Some people like it simple; a V8 up front, a manual in the middle and power driving the rear axle.
Meet Gregg Hamilton, an experienced mechanic with years of experience working with some of the best WRC teams in the world, including Toyota and Prodrive. He now works for a guy named Ken Block.
Since moving to the US, Gregg realized that his dream of owning a manual V8 rear-wheel driven car can finally become reality and since he was a big fan of Smokey and the Bandit, the decision was already made.
Enter the Pontiac Firebird Trans Am: “I needed something to do, so we found this car on eBay, and flew to Alabama, picked it up at the airport sight unseen…[and] it sort of just evolved into what it is today,” he says.
Wider bodywork, fully revised suspension and brakes, a new engine with two turbos slapped on it and a custom engine ECU later Hamilton reckons in the latest Petrolicious episode that his Firebird is about as quick as a Corvette Z06 but that’s not the point for him.
“It’s not always about the drive for me. It’s about the build of it. It’s about tinkering with it…”