1999 Pontiac Trans Am WS6 Anniversary Edition - Never A Dull Moment

Throughout the production of the F-body, GM has occasionally thrown a bone to the diehards by offering models with special anniversary trim. These cars generally had a somewhat limited production run and were usually outfitted with some sort of commemorative striping and badging. The following for such cars is tremendous, and in many cases the owners don't just identify with these cars, they identify themselves by the car's specific build number. Some owners pamper these machines, keeping them out of the rain and doing their best to preserve the car's stock appearance and equipment. We applaud them for their efforts to preserve a little piece of history, but we're more interested in owners like Maggie Stewart, who threw caution to the wind by modifying and racing her 1999 30th Anniversary Trans Am.

Maggie placed her order for the Trans Am when she first heard of the special 30th anniversary package Pontiac was offering. "I bought the car to have fun with it and I wanted something different from what I was seeing every day on the road," says Stewart. Her idea of fun has more to do with collecting trophies at the drag strip than car shows, but she still manages to keep her 'Bird in tip-top shape. Her approach to ownership is very similar to renowned collector Jay Leno, who prefers to drive the cars in his collection down from 100-point condition and restore them after he's had some fun in them. Maggie has held onto all of the original equipment she removed from the car and plans to restore it at some point, but until that time comes, she's going to enjoy coating the wheelwells periodically with melted rubber.

Maggie has been around racing in one way or another for most of her life. "I've been racing since 1969 and got into it because my friends and family were all racing. At first I was just hanging out at the track, then I started driving some of their cars and I just fell in love with it and I've been doing it ever since," says Stewart. During that time, she has owned a variety of fast cars, most recently a '97 Z28, which was outfitted with a 383 and a 200 horsepower shot of nitrous. Since Maggie prefers bracket racing, she really didn't need the same level of power in her new ride that she had in her mid-10-second Z, but she still wanted a significant upgrade over the performance of a stock LS1.

To answer that need, Stewart called on Lou Gigliotti at LG Motorsports to come up with a fast, reliable and consistent combination. "Lou's been doing work for me since 1998 and I think he's about the best around. He really does a good job. He's conscientious and I can trust his work," says Maggie. Lou's crew selected and installed their G5 head and camshaft package, which features Stage 2 heads, a G5 bumpstick and custom tuning. To help the new heads and cam take in more air, the stock intake components were discarded in favor of a K&N filter, a G2 airbox and MAF sensor, a ported Shaner throttle body and an LS6 manifold. Underdrive pulleys from ASP were also installed, which help direct less power to the accessories and more to the tires.

Exhaust upgrades include long-tube headers from FLP and a Borla cat-back system. Stock converters were totally abandoned and when the car hits the track, all fumes exit through dump pipes off the headers. One of the keys to a successful bracket car is a consistent transmission, and Mike's Trick Shift Transmissions went through Maggie's 4L60E to ensure it was up to the task of handling the torque delivered by the Yank 4400-stall converter.

Maggie launches the TA at about 3300 rpm with the help of a Harlan stutter box, and a big set of Mickey Thompson ET drags keeps the car stuck to the track for short times as quick as 1.40 seconds. Stock driveline components have a short life expectancy when a car is laying down 60-foot times that low. To deal with the inevitable, Maggie swapped the factory 10-bolt rear end for a 12-bolt unit from Moser, which houses 4.10 gears and 33-spline axles that take the torque from an ACPT carbon fiber driveshaft.

The combination of the G5 top end package and carefully selected bolt-ons bumped the chassis dyno numbers up to 408 horsepower and 387 lb.-ft. of torque. Impressive as those numbers may be, setting up the suspension to take full advantage of that power is critical. To help in this department, HAL adjustable shocks and Eibach springs were installed, along with a host of G2 parts including adjustable control arms, a torque arm, subframe connectors, an adjustable panhard bar, subframe connectors and relocation brackets. The net results for Maggie are ETs as quick as 11.06 and trap speeds over 122 mph.

The next step for Stewart is putting all that power to good use. "I've won a lot of races, but I've never done well in the points because I just haven't been able to make it to the same track on a regular basis because of work," says Maggie. Now that she is moving towards retirement and her work schedule is slowing down, Maggie hopes to be able to race at the same track on a regular basis and capture the elusive season championship that has dodged her all these years.