2013. Roger Bolliger at the Hockenheim ring Germany in his Pontiac Trans Am. Action @ 00:55 03:45 05:22 15:25 Engine and movie.... butlerperformance.com/g-21254-...
I have to say, this was a really good video. Great camera placement, great sound (even with the distortion), and the fact he was cutting right through the whole field really gave a good feel. I don’t care if the cars were mismatched either. Out and out ballsy vid. Thanks for making it!
I love your style Rog. Tapped out twice, you didn't get all bent out of shape, you just put your foot to the rug, and let the motor do the talking. Having had a 1970 T/A of my own, I just love to sit in with you with the onboard camera and listen to the sounds, and watch the race unfold. I'd give anything to do a couple of hot laps in that car for real. Keep the vids coming. I love them!
there's a difference between pushing the edge, being on the edge and going over the edge. If you're scared, you'll never be first. If you ain't first, you're last..........
@@comethiburs2326 you can never know how fast or hard you can take a turn unless you go past your limit,evidently most of the comments on here are from those of you that know nothing about racing. and the comment from the guy that says get out of the throttle in the corner, he must not even drive period, even little kids learn you drive through a corner, pity the public when that guy gets a license.
Ouch! Tough crowd! 0:58 - I'd wager he had help with that first spin--that "whump" sure sounded like he got hit from behind. As for his other "handling woes" under braking: I concur with Ivo Giev's point about rev matching. He could certainly benefit from the use of some heel-and-toe work. With that much power, I'm sure that car is a handful. It's obvious he's brought a shotgun to a knife fight. :-P
I had 2 Firebirds, a '74 and a '78. The 74 was in pretty bad shape. I bought it for $300 just to drive it. It had been hit pretty hard and the ass end was off just a little and it always wanted to wander so I drove it through the winter an found the '78. I completely gutted it and tied the frame rails together , cut the top off and we built a killer cage in it. I bought a 400 small block and a 4 speed which both had been gone through. I took the motor apart and had it decked and honed. I was working at a engine shop so it got port matched and tear dropped the guides and this guy Jeff spent alot of time on my heads. I bought Hotchkiss suspension pieces and scaled the car to get my rear weight to where it would really squat when I opened it up. I put the roof back on and did the interior and had pretty much most of the gauges that are in the T/A in the video. We put 3.73 gears in a 12 bolt and put sliders on the leaf springs.... I ran around in it for most of the summer with it half in primer and a 5" cowl hood that was fiberglass and I went to my local oval track and bought 2 sets of tires. I bought all the same size of course. Those bi-as ply late model tires sure didn't last when I started getting more confident with the car. I went through a snappy little S curve at 72mph in my friends Buick Grand National and that was the fastest time until I got the Firechicken really dialed in..... I got those slicks nice and hot and rolled through the S curve at 60 and it didn't miss a beat so I went through 4 more times and the last time I made my friend get out of the car and I flew through there at 84mph...... I pretty much scared the shit out of myself because when the weight transferred across the car it twitched on me and I thought it was over for a second. The following year 2 friends of mine lost control in that S curve and we lost them both...... I felt pretty guilty because I kind of set the bar pretty high and I think Mark was trying to see just how fast he could go through with his '84 Camaro. He slid a little wide when he committed to making a pass and he dropped his right rear off the pavement onto the shoulder..... the car probably got too much rear weight transferred back on the right reat and they spun back across and went off a 6' high drop at the edge of the road and the hit a giant tree right at Joels passenger side door and it literally ripped that 3rd generation Camaro right in half at the shifter.... I happened to go by the scene on the way to my girlfriends house and they were picking up the back half of the car with a semi-wrecker to put it on a flat bed... I didn't even recognize the car, it was unreal. The next summer they closed that road, cut down all of the trees and took the S curve out. So I owned a record that I didn't think was all that cool anymore. I really tortured myself for about a year thinking if I wouldn't have started the whole thing two of my best friends would have never went through there at no faster than normal people drove through there. Well Karma is a bitch because a friend of my family let me put my Firechicken in his giant 3 story wood farm barn. We pulled it around and parked it in what was basically the place where the stalls would be for the cows. Sometime in late October he was out of town on business for a couple weeks and we had a wicked thunderstorm come through and lightning hit that barn and it burned it to the ground. No one knows how long it burned because you cant see it from the road. The whole thing collapsed into the lower level and it burned that car so bad that I only salvaged the running gear. It was buried in about 15-20 feet of burned up wood, hay and it got so hot that most of the steel roof just vaporized from the heat. Luckily the horses had an open door and they got out. He dug a giant hole and we buried that car right out in the edge of the pasture. I guess nicknaming that car the "FIRE-chicken" was some kind of sign. I had close to $18-19,000 dollars and over 2 years of creating a car that could corner with a Corvette and we estimated that the engine was pushing around 550-600 horses. That is a good estimate. To get over 600 horsepower out of the small block platform was not that easy to do. I had as much camshaft as I could stand and I did everything except go to a Dart block and open up the bore and put a very expensive rotating assembly in plus it would have had to have aluminum heads. We had the compression at pretty much 11:1 and I had to blend racing gasoline with the premium to get it to run. But I had to take it easy because it would still ping a little if I grabbed a little too much throttle. Sorry for the length of the post, I haven't thought about all of the dark times surrounding the loss of two of my friends, cut down in the prime of their lives...... they were both 17 years old. I was also 17 and I am now 54 years old so it's been awhile. I sold that motor and told the guy that it had got cooked in the fire. That idiot put it in his big 4 x 4 truck and just fired it up. It detonated as you can imagine. The heat I am sure killed the gaskets not to mention heat cycling all of the fasteners making them brittle. It broke the snout off the crank when the first two piston assemblies wiped out the bottom of the cylinder bore and basically welded itself into a nice boat anchor. I warned him. It ran for like 40 seconds before it started to eat itself up. I am waiting to find just the right Firebird so I can build another one. The 2nd generation F-body's are getting harder and harder to find. It's either a complete basket case or it has been gone through and they want $20-25,000 + for one. I can't spend that kind of money to pull it in the shop and proceed to tear it down and cut the roof off somebodies $5,000 paint job that was cleared and wet sanded something like 8 times or so. Peace
To the guy driving in this vid...I whole heartedly apologize for my last post...completely out of order. Watching the rest of the race...the amount of power your car was putting out and what you were doing on the track simply amazing👍👍👍 absolutely incredible
They will surprise people. I had a 1600cc Manx Dunebuggy, I remember at that time 1600's with full bodies and steel fenders were doing ¼ miles into the 9's.
This guy can drive. But having 700hp on a rear wheel drive car with minimal weight on those rear wheels is bound to give you a hard time, especially accelerating out of those turns. Don't be lame guys, respect.
+twincinema05 Agreed, and the driver appears to have sorted the car out after a few mishaps. With Fiat-Chrysler's availability of the Hellcat series, I wonder if track tests are ongoing to improve handling on these cars. Weight will be an issue for sure.
These are my absolute favorite videos. Roger is living the dream! I had to sell my own Trans Am, and have been very remorseful ever since. Now I am trying to find a nice '73 that I can afford, and have either Butler or Kauffman work their magic! It would be great to pick Roger's brain on what has worked for him, and what has not! What a vacation it would be to come watch Roger race in Switzerland!! Good luck, and please post more vids!
Hey, 303 comments right now. How appropriate. Would make Jerry Titus proud. This is such a cool car. I could watch Roger race this thing all day. Beautiful in car camera shots. Thanks Roger, and good luck.
That's the luck I had a few times with a 66 GTO. Those Pontiac's will do some off roading if you're not careful. It now amazes me I never wrecked it, before I finally blew it up. Those car's will take a real beating and keep on giving. This is a fun video.
Yup, the back end gets squirrely for sure. This is mainly the reason why you don't see 70 TAs on the street anymore as people wrap them around trees. Can't WAIT for my Butler engine to be completed.........I'm just here to listen to the engine and I bet those pistons are glowing!!
its so awesome to see where this T/A beaut, and where it cannot make passes due to traffic or cornering/chicane/s turns factor in then he just lets it open up and passes with ease when the chance is open
I cant resist here the guy has more car than skill, but who can just hop in a 700hp car and be comfortable ? my friend had a 74 model Firebird and it wa smore than anyone we knew could handle .the 455 is a real legend ,and can back-up the hype !
For anyone that doubts this guys driving ability check out his hill climb video he is legit, He drives Like I drive DEFENSIVE, as with most European drivers versus us crappy American chickens, Would love to drive this car any time. Been on the autobahn in a 70 cutlass 650 hp. POWEr
*musclecar* cant be more i agree with you friend, this musclecar is the best model that did pontiac in early 70´s and of looking very very rude with a great engine v8 newly created of the hell!! hahaha so for main it!! ehhe now we are 2 :), long life to the firebirds!! maybe better than camaros :D Yeah!
This i my dream car always wanted one but im too Yong to drive or have the money :( Just a question do you know about the 1972 Code red firebird that thing has 1200 HP not that your car is bad but THAT CAR IS AMAZING When im 18 im going to ask you if i could buy it ;)
That is fun to watch most Trans Am series 66-72 were small kick racers 305ci/5l, most street big blocks were powerful but sleepy, this one has nice response. It would be fun to see it go up against another BB pony car. Cheers 🍻
it would totally dust them .. Roger has a Butler performance built engine. They are the best when it comes to Pontiacs and this car even built 10 yrs ago is a beast
So funny to see comments about being rwd. lol Anyone who learned to drive before 90's can drive the hell out of rwd or front because we learned in rear and forced into fwd cars. I learned at age 8 to drive them and was driving daily in one at 14. Times were different though.
no wonder the others tried to get him off of the track multiple times and even slammed into him, he was the only one actually racing ! fantastic ! that trans am is so nasty!
This is vintage racing...Respecting the car is rule #1, #2 and #3. This tool box needs to get off the track before he hurts someone and damages their equipment. this guy can bounce his car off the walls all he wants, its the fact that he is around other people that is scary! FYI This is vintage racing...the only prize at the end of the race is the smile on your face. the other guys racing are not smiling when they are having to rebuild their car because this jerk ran into them.
Roger, It looks like a very bad day but you managed to pull second in class. Spinning in turn one after the start finish line was very scary for me, I can't even imagine what was going though your head.
Wouldn't it be better for Roger's gearbox if he would blip the throttle especially at lower downshifts? I know this gearbox has no synchros, but the punch of force at every downshift is not too healthy for all that's between engine and rear tires, plus it could easily lock rear tires for a moment that's enough to make the car spin. Just my suggestion. I'll be glad if Roger will consider it, though he's way more experienced race driver than me :)
the driving is aggressive and most cars on track are not a match, the style driving and lines taken are a pro level, perhaps some fine tuning required, but overall I would respect the car and driver.
He is a lot a whole lot better then I ever will be . I wish he would become a little more patient . Sometimes he puts himself in a bad place by not holding back a little bit. work on being smoother . I love the car , the power band is unreal . And the look is most intimidating .
I bet not one person in these comments who is bashing this guy, has any kind of video on a track with them doing a better job thrashing that much horsepower.
watching this also messed up my headphone speakers... they couldn't take that honkin' rompin' stompin' mad as hell screaming American V8 any longer! LOL but it was well worth it.
I wonder if any of these critics have ever spent any time behind the wheel of a 455 T/A. I've had two and let me tell you they are hard to master in a corner. Even more so in any type of cold, wet, or cold and wet situation.
OK, there is so much wrong here. I'm not trying to be negative but racing has been in my family for many years and I have learned a lot. First off, there is tons of oversteer. This can be adjusted by correcting the camber of the front and rear wheels. also, you might want to check your tire pressure as well and the front and rear anti-roll bar thickness. Next, it seems that this 700 hp monster is too much for this guy. He should really practice by himself on an open course with no other drivers so he doesn't kill anybody. Also make sure your getting good down force in the front and rear of the car. You can also adjust your springs or coil overs. I hope this helps. If somebody knows this guy, please pass this message to him.
This is what it looks like when a shark eats his way through a school of guppies. Why do they even let this beast on the track with Mini's and Isetta's?
