[StealthBird]

The 71/72 455HO Trans Am's and Formulas were always legit mid 14 second cars straight off the showroom floor, without any tinkering, and with the factory wheels and tires in place. All the 71/72 Formulas and Trans Am's had large 15" wheels and some pretty fat F60-15 rubber underneath, and the limited choices of rear gear selection made these cars pretty consistent from one example to another. Very impressive for a 3800+ lb. car running on regular gas.

The 69/70 RAIV cars were a bit more finnicky. The 3.90 gears were standard with the RAIV, and a/c was not available. With F70-14 tires, it was all up to the driver and their launch technique to determine whether a RAIV car was a mid 14 second car or a high 13 second car. In reality, most 69/70 RAIV cars WERE low 14 second cars straight off the showroom floor (as were most every other Musclecar in TOTAL showroom trim), and just like the others, a little traction put a RAIV car in the mid 13's. The 69 Firebird RAIV weighed in around 3500 lbs, while the 69/70 GTO was around 3650 lbs.

The 73/74 SD455 Formulas and Trans Am's were also legit low 14 second cars straight off the showroom floor, but in my opinion, they were the most impressive of all the factory Pontiac performance cars. The SD455's had a horrible, highly restrictive exhaust system, an EGR manifold, 3.42 or 3.08 gears (with or without a/c), they ran on regular gas, and didn't even have the benefit of a cold air induction system, or even an aluminum intake manifold. With the scoop opened up, these cars were touching the 13's, and raising the compression ratio a couple points from a pathetic 8 to 1 to a more reasonable 10 to 1, and removing the restrictive exhaust system (PMD claimed 50 hp reduction through the pipes and the factory crossflow muffler) to put the car in a "1970 era" mode, these cars were solid mid 13's on factory rubber.