Drag racing brothers Sam and Lorenzo Gullotto have teamed up to put together a potent turbocharged LS-powered Pontiac GTO ahead of the 2019 Westernationals, taking place this weekend at Perth Motorplex.
Sam has been on the sidelines since 2017, when he found out he had an issue with his heart which would require surgery.
“We parked up the GTO when we discovered I had an atrial sceptical defect with my heart,” he explained.
“I had open heart surgery in June 2018 and made a full recovery and decided to race again in November last year.”
In the meantime, Sam’s brother Lorenzo had been racing his turbocharged Holden Commodore successfully around the country and the two began to kick around some ideas.
“We joked about the GTO coming back with a motor like Lorenzo’s as I had reignited my love for drag racing,” Sam said.
“Whatever we did, I didn’t want to run the same motor as before. Then one day late last year a large turbocharger showed up and Lorenzo sat it on my desk. Then he told me his plan.”
Lorenzo set to work transplanting the potent LS3 V8 from his Commodore to his brother’s Pontiac, where they hope it will run times as quick as 6.8 seconds for the quarter mile (402m) drag strip.
“After doing the turbo deal in my car we decided it would be cool to do something with the GTO instead of it sitting collecting dust,” Lorenzo said.
“The engine got a freshen up from Con at Balcatta Engines and we added a single Garrett GTX55 turbo. We’ve done all the fabrication work ourselves here at DS Racing.”
The Gullotto brothers will be racing in the Competition class at the Westernationals, which has attracted a full 16 car field.
The Westernationals sees sportsman racing on track from 11am this Saturday and Sunday, with the main show from 6pm each night.
See more pics of the awesome Pontiac below.
