Gotta say a little more about the last Pontiac powered GTO. They were very competitive, from when they 1st came out, and continued to be competitive Stockers until they took such a big hp hit from NHRA.
Bill Rink has taken credit for that, & switched his GTO over to Super Stock. But, before that, there were lots of '74 GTO record holders & class winners, thru the years.
Since the Ventura could run the same engine as the GTO, some guys ran a Ventura & some ran 'em with GTO trim. I suppose the main differences were the GTO shaker hood & lights in the grills.
I've noticed that the quickest '74 GTO Stocker, ever, now runs a flat Ventura hood, on a GTO body. So, NHRA obviously don't care which hood you run.
Several of these cars pictured were record holders. I noticed on the Duttweiler car that it was a record holder 5 years in a row, back in the early '90's.
Bill Rink's GTO was often near the top of the Q-list. He's posted here that this level of performance, on a "Western Swing" resulted in a big NHRA hp hit. He made the show at Indy several times. In '05, he was #21 & got the J/SA class win.
https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...r2005#indextop
https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...r2005#indextop
The last hp hit, up to 277hp came in Nov of '05.
http://www.classracerinfo.com/Engine...8&MAKE=Pontiac
This is probably the performance that triggered the big hit. #1 @ 1.289 under, on 9/29/05.
https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCS...r2005#indextop
Brad Koivisto has run some really low 11's & has even dipped into the high 10's. I have a copy of a Q-list from South GA Motorsports Park, from a race called the "Southern Sportsman Showdown", held in March of this year, showing that Brad ran a 10.821 ! Therefore I assume his '74 GTO is the quickest '74 GTO Stocker, ever, by a good margin.