Four-Door, Eight Seconds: This G8 Runs Hard

Watch this big, Holden-based Poncho dip into the 8s with a berserk pass from its twin-turbo 5.3-liter truck engine.

We’ve seen some crazy stuff running turbo LS combinations, but we can’t think of many we like better than a big four-door sedan rolling hard on the drag strip. This twin-turbo Pontiac G8 really tickles our fancy just on looks alone, but the big ol’ girl threw down an 8.92-second pass at Maryland International Raceway. That’ll get our attention here at LS1Tech.

As far as the owner knows, that makes it the quickest G8 on this side of the Pacific in this BigKleib34 video. The Holden platform mates have gone a bit quicker in the related Commodore. However, this big G8 tips the scales at more than 3,600 pounds. That’s a lot of car to make that kind of elapsed time.

Under the hood, the owner has thrown out the original LS3. Instead, he’s running a Gen III 5.3-liter Vortec engine. A pair of turbos feed that “Truck LS,” which has had a built bottom end with rods and pistons. The car had never run on a dyno, but a similar combination put own more than 1,100 horsepower in another whip. We’ll hazard a guess that this heavy sedan makes a number well into four digits.

Holley EFI gets the substantial fuel-air mixture in order while a reinforced diff comes with Driveshaft Shop axles. That keeps everything from nuking when he feeds it the beans, although it launches rather softly (relatively speaking) on six pounds of boost at Maryland International Raceway. The power comes on hard after the launch and it looks great once it settles down. We like it.

The car will likely get a repower over the winter. Hot rodders seldom can keep from tinkering and we don’t blame them. This one looks like it has potential to run deeper into the 8s, so we won’t be surprised if/when it turns up ready to run 8.70s.