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Steve's WS-6 Firebird (The Rocket)Pontiac Site

As featured at F-Body.Com, F-Body.Org and The Formula Source.

See Steve's Racing Team Page: Rocket Racing

On February 5, 1998, I put in an order for a 1998 SLP Firebird Firehawk. The Firehawk just looked so sweet to me, and I was seriously jonesing for speed again after selling my limited-edition 1986 Pontiac 2+2. For a year, I had been driving a 1994 Probe GT which I liked, but it wasn't nearly powerful enough, being accustomed to V8 engines. Other than a 1995 year RX-7, I refuse to buy a Rising Sun product... I can't feel any magic in them.

Shortly after ordering the Firehawk, my dealer, Condie, gave me the bad news: Firehawks were not available in Canada in 1998. Later, SLP actually pulled the 1998 Firehawk off the market because of problems with crash testing the front end of the car. So, I changed my order to an ASC-prepared WS6 Firebird (internally called the "QuadraPort" at GM), roughly the same performance but not the prestige... oh well... it's $2000 Canadian cheaper. I picked the car up on May 15, 1998, which was a Friday.

Click on the picture below for more images!
Front View of WS6 Formula

The pictures of these cars do not do them justice. They're gorgeous in person. It is amazing that they cram four seats into these small vehicles, but when you look at the trunk you'll know how they did it. For less than $35,000 Canadian (that's *with* all the options) this car can be bought, which is about the price of a well decked-out Monte Carlo or Grand Prix. But there's nothing near the kind of performance even a "standard" Formula will put out for less than double that amount of money (except its sister, the Camaro).


Stock specifications on the Rocket


Published & Known Stock Performance

WS6 Trans Am Ripping a Good One If you're interested, here's a great essay explaining what torque and horsepower are and how the two are inter-related. Note that these tests were done on the standard tires and all specifications were left as stock. Deflating the rear tires to 26psi for traction and power-shifting would probably net at least 0.3 seconds improvement in the 1/4 mile. The real improvement will come with 4.10 gears, placing the LS1-powered cars firmly in the high 12 second quarter mile.

  • Zero to 30: 2.1
  • Zero to 40: 2.8
  • Zero to 50: 3.8
  • Zero to 60: 4.9
  • Zero to 70: 6.4
  • Zero to 80: 7.8
  • Zero to 90: 9.6
  • Zero to 100: 11.8
  • Zero to 110: 14.2
  • Zero to 120: 17.3
  • Zero to 130: 21.7
  • Zero to 140: 29.5

    • Best known (to me) performance in a stock car with street tires:

    • 60 foot - 2.056 seconds
    • 1/8th mile - 8.465 seconds
    • 1000 feet - 10.919 seconds
    • Quarter mile speed - 108.74
    • 330 foot - 5.569 seconds
    • 1/8th mile speed - 85.35mph
    • Quarter mile time - 12.956 seconds


    Modifications to the Rocket


    Modifications Planned

    My plan was to leave the car very near stock form, but with better performance. Yeah, right. I was originally planning on a N2O kit but I have convinced myself that if I am going to build a stroker engine, N2O will just make the car unpredictable - and I don't drag race, so... 190mph is plenty fast in a 4th generation f-body by my yardstick. My 6.9L engine was built in March of 2001 by Agostino Racing Engines. I am quite amazed at the coincidence that Steve Cole of TTS did my original PCM programming... see my bio page to see why. Steve turned out to be a serious dork, however, and his negligence cost me a lot of my original motor buildup - I can no longer recommend him.


    Track Times & Notes

    See also http://racing.kos.net/

    My "Home Track" is Shannonville, which has a web site you can find here. Shannonville is an excellent track with only two problem areas for a novice, most of it being smooth and with no elevation changes. If you want to try your hand at running around a road course flat-out then I highly recommend this course because it is hard to damage your car. They have pay-per-lap nights on Mondays from 5:30pm to dusk - they run the SMP Long Course which is excellent to practice on. I am still a relative novice, although I did the One Lap of America twice with a friend (top Canadians in 1999) and once on my own (6th in class, 21st overall). I also finished 2nd in Solo-1 ASP class in 2000.

    Times on street tires. May not be a current representation of mods.

    Times on R compound tires. May not be a current representation of mods.


    Notes & Misc.

    LS1 Engine on Block cleaned up with GIMP The LS1 engine is a fantastic piece of engineering. Things needed to maintain performance for the former GM 350, the LT1, included bypassing throttle body coolant, lowering the thermostat rating and other heat-related modifications - the LS1 engine doesn't need those - the intake stays cool and the engine seems unfazed by heat. The LS1 also uses very short ignition wires and has a single coil for each cylinder (that's them on top of the cylinder heads)! That's just the beginning, read the documents in Specs, above.

    Because there's a composite intake on the LS1 motors it was difficult to put a supercharger kit on these motors. Twin turbocharger systems are available for the LS1 and I'm hopeful that an 8PSI system will eventually live under my hood - 13PSI if I decide to do more drag racing with the car - maybe. For the really crazy, GM has a new block available that will take 1000hp or more.

    You may also note while you're looking at the motor that it is all aluminum, as advertised. This is good for Nitrous Oxide because aluminum rids itself of heat faster. It isn't going to take much to make unruly high-powered LS1 motors - they have a lot more naturally aspirated potential hidden away in them than the LT1 motors - just a mild cam change, extrude-honed heads and nothing else has boosted these motors to 470 horsepower, an incredible amount of performance on a 5.7L naturally aspirated engine.

    Last modified February 2003 - some changes may be subtle

    The Formula Source