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2005 Pontiac GTO and the Bob Bondurant Driving School: Drifting for Fun! By: Kimatni D. Rawlins, 12.05.04 It was early morning, the mist was heavy, and the Phoenix, Arizona air was chilly. Rightfully so, the only thing that could warm up the blood in my veins was the heat from the Corvette C6-derived LS2 V8 found in Pontiac’s reinvigorated GTO. The event was the GTO Challenge, and what better place than the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving to learn the hottest trend, Drifting? The GTO Challenge remains the highlight of all of my motorsports training sessions. Pontiac invited a small, exclusive group of journalists to Bondurant for the perfect Man vs. Beast “Battle Royale.” The objective was three-fold: to test drive the ‘05 GTO; to learn the Japanese-born art of hard driving, dubbed Drifting; and to experience the legendary Bondurant driving school. Bondurant uses just under 200 General Motors sponsored vehicles for the courses. To prep us for race day, Pontiac took the crew SuperKart racing the prior evening. We all competed against one another on that cold evening. Code-named Racer X, I came in fourth due to slip on dress shoes. Unaware of the evening curriculum, I should have worn my Goodyear Adidas picked up in Italy last month for the sole purpose of driving. Needless to say, the miniature race experience was well worth the anticipation for the big day. As for our vehicle of choice, Pontiac decided to make some upgrades to the GTO for more appeal to its loyal customer base. The big story is the upgraded LS2 6.0-liter V8 that replaces the previous model LS1. With 50 more horsepower, drivers now have 400 horses and 400 lb-ft of torque at their disposal. Shifting that power is either the optional Tremec T56 6-speed manual ($695) or a 4-speed auto. Trust me, stick with the Tremec for optimum fun and performance       Externally, changes include a new rear end to house the dual, polished exhaust pipes, bigger brakes, and an optional hood with menacing scoops that resemble the nostrils on a mountain cat. Eighteen inch wheels are due in the spring of 2005. The front end -- with its mesh grille -- is the most muscular aspect of the GTO. From the A-pillar rearward, its bodywork is as bland as Tofu. Inside you will find a clean dash, four bucket seats, red gauges and a dead pedal (driver foot rest). A base ‘05 GTO will run you $32,490, including the destination charge. Now for the fun! Before jumping behind the wheel, our instructors Mike, Kevin, and Les broke down the “Ten Commandments” of road racing. Some of the key points were: Have the car anticipate what you want to do. Look where you want the vehicle to end up. If you don’t want to be a part of the approaching tree, then don’t look at it. Look through curves not at them. Coordinate the throttle and braking for proper vehicle dynamics and weight transfer. Always brake a little earlier and easier into turns and accelerate out of them. You do not want to overheat the brakes (boil the fluid) by braking at the last minute. If so, eventually you’ll run out of brake and won’t make any turns. The instructors took a few hot laps before letting us out on our own. As experienced drivers, they ran without traction control on, which gives you brake first and throttle reduction second. So next it was on, I jumped in my Blue GTO and hit the course like Luke Duke. I raced around 40 laps with the longest straightway allowing the GTO to clock 100-mph before a heavy hairpin turn. And when I say heavy, I mean braking and downshifting enough to angle the curve at about 40-mph; or else. What a Beast Master I thought of the GTO. From the outside, one would never guess how potent the vehicle is. It was now TIME! Rhys Millen, the New Zealand bred Drifter for Pontiac, was our Zen Master for the day. And like Shaolin pupils, we listened to every scripture and piece of advice he tossed our way. First, he explained the difference between Drifting and regular road racing. It’s challenging because Drifting goes against all the rules of traditional motorsports training. For instance, a set of tires are half-baked in three minutes. Therefore, a tire sponsor is a must! This is Drifting, where the intention is to purposely lose control, and then gain control, while ripping around the course sideways. Your performance is also not based on time, but off of the competitor in front, whom you have to match on grip, slip angles, maneuvers and speed. The crowd and smoke play a heavy role in the judging, which is very subjective. Literally, the “smoke” becomes the bling! Rhys started one at a time doing hot laps. Dude was “sick wid it!” He burned up enough smoke to set off the cast from Ladder 49; but with grace and control. His honey mustard GTO, which was the first domestic to participate in the Formula Drift Series, was more active than Spidey. It was enhanced by a modified 510-horsepower LS1 V8, bigger brakes, a Sparco racing seat/harness, and 18” Yokohama AVS Sport tires. Nice! After riding with Rhys, I was amped! So into the ‘05 GTO I went. We began Drifting figure eights. The technique required a steady speed into a turn; next, a hard pull of the emergency brake (to swing the rear around); then turning the wheel while simultaneously releasing the brake and clutch and mashing the gas. You control the dynamics of your vehicle through throttle management. Each turn I got better and better while beating up the transmission as if Holyfield was in the ring. Welcome to the wide world of Drifting!