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Archive51 Project - Mike's 2000 Grand Am:
Vehicle Specs: 2000 Pontiac Grand Am SE Engine: 3.4L V6 4 Speed Automatic Transmission Pioneer CD Player 2 - 12" Subs in custom Fibreglass Boxes Stock 15" Aluminum Wheels 215/60/15 Goodyear Assurance Triple Tread Tires Painted Brake Callipers Painted Intake Manifold Painted Mirrors to match body Fender Mounted Cold Air Intake Front Strut Tower Brace 20% Tinted Windows De-badged body emblems Class 2 Receiver Hitch Custom installed Magnaflow single in dual out Muffler
My 2000 Grand Am was my first car, cheaper on gas than the Pickup (although I did opt for the 3.4L V6 for more power, reliability and tow ability over the standard equipment 2.4L I4). Without a pickup I still needed something that could tow a trailer for ATV and Skidoo runs.
The 2000 Grand Am was recently redesigned and overall larger than the previous generation, and sported the latest 3.4K V6 which is based on the tried and true 3.1L V6 from the previous generation. Mine was an SE, nicely optioned up and was rare in that it didn't have the ugly truck lid spoiler. I later de-badged the car, tinted the windows and pained the black rearview mirrors body color like the GT models.
For performance and sound enhancements I installed a fender mounted cold air intake and a Magnaflow Single in Dual out muffler which was deep but not loud, buzzy or annoying - it sounded awesome. At the same time I installed front strut tower brace.
In 2003 Vinland Motorsports renewed Solo II racing also known as autoslalom or autocross racing, the first year events were all held at Confederation Building's East parking lot. My brother and I both got involved racing and helping out with events.
Even at 3200lbs the Grand Am did pretty good in autoX, I picked up a set of used 16" rims and tires so I wouldn't ruin my street tires, and the Grand Am could smoke them especially in the turns, and was even known to lift the outside rear tire on occasion, which was usually left only to small, light and stiffly sprung cars.
I raced weekend events for 3 years with no real ill effects on the car.
The group eventually expanded to the old Bell Island Air Strip which was a great location for racing and made for some much faster track designs.
Winter to Spring maintenance consisted of Swapping from the stock airbox back to my fender mounted Cold Air Intake and swapping winter steel rims to the stock aluminum rims.
I dressed up the engine compartment by polishing and wet sanding the 3400 SFI lettering on the intake before painting it & and valve covers in high heat red engine paint. I also installed Accel 8mm Red Spark plug wires which were supposed to be of better quality and looked great too.
Winter mode
I had to lower my custom exhaust in order to fit a class II trailer hitch for towing, didn't look quite as clean but both functioned great.
At some point the factory head unit started giving trouble so I swapped in my Pioneer Head Unit and bought a bit of used car audio gear. I acquired a pair of Alpine D-Bass 200 12" sub woofers from Adam Davis, and picked up a pair of 300w amps on local classifieds. I didn't want to loose truck space, block the fold down pass through, or block access to the spare tire so I custom build a pair of Fibreglass Boxes at 1.25 cubic feet tucked into the rear corners. The full write up is in the How To's Section on this page. The amps were bolted upside down on the Rear deck of the trunk, out of the way and tidy. I retained the stock component speakers running them off the Pioneer Head Unit which had a build in cross over.
Dad was getting worse, in a panic to get somewhere he backed his Yukon into the front fender of my car. In the spring we picked up a brand new fender, mounted it, and had it professionally painted good as new. The car served me very well for a number of years, driven hard and worked hard towing skidoo's bikes and cabin gear regularly.
Cheers, MIKE
Copyright © 2011 Michael Smith
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