Since Pontiac brand is no longer available officially, enthusiasts never stopped rendering and building the “what if” Pontiacs. The last Pontiac concepts were offered to the public by garages or small companies and were mostly Pontiac Trans Am 2011 models [Lingenfelter, ASC, Kevin Morgan]. One of the most recent – Pontiac GTO Judge aka 6T9 Goat by Trans Am Depot. All of them were based on 2009-2010 Chevrolet Camaro.
Pontiac Banshee muscle car based again on 5th generation Camaro is the last Pontiac-wanna-be we’ve found. But this time changes went a bit further. Hermance Design and Restore a Muscle Car joined forces and gave birth to their Banshee Pontiac conversion which is available for purchase for about $30K. Dave and Ben took a different direction of converting Camaro to Pontiac. They’ve decided to look forward instead of backwards, as most of present Pontiac converters do. Banshee was always in pursuit of new and better ever since John Z. DeLorean tried to production-run his Camaro-killer 1966 Banshee while heading GM’s Pontiac cars.
The builders themselves say: “we wanted a car that pays homage to all the Trans Am’s fabulous years by introducing subtle styling cues from more than one generation, blended into a forward-thinking form that’s worthy of the discriminating tastes of Firebird fans.”
The Banshee prototype retains its GM LS3 6.2L engine, but is upgraded with a Procharger L99 P-1SC-1 supercharger and an air-to-air intercooler, developing 420 HP. Gearbox stays stock – TR6060 six-speed manual. RAMC replaced the Camaro 2SS FE2 suspension with a Pedders Super Car Xa Performance Kit. YearOne produced a custom set of two-piece 22×9 and 22×10 (front/rear) Snowflake wheels for the Banshee prototype, which are wrapped in Nitto Invo 255/35ZR22 and 285/30ZR22 rubber, respectively. The Camaro’s Brembo brakes are swapped out for the Baer Extreme+ kit and 6R six-piston fixed-caliper upgrade, featuring 15-inch, cross-drilled, aluminum rotors at all four corners.
All in all, Banshee project is sponsored by solid companies, the quality and idea aim is high-end so finished produced will probably be worth getting wider produce. Complete turnkey Banshees start at approximately $65,000.
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