Ride Submitted The Last Indian

[Last Indian]

A little back history to explain The Last Indian

I’m not that guy that does car shows. I just do cars for me! To please me! For the pleasure of seeing an idea live! I had a custom 1969 Z/28 for 35 years! Most of the car was custom designed and handmade, including the full frame with an OEM type suspension front and rear, not coil overs in the back like you often see with full frame conversions, but it was so much more than that! For a myriad of reasons I sold it and a “74” Z/28 that was custom as well in 2004 after 35 and 30 years of ownership!

I had bought a brand new 2000 Pontiac Grand Prix as a daily driver, so after selling the Camaros I decided to take the GP for a summer only car with only 10,000 mi. and for a FWD it wasn’t bad. It wasn’t great mind you in my way of thinking, but I loved the updated Coke bottle shape and styling! So I thought I was done modifying & customizing cars I was just going to drive it. I had done a lot with cars at multiply levels, maybe it was time to refocus on something new, not sure what, maybe bird watching? Well the boredom lasted a year! So I embarked on a new path, a path that I didn’t know would became that of The Last American Indian! With the seventh generation Grand Prix being the last American designed & built Pontiac and the end of Pontiac as a car company occurring just a few short years later!

I had always owned RWD cars until the GP, but I found myself realizing all I had ever seen anyone do with a FWD, was either cosmetic things or on the engineering side, power or drifting. Yet no true performance handling, no true blend of drivetrain performance, handling and style! Especially not in an American car and not in the vein of the old muscle car era ground pounders and most assuredly not performance handling. A car that handles & responds as though it’s part of you! I remember when the first gen Camaro was called the poor man’s Porsche and that was what inspired me to make mine better than that! Why not a similar mind set with FWD I thought? Drifting isn’t powering thru a corner and it certainly isn’t handling, so l thought, try something different!

For me what resulted was proof, that given the proper changes & redesigning of the stand alone MS2000 platform (1997-2003) this W-body can hold its own against all the great muscle cars of the past! Maybe even beat some!

Modifications: Nearly Everything!

All suspension – custom & aftermarket.

Wheels – custom made by American Racing for me.

Body – custom designed, made by owner, MPD hood, 2003 limited edition rear spoiler, lower front splitter & more.

Brakes – custom (OEM modified by owner) 70 mph stopping distance 143 feet.

Engine – heads, throttle body, exhaust, motor mounts, ECM, Ram Air intake, etc.

Engine bay was largely dismantled & clear coated.

Transmission – shift kit, special fluid, tranny cooler.

Car physics – center of gravity (lowered), roll center (raised), weight distribution (54/46), track width (73.5/73.25 vs 61.7/61.1) static stability factor (1.76)

Aesthetics – custom grilles (frt. Cover & hood) emblems throughout car, custom front cover, custom rear cover, engine pieces, steering wheel, pedals, shift knob, sill plates, wheel centers, spare tire cover

Battery relocation to trunk (under spare tire)

Custom lighting & HID headlights & fog lights

 

Ride Submitted  My 1999 pontiac grand prix se with 3800

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