, company officials took the rare step of allowing outsiders from down South into the high-security General Motors Design Center in Warren, Mich.
``This was the inner sanctorum of GM styling,'' said Gary Claudio, manager of Pontiac Motorsports. ``They walked through high-security areas.
``It's not uncommon to be walking along the hall and a freight elevator will open and there's a brand-new 2001 Cadillac. So you have to pass security at the design center, plus you have to be escorted by a member of the design staff.''
The outsiders were NASCAR president Bill France Jr., vice president Mike Helton and Winston Cup director Gary Nelson. They were there to see the prototype of the '96 Grand Prix passenger car.
After that visit, NASCAR and Pontiac began working together to create a NASCAR Winston Cup race car out of the two-door passenger car.
And the six Pontiacs that will take the track at Daytona International Speedway today in the Twin 125 qualifying races - with their distinctive scalloped rear decks and angled spoilers - are the result of those efforts.
``No pictures were allowed, and we were ushered in and the whole deal, because it was so under wraps,'' Nelson said of the 1994 visit to Warren. ``They didn't want it to be shown publicly or any pictures of it to get out.
``We saw it. We measured it. We looked at it. We talked about it.
``Just standing back and looking at it the first time . . . there's certain cars you look at and you say, `Man, that looks funny,' or, `That's different.' And my first look at that Pontiac was, `Hey, this is a good-looking car. It will make a good race car.' ''
The unusual visit was arranged because Pontiac officials were well aware that France, Nelson and Helton would be making critical decisions as to what kind of race car would emerge from the passenger car.
By cooperating closely with NASCAR on the development of the Chevrolet Monte Carlo race car, which was unveiled in 1995, General Motors motorsports officials found themselves with an excellent race car. Naturally, GM decided to repeat that process with the Grand Prix.
The biggest problem in making a race car out of the Grand Prix was that the passenger car is a front-wheel-drive vehicle with a sideways-mounted V-6 engine. The race car would be a rear-wheel-drive car with a standard-mounted V-8 engine.
The first efforts to see if a V-8 engine would fit into a place in which it was not designed to go produced results you might expect.
``As we started to build the car, we realized that this was going to be quite a project,'' Pontiac engineer Jeffrey Kettman said. ``The way the car lined up really started to give us nightmares.''
``If we had tried to go absolutely stock, the air cleaner would have been underneath the windshield,'' said Terry Laise, GM's top motorsports engineer. ``The car would have looked like it had a Funny Car scoop on it.''
So the entire body had to be moved back on the chassis. And the hood had to be raised about 1 1/4 inches to allow the engine to fit, then lengthened a bit.
``There was a lot of interference,'' Nelson said. ``So we had to adjust and work to get it all to fit. We ended up having to push and pull (the body) a little bit. But overall, they kept the lines of the car.''
There were other modifications. The door areas were built to be more or less straight up and down rather than curving toward the inside at the ground, as they do on the passenger car. This was done because NASCAR wanted the doors on all three makes to be similar.
The process began in October 1994, with the construction of a mock-up car at Winston Cup car owner Chuck Rider's shop in Mooresville, N.C. In further meetings with Nelson and other NASCAR officials, the Pontiac brass used full-sized drawings, clay models and other devices to show what they wanted and needed in the race car.
By June 1995, the basic shape of the race car was set. Track testing began in August 1995, with considerable input from the Pontiac drivers.
``The engineers would let us try different things,'' Bobby Hamilton said Wednesday. ``I mean, Michael Waltrip built a spoiler for the car before Johnny (Benson) started driving it. They let me move the deck lid around on the car.''
The ultimate shape of the race car was not set until last December, when the final specifications for the Pontiac Grand Prix race car were approved by NASCAR.
The production version was not unveiled until last Sunday in Chicago. It will go on sale in April.
But the Grand Prix race cars have been plenty active on the track during Speedweeks. The drivers are optimistic that they will have a good car, although the jury is still out as to how good.
``It's hard to evaluate that Pontiac today,'' Nelson said. ``They're still on a fast curve of development.
But one Pontiac driver, Rick Mast, is already pleased. Mast was eighth-fastest in pole qualifying Saturday.
``I'm just tickled to death with our car,'' Mast said. ``I can't wait
for Sunday to get here.'' ILLUSTRATION: Associated Press
Rick Mast, whose Grand Prix is at left and who was eighth-fastest in
pole qualifying.
by CNB