Video: The First Pontiac G8 To Run In The Nines

Tom Scott’s original intention for his 2008 Pontiac G8 most certainly did not involve ownership to any records at the drag strip. In fact, the initial purpose of the Pontiac was to be a family friendly, daily driver. En route to the purchase of his G8, Tom bypassed the higher priced Dodge Charger SRT8 and the lesser kid-friendly Pontiac GTO, both of which were also top choices for him, in his hunt to own a muscle car.

Throughout the first year of ownership the car saw a few upgrades. “I did the basic bolt-ons: headers, intake, and tune. Next up was a Procharger D1SC, a set of F.A.S.T, 65 pound injectors and a 3.70 TruTrac differential,” says Scott. The car began to see 11’s at the track and still remained true to its purpose, a daily driven street car.

During the last half of 2009 Tom had the opportunity to meet tuner Phil Smith, also known as Bluecat, and the future of the Pontiac began to change from being a practical street car to a purpose-built drag car. Tom shares, “Phil tuned the car to the point where the track officials at Kanawha Valley were constantly on me to slow it down or cage it. At that point I decided that West Virginia State inspection hassles and winter made the car impractical on the street. I bought a trailer, went to drag slicks, and had a 10-point cage put in. At this point it was a high 10 second car.”

Photos courtesy of Bill Jenkins and Dee Scott

Now Scott’s former daily driver was knocking on the door to the low 10’s. “The next step was a cam, custom spec’ed by Patrick Guerra and ground by Comp Cams, a new fuel system, and a Nitrous Outlet dry system. The cam install was done by Phil Smith and Bill Jenkins, the nitrous by DiMartino Fabrication, and, of course, retuned by Bluecat. At this point we were running low 10’s with a 175 shot. During this time I won the G8 King title at the GM IRS Shootout in Darlington, S.C. but lost the G8 elapsed time record at the same event,” says Scott.

With the G8 running solid in the low 10’s, Tom began to see elusive glimpses of the car reaching into the 9’s. A TH-400 transmission replaced the 6L80 transmission, which he says was to inconsistent. Also a new addition for the G8 was a delay box to allow Scott the ability to run in the bracket class, Top ET.

With one last trip to Beech Bend in Bowling Green, Kentucky to end out the 2012 race season for Tom, the 2008 Pontiac managed to break out of the 10’s and land Scott the title of being the first documented G8 in the 9’s.

“Somehow things came together that day and I was able to pull out a 9.98 at 138 mph, the first documented nine second pass by a G8. As of this writing that pass stands as the G8 model record but that could change at any time. Several others have extremely fast G8’s and want that record pretty badly,” Scott reflects.

Watch as Tom Scott’s 2008 Pontiac G8 edges out of the 10’s for a run of 9.98 to lay claim to the title of first Pontiac G8 in the nines.

(Video courtesy of Joseph Flynn)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the author

Tabitha Sizemore

From building and racing her own car to track photography and sponsoring races, Tabitha has her hand in a little bit of everything when it comes to drag racing.
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