FEATURE: The Boosted Bandit
Tribute cars aren’t uncommon in the street machine world, but often the emphasis is placed on authenticity rather than personality, lest they be judged by the dozens of other owners of identical vehicles.
Thankfully, that’s not the case for Nick Wiegand and his Smokey and the Bandit-inspired ’76 Pontiac Trans Am. We’re sure Burt Reynolds himself would have been impressed with the combination of subtle black-and-gold nods and horsepower that Nick has blended into his own screaming chicken.
This particular Trans Am arrived into Nick’s hands bone-stock with red paint. Garcia Hill, a friend of the family, owned the car and left it with Nick and his father Erik to get repainted and have a new engine installed. Unfortunately the project didn’t reach completion before Garcia passed away.
“We are diehard Pontiac people,” Nick said. “We were fortunate enough to get a hold of the vehicle when it became available. We had a Camaro that we raced for two or three years doing drag-and-drive events but it just didn’t feel right because it wasn’t a Pontiac.”
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The car sat a little longer and ideas were thrown around, but it wasn’t until another friend began tearing things apart that the project got moving.
“We had some thoughts, but one of my buddies was a little more excited than we were. He started stripping the car down and that got Dad and I’s attention.”
Nick has been around cars for much of his life, taught by Erik — an auto mechanic by trade. The family owned a ’64 Pontiac GTO bracket car and Nick was always there to help out.
“That got me interested and led me to learn about fabrication and mechanical stuff,” Nick said. “I taught myself TIG welding and one of my neighbors built race cars, so I was hanging out with him for a while. It kept growing from there with more projects, and then I was doing roll cages for myself and other people I know.”
The Trans Am was treated to everything Nick had learned. Using a home-made frame table, he started to cut things out to lighten the car and get it prepped for a cage. Nick built the cage to be legal down to 6.0, though the car would have to lose some weight to meet the SFI specs.
“We initially built the car for Drag Week because Sick Week was not around, so we were following their rules. At the time, the rules for the class we were going for allowed us to cut the factory floor out. I wish we had kept the floor in now, but it is what it is. It did make a lot of the fabrication stuff easier.”
A year-and-a-half build process took place, with Drag Week 2021 targeted for the debut. Nick’s actually an electrician by day, but if he ever wants to switch careers we are sure his skills will be in demand given the quality of work done to the Trans Am.
“I fabricated everything front to back on that car. I did all of the cage, and we kept the lead spring rear suspension to fit the rules. All we did was mini-tub it and move the springs an inch or two to give it more clearance for the tires. It’s still got the factory floor in the back.”
A neat touch is the wheels, which mimic the factory ‘snowflake’ rims. Nick bought the front wheels from a fellow who had the wheel centers custom-mated to Keizer drag wheels, while the rears are a factory-style hubcap that Nick figured out how to mount in the beadlocks.
Between the rubber, Nick welded together a chromoly nine-inch housing kit from Vanishing Point, while TRZ tubular control arms and steering equipment went in up front. He also fabricated a custom engine crossmember.
The self-built motor is a factory 1967 Pontiac 400 block with billet main caps. It now measures in at 462ci and spins a Crower billet crank, Oliver billet rods, and Butler ROSS Racing pistons with the LS ring pack. The heads are Edelbrock round port heads that were machined by SD Performance for a boosted application.
“There are literally zero off the shelf options for these motors,” Nick said. “If you do find any, you still have to make modifications to get them to work. I grew up around Pontiacs, and I learned nothing fits — it’s what first got me into machining and fabrication.”
Luhn Performance arrived at the party to help with the hydraulic roller cam, along with plenty of knowledge for Nick to take advantage of.
“Luhn Performance helped us out a lot. They got us the Pontiac crank trigger and we have special head studs and gaskets from them. We also have his oil pump on the motor. Through general conversation tips and tricks he helped us figure stuff out.”
Twin VS Racing 78/75 turbos are placed around the engine bay, blowing boost into Nick’s scratch-built intake. VP Racing’s C85 mixture is supplied from one of two fuel systems on the car, all controlled by a Holley Dominator. Inside the cabin, Nick used a Leash Electronics switch panel and relay board to make sure the signals go to all the right places.
An air-to-air intercooler sits just in front of what Nick describes as the biggest generic aluminum radiator he could fit under the hood.
Situated a little further behind the cooling system is a custom timing cover built by Bayside Billet, which converts the Pontiac water ports to small block Chevrolet ports, allowing Nick to use a bolt-on water pump. Pontiac water pumps are bulky and hard to find, so it makes life much easier and covers a relatively common drag-and-drive point of failure.
“We’re limited on boost with a factory block but it is doing amazing for what it is,” Nick said. “And it adds that special touch to make the car all-Pontiac.”
The 4L80 transmission was also built in-house by the Wiegands, with a custom 2.10 first gear ratio. They added an Extreme Automatics billet reverse manual valve body and an FTI triple disc lockup torque converter.
“The trans is working great, I love it. I tried putting a Turbo 400 in it, but we did not get the results we were hoping for even though it weighs 120lb less. I think the car likes to be heavy, and I love having overdrive and lockup for drag-and-drives. We are also now running a Motion Raceworks Operator shifter.”
The car was mostly finished for Hot Rod Drag Week 2021, though it was still in black primer. With zero testing, Nick went straight into the eights and even nailed an 8.500 on day two, before it broke on the drive. They feared a connecting rod failure at first but it turned out to be just a lifter. The team left disappointed but remained motivated, completing the paint and stickers (as well as the engine repairs) over the following year so they could arrive in style at Sick Week 2023.
There Nick would enjoy a smoother event, bringing home third place in Pro DYO thanks to a set of 8.6 and 8.5-second times. The only hiccup was a panicked day zero when the team discovered a cracked intake. Nick set to work with the welder to repair the intake and everything was (literally) golden once more.
“Everyone thought the car was cool, I lost my voice because I was talking so much about the car. One neat thing was that we had some custom stickers on the car, like on the shaker scoop the factory one says TA 6.6 but we changed it to TT 7.6, for twin turbos and our new engine capacity. Doug Cook from Motion was actually the first person to notice and say something.
“It’s interesting, because we went up to the Pontiac Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio and I think all the Sick Week people noticed more of the small details than the Pontiac people did.”
Since Sick Week, Nick has taken the Trans Am down the quarter-mile as quick as 8.42 at 161mph — and that’s a number he is perfectly fine to hold at.
“In the long term I would like to get another block done up, because I think this block isn’t sealing up as good as it should. We have had thoughts about building a solid aluminum block and going methanol and taking things all out, but that would remove the car from the drag-and-drive realm. Right now it goes to car shows, it goes to Sick Week, and that is about all.”
That’s a big 10-4, good buddy. ■
Written by Luke Nieuwhof. Photos by Dominick Damato.
