Justin’s Trans Am: Party Animal
After getting bitten by the classic car bug in high school, Justin Hertel started getting his speed fix through drag racing. Then life intervened. He had to shelve his hobby and tighten his belt when his career took priority several years later, but after his business Heat Wave Visual took off, he started looking for ways to express his creativity and get his speed fix, too.
Encouraged by his friend to try HPDEs, Justin took to the track in the one car in his collection he believed was best suited to that sort of thing. His 1988 Pontiac Trans Am, swapped with a modern Chevy powerplant, had been the machine he daydreamed most about making into a track car, and like so many with a wild imagination and the means to make his dreams a reality, Justin had eyes that were bigger than his stomach.
“I got a hell of a deal on the engine and gearbox,” he reminisced. The thirty-seven-year-old Pontiac needed a modern motor to fulfill his vision for the car, and when he was able to secure a Chevrolet LSA and a TR6060 gearbox from a Camaro ZL1, he did not hesitate to buy.
The idea of a 700-horsepower modern muscle car made him giddy enough to order a whole host of parts to modernize the Trans Am so that, he hoped, he could make full use of that power. Along with the powertrain from a Camaro ZL1, he installed most of the Detroit Speed Engineering catalog, including a torque box and JRi front coilovers as part of a MacPherson setup.
Next, Justin made his 3,420-pound muscle car a little more wieldy on track with the wheel, brake, and tire package that it deserved. Along with mega six-piston Wilwoods up front and a four-piston arrangement at the rear, made more adjustable by being converted to an unassisted brake setup, he for opted 18x11” Rotiform mesh wheels wrapped in 295-section Hoosier R7s or Falken RT660s.
This marked the end of the first round of modifications, and as his friend had suggested, he started applying himself to racing by spending every other weekend at the track, or whenever his increasingly busy schedule would allow it, really.
The project wouldn’t have been possible without his fabricator, Drew Daniel.
His growing car control and comfort at speed made it possible to push hard enough to reveal some of the shortcomings in the Trans Am’s design. The bottom-feeder radiator, not really adequate to cool a supercharged powerplant running at high revs, was the flaw which helped convince him to rework the entire cooling system.
After he blew up an Afco laydown radiator, he got creative by replacing it with a bar-and-plate style radiator built by a man who specializes in trophy trucks. While it helped, it didn’t prevent heatsoak entirely, and Justin began thinking about adding a secondary radiator to handle the added heat of a supercharger.
The complex engine arrangement stuffed into a cramped engine bay required more circulation, prompting Justin to cut a little more out of the bumper inlets and sticking a ducted upright radiator in the conventional position behind the bumper. Behind that, the new laydown radiator was cut open and modified to flow in a bypass design. The combination of these revised radiators cooled enough to put the car in a fighting shape. Even with the power the engine produced, he could finally run most sessions without overheating.
Running the powertrain at factory levels, it ran fine and has continued to do so. Instead, he swapped the TR6060 gearbox for a 6XD six-speed sequential. The billet transmission shaves weight and lap time, allows for flat shifting, and greatly reduces the chances of a misshift. To Justin, those crisp shifts are what he most enjoys about the car in its current state.
That addition highlighted one final flaw in the car’s basic design: its rear end. “I added a Quadralink rear after a couple of years of dealing with nasty wheel hop. It was definitely necessary after putting the sequential in, as the ability to quickly downshift was non-existent with the torque arm rear.”
As effective as the modifications have been, there’s no denying the Trans Am is an antiquated, overpowered vehicle that is better as the hooligan’s ultimate fantasy ride than a race car that yields more and more with extra effort. As it sits, the Trans Am is frightening, head-turning, and hilarious, but a precision instrument it is not. “I’m constantly guessing at the braking zones and wondering ‘will it stick?’’’ Justin added.
The 6XD transmission sends power to a Ford 8.8” rear with a full floating housing to combat knockback.
Born out of an idealistic view of track driving, this Trans Am has introduced Justin to some of the less-than-romantic realities of racing; mainly how the hope of making a muscle car a true dual-duty machine was a little naive. In order to achieve the level of performance he’s gotten accustomed to in his dedicated race cars, everything would have to be stripped, reworked, simplified, and focused.
He’s found himself spending far more time in the no-sweat, no-stress Spec Miata he’s added to his collection. “I can hop in and lap all day. I know exactly what it’s going to do, and I don’t worry about anything breaking.”
The harsh realities of tracking a car has opened his eyes to what matters most to him now. “If I can get in and turn laps, hand it off to my friend, and trust the thing, I’m happy.”
As for the Trans Am, he’s content with the way it’s turned out. A reliable-enough street-track hybrid has its strengths, and its styling certainly garners attention. Few cars are as fun to overdrive, but the mechanical gremlins he’s dealt with have taken some of the fun out of seeing his track car dreams come to fruition. Justin’s been chasing problems since I began building it in 2019. In fact, five weeks ago marked the first trouble-free weekend in the Trans Am.
It’s been a colorful learning experience for Justin, who’s still happy to take out the Pontiac when the time is right. While the Miata and his business take precedence, there’s no denying that he’s attached to his creation, no matter how frustrating it has been, and he’ll continue beating on it until he can find something wilder and more stylish to take its place – if such a car exists.
