Pontiac Super Firebird - Fast As It Goes! - American Car

Jay Signore is gun-shy about loaning out his cars. He's earned the right. Since 1973, the world's best drivers regularly have wrecked the hell out of his International Race of Champions (IROC) race cars. Every season, save for a short gap in the '80s, Signore and his crew have lovingly crafted about two dozen identical-as-humanly-possible, immaculately finished race cars-and then watched as the biggest names in racing smashed them into each other and unyielding concrete walls, all for the amusement of the television audience.

Recently, Signore faced a terror worse than an eight-car, 190-mph pileup: A journalist wanted to drive one of his cars. The writer-namely me-wasn't content to putter around in an old hag that had been first wrecked by Ray Harroun. Instead, I wanted to run wide-open around a superspeedway at nearly 200 mph in a brand-new, zero-mile beauty. Signore didn't fully share my enthusiasm for this idea.

His trepidation was understandable. Auto writers as a group have a reputation as egomaniacs who tend to crash a lot, never mind that the exact same could be said about those all-star race drivers. My extensive road-racing experience-including a NASCAR Southwest Tour race at Sears Point-did nothing to quell his fears. Stock-car racers, with which IROC is firmly entrenched, think worse of road racers than of writers: At least journalists are man enough to be givin' it the gas when they wreck.

This article germinated when IROC announced it would build all-new cars for the '96 season-essentially 500-horsepower Pontiac Firebird-bodied NASCAR Busch Grand National cars (see sidebar). I thought the series' sponsors would be excited to reach the six million or so adults who will pick up this issue of Motor Trend to find this memorable article. At least that's what I sold to Signore and MT editor C. Van Tune. The truth was closer to this being a great chance for me to flat-foot a superspeedway at nearly 200 mph.

Still, IROC's sponsors-Pontiac, True Value stores, Du Pont Automotive Finishes, AC/Delco RapidFire spark plugs, Delco Freedom batteries, and Goodyear-liked the part about six million adults. My boss bought the memorable part, so please join my relatives in writing glowing letters-to-the-editor, or it's back to minivan comparos for me.

Against his better judgement, Signore agreed. New-car teething troubles during Daytona's Speedweeks in February limited the first effort to a low-speed photo mission. (It couldn't have been that Signore was trying to keep me out of the car.) So we headed to a private IROC test session at Alabama's Talladega Superspeedway, the fastest track on the NASCAR schedule. (Our photographer couldn't make the second trip, which is why the accompanying photos are from Daytona.)

Before letting me loose on the 2.66-mile track, Signore called me aside and lightly discouraged flat-out running: It seemed a crash would be bad for his insurance. I assured him it likewise wouldn't do much for my long-term career options. Then he sent me to veteran Winston Cup competitor Dick Trickle, who sets up the IROC cars, for some superspeedway driving tips.

"Aw, this is the easiest track on the Winston Cup circuit," said Trickle. "Anybody can flat-foot it. A taxi driver could flat-foot it in four laps. Especially a New York taxi driver." That didn't sound like the instruction Signore had in mind.

Trickle then took me for a ride in his rental car. ("Before we're done today, we have to find out what it tops out at, anyway," he said.) With his left wrist resting on top of the wheel and his right foot glued to the floor, Trickle forced the decrepit Oldsmobile Ciera to an indicated 113 mph. Then he looked over my way-not a glance, but an enduring eye-lock-to offer pointers. With an equally long stare through the rear-view mirror, he told the back-seat passenger, "It wouldn't get exciting for me here until we were running 230." With him looking anywhere but straight ahead, it was plenty exciting at half that.