Words: Tommy Parry
Ben’s Pumkinator began life as a garden-variety 1979 Olds Cutlass Cruiser station wagon. For the first five years he owned it, it served as his business hauler, but when the time for a major overhaulin’ came along, the Cutlass went under the budget rebuild knife and came out of the operation room as something completely different.
Ben purchased the car in pretty rough running shape. Spurred on by a less-than-stellar G-tech quarter mile time of 21.79 seconds at 59 miles an hour, he went to work on some simple tuning of the original corporate 305 small block Chevy and got it down to 18.60s.
Far from satisfied, it wasn’t long before he swapped in a proper powertrain for the machine. With a small block 406 and a TH350 lying dormant in his garage, he was well on his way. This engine had previously powered an old Chevy truck he had and consisted of a stock rebuild 400 bottom end with ARP rod bolts, .030 8.7:1 Eutectic pistons, factory 400 smogger heads, a Crane 266 cam, lifters, springs, an Edelbrock Performer and 750 Q-Jet. He painted it in GM Corporate Blue before slipping it and the TH350 with an 1800 stall converter into the engine bay. With Hedman shorty headers, a 3" single exhaust through a Flowmaster 40 series, and a quick dyno tune, the mill produced 221 horsepower and 282 lb-ft at the wheels. Not a huge amount of power, but considering how thin the air is in the rocky mountains of Salt Lake City, Utah, it wasn’t too bad - plus, despite the granny gas mileage factory 2.41 geared rear axle, a 3-second faster 15.70 at 87 mph was a decent improvement.
Next, Ben lowered the car by cutting the factory springs and adding some performance tires on 16x8” Trans Am GTA wheels. This helped it handle a little better than stock, but was mostly for looks and not ideal for real handling performance. With the car in that form he tried his first autocross event, and although he grew up drag racing, he was hooked on this new type of racing.
Although the 406 ran well in the G-body wagon, as with most builds the need for more power didn’t take long. Ben then swapped the cam for a Comp XE268, added a set of self ported factory heads with 1.6 roller tip rockers and replaced the Performer with a Proform air gap dual plane intake. A Summit 600 Vac secs carb, the factory HEI with Pertronix "Flame Thrower" upgrade kit and MSD wires, Hooker full length headers, a Flowmaster 2.5 to 3" Y collector, into a single 3" x 16" Dynomax Bullet race muffler and Moroso alternator overdrive pulley rounded out the new upgrades.
With these modifications, he netted a respectable increase and was able to drag quite a lot of power out of the small block, guessing it makes about 300-325 horsepower and 400-425 ft-lbs at the flywheel. According to Comp Cam's online dyno speculation, its torque peak should be right around 2,200 rpms, and it carries that wave to 4,500 rpm easily; perfect for the demands of autocross.
With some decent grunt at his command, Ben started giving the ungainly wagon a more athletic look. By cutting three inches out of the center of the bumpers he gave the car a more streamlined appearance. Additionally, he opened up a vent in each front fender for expelling some engine heat, so there was some added function with this improvement in form.
Comfortable with the machine’s appearance, he started making this wagon handle more like a sports car. As the Cutlass had the rigidity of a wet noodle from the factory, Ben removed the body from the chassis, boxed the center frame rails to accommodate for wider rubber notched the rear frame rails and did a mini tub to match, added custom built front and rear chassis bracing, and added ‘84 Buick Regal radiator support brackets and some firewall-to-fender bracing from a ‘76 El Camino. Lastly, he added a full rollcage and polyurethane body mounts.
To temporarily cover the different color body panels and worked sheet metal, 7 cans of Rustoleum semi-flat black and a few cans of VHT satin burnt orange metallic rattle bomb were applied, keeping the build cost minimal while sprucing up the exterior considerably - plus, it added that hint of menace that helps sell a G-body wagon as a bonafide muscle car.
The aged light blue interior needed an overhaul as well. With Lowe’s foil-lined matting as a cheaper alternative to Dynomat, black Walmart automotive carpet, a pair of bucket seats from a ‘93 Mazda MX3, B&M ratchet shifter, Speedway Motors 5 pt. harnesses and a couple cans of black vinyl dye for the dash, door panels and rear seat, he reupholstered his cabin for less than $250 dollars.
All of the chassis mods stiffened the car a great deal; however, a stiff frame isn’t much good without trick suspension. Phase one suspension upgrades consisted of a ‘90 Trans Am F-41 rear sway bar, Hotchkis lower rear control arms, a pair of Eibach rear springs and some single adjustable Varishocks out back. Up front the suspension included a factory F-41 G-body sway bar nesteled between boxed factory G-body lower control arms upgraded with 1/2” tall Howe ball joints and poly bushings, shorter 600 lb S10 springs, a pair of single adjustable Varishocks and a pair of SPC upper control arms, also equipped with 1/2” tall ball joints.
These modifications, the obvious improvement in handling and Ben’s new love for autocrossing provided the incentive to later move to Phase Two, an even better complete Speedtech “Track Time” suspension including large diameter front and rear tubular sway bars, front tubular and rear Articulink control arms, double-adjustable Viking Crusader coilover conversions at each corner and an ‘86 Grand National 3.42 posi 8.5” rear axle wrapping it all up. Coming in at 3700 lbs with Ben at the wheel, with 275-40-17 Falken 615s wrapping 17x9.5 MB wheels at each corner, the hefty wagon moved with an agility that belied its weight. Now the once plow-prone wagon was well balanced and nimble through autocross corners and ran consistant 13.60s in the 1/4 mile.
The trickiest part with this build was that time and money were in short supply. Ben is an average guy on a graphic designer's salary with five kids and a wife. Naturally, he doesn’t spend much of his paychecks on this hobby, so he does renderings on the side to earn money for the car. His drawing time competes with time spent being a good husband, father and provider, so it's a real challenge to find the time and the finances.
Nevertheless, he persists, and by the time you read this article, Ben’s Pumkinator will have begun being torn down again for the next phase of upgrades. This will include a high-compression 406 smallblock designed to produce 550 horsepower and 525 ft-lbs. and more suspension upgrades to accommodate a new 9” Ford axle, which will spin 315-section BFG Rival S tires.
Additionally, he'll have added 18x10.5” wheels on each corner, a serious diet with a goal weight of 3,300 lbs and the long-awaited visual makeover seen in Ben’s concept rendering. With any luck, he’ll be back shredding autocross tracks by the end of 2018.