1969 Pontiac GTO - Too Legit to Quit

Chris Moseley's 10-second, turbo Turbo LS GTO Keeps Chugging Along and Wears its Battle Scars with Pride.

The goat's scuffed fender makes Chris Moseley a bit uneasy. So do the torn seat covers and the rags zip-tied around the valve-cover breather. That might be a problem if this 1969 GTO was the object of a microfiber cloth's affection (rub me, rub me!), but it's not. This here is a real driver-, —make that a really fast driver. By dropping in a junkyard LS small-block, strapping on an eBay turbo, and boosting it to 10 psi with a sprinkling of meth on top, the 3,850-pound GTO rips the quarter-mile at 10.88 at 124 mph. Fear not, Chris, those minor imperfections aren't blemishes. They're like cool battle scars that impress the ladies at the bar.
Before the GTO came along, Chris built some strange creations to keep himself amused. Sure, there are Mustangs and Galaxies in his past, but one of his most unique rides wasn't even a car. "I built a sandrail dune buggy, and swapped a turbo VW motor into it. Since it was street-legal, I drove it to the track, ran 10s in it, and drove it back home," he recalls. The GTO actually started out as his dad's new project car. "Right after he bought it, he dropped it off at my house because he wanted me to fix the tach and a few other minor issues. Whoever turned the car into a Judge clone put a '79 Pontiac 400 in it that only made like 200 hp. I talked him into doing a 6.0L LS swap, and it ended up making more power than he could handle."
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Being a good son, Chris did the right thing and took the car off his dad's hands. With the GTO now taking up permanent residence at his house, he picked up a 78mm turbo off eBay, and fabbed up a custom turbo system. After a fair amount of street abuse, the LQ4 spun a rod bearing. "I tore the motor down, polished the crank, and put it back together, but it spun the same bearing again a year later. I figured the rods got egg-shaped, and got sick of rebuilding the motor all the time," he explains. "I finally decided to build it right, and picked up a 5.3L iron block for the new combo. The bottom-end has all forged internals, and the top end is completely stock. At 10 psi, it puts down 600 rear-wheel horsepower."
When Chris says he drives his car a lot, he means it. The GPS system plugged into the cigarette lighter and the cheap cupholders taped onto the center console certainly provide validation, but the real kicker is the trailer hitch hanging beneath the bumper. Chris just got back from flogging the car thousands of miles on Drag Week while dragging a utility trailer full of tools and spare parts behind him. Although there were a few hiccups along the way, the Goat survived the entire trip, busted off 10-second passes , and made it back home under its own power. "Drag Week was awesome. We tuned the computer on the highway while driving up to the event," he says with a chuckle. "The car burned up Third gear after we got there, so we swapped in a stock 4L60E in the parking lot the day before Drag Week officially started. After that, the tranny cooler line popped off and the fuel pump overheated once, but we fixed it on the side of the road and got rolling again. After that, the car ran great the rest of the week."

Miraculously, the stock 4L60E transmission somehow held up. "I didn't even know if it was going to work, but it was the only spare I had. I definitely need to beef it up before I run the car hard again," he says. That brings the total carnage over the years to two blown motors, two blown transmissions, one blown torque converter, and one blown rearend. Hindsight being 20-20, it's probably not the most efficient way to build a car, but who can blame a man for trying to save a few bucks?
Just like the fender scuffs, seat tears and rags zip-tied to the breathers, the stack of busted up parts aren't imperfections or reason for shame. They're badges of honor for a car that's been thoroughly beaten and survived to tell the tale. Hopefully, Chris won't ever paint it.

 

Tech Notes
Who: Chris Moseley
What: 1969 Pontiac GTO
Where: Carrollton, TX
Engine: Since junkyard LS small-blocks are so cheap, why not boost them until they go kaput? That's exactly what Chris did—twice—until he decided to build one up the right way. The 5.3L short-block has been bored to 3.898, inches, and fitted with a 4.000-inch forged Callies crank and rods, and 9.5:1 Lunati pistons to bring displacement to 382 ci. An eBay 78mm turbo squeezes air molecules through a front-mount intercooler before it makes its way to the stock LS1 throttle-body, intake manifold, and cylinder heads. Managing valve events is a Comp Cams 236/231-at-0.050 hydraulic roller cam with 0.602/0.602-inch lift ground on a 115-degree LSA. The turbo mounts on a homebuilt passenger-side header. It's fed by a crossover pipe that connects to a stock driver-side exhaust manifold. A Corvette Z06 fuel pump and Deka 80-lb/hr injectors provide the fuel, while stock coil packs supply the spark. Chris tunes the stock ECU with HP Tuners software. At 10 psi, the combo lays down 600 hp and 688 lb-ft on the chassis dyno. Since the dyno session, Chris has added a methanol injection system.

 

Transmission: With the number of miles Chris piles on the GTO, an overdrive transmission was a must. He opted for a 4L60E matched with a Yank 3,200-stall converter.
Rearend: The custom Quick Time Performance 9-inch housing has been fitted with 31-spline axles, and a freeway-friendly 3.50:1 ring-and-pinion set. Splitting torque evenly from side to side is a Detroit Truetrac limited-slip differential.
Suspension: Nothing fancy here. Just Eibach springs, QA1 single-adjustable shocks, and Spohn adjustable rear control arms. The rest of the suspension is stock.
Brakes: The A-body is no lightweight at 3,850 pounds, so Chris upgraded the front brakes with Classic Performance Parts 13-inch discs and twin-piston calipers. A Wilwood master cylinder and proportioning valve distributes the brake fluid, while a Hydratech booster provides the power assist.

 

Wheels/Tires: The gunmetal Boss 338 wheels—18x8 up front and 20x10 in the rear—nicely contrast the bright orange paint. The tires are some sort of generic Chinese eBay specials measuring 245/45-18, (front), and 275/45-20, (rear).
Paint/Body: The GTO had already been cloned into a Judge when Chris bought it. The mostly straight yet slightly blemished body wears Carousel Red paint.
Interior: The original interior is mostly stock, with the addition of a Kenwood stereo, an Auto Meter boost gauge, and Garmin GPS. A Classic Air A/C system allow Chris to battle the Texas heat and enjoy the GTO a full 12 months out of the year.