to be, or not to be

Those of us true to PMD have to have notice a strange thing going on, HPP has turned Real PMD cars (those with real PMD engine) into a dusty old fix your seat belt, better your cooling, tune up, less we forget the old "cut the water cross over" trick mag for REAL Pontiac's!

I don't care if you think the LS engine is not a chevy (even tho GM calls it a SBC Generational Engine), at the very least it's not a Pontiac!

Our PMD hobby is being turned into LS, LT Chevy builds and the Real Pontiac's coverage on how to polish & restore your plastic lenses!

Did I miss all the aftermarket PMD based engine builds? Did they only have all the NEW aftermarket PMD based PMD heads on this webpage? Was their a screw up at printing and the How To install EFI and Forced induction get omitted?

This is nothing more then Chevy getting the glory for that PMD earned! Our High Performance Pontiac's are being treated like restore projects, not High Performance anything unless "oil restrictors" and FACTORY intakes, who even has one anymore?

The beloved Pontiac engine is under attack, and hardly covered anymore, and when it does it comes off as tips and tweaks while the LS chevy engine gets a stroker kit!

Kicking & Screaming for me my friends!  

RAMair72 GTO
I disagree with your following statement:
“Those of us true to PMD have to have noticed a strange thing going on, HPP has turned Real PMD cars (those with real PMD engines) into a dusty old fix your seat belt, better your cooling, tune up, less we forget the old "cut the water cross over" trick mag for REAL Pontiac's!”

Since it’s obvious by your post that you have only read two stories in two issues of HPP before you decided to comment on the magazine as a whole, please read the following.

We publish many PURE PONTIAC engine tech stories. In fact, one of the issues that you commented on had one in it on updating a 455 combo to run 11’s in a 4,300-pound car. I guess you neglected to read the rest of that magazine after you were so appalled that we would have the nerve to suggest some easy winter resto projects on cars that are now 30-40-and nearly 50-years old. I’m glad your Pontiacs never need any resto work, or tuning, or cooling upgrades, but the rest of the hobby does benefit from them.

Along with those engine tech articles we have a regular feature that runs about 9 issues per year called HPP Pavement Pounders’ Shootout in which we take a bunch of Pontiacs to the track and let their owners loose for a day of testing and tuning. Then we run a description of their entire combination in the magazine in excruciating detail with drag race results. If you look at them, you will see that nearly every combo you claimed you didn’t see in the magazine, actually has been published in the recent past.

Since it appears you didn’t take the time to actually read HPP over the past year, I will supply a list of shootouts and tech articles that you claim we didn’t do. After all, its not like I have any work to do. But I do have to defend the magazine when someone who is ill informed attacks it in a public forum.


PURE PONTIAC ENGINE STORIES AND SHOOTUTS OVER THE LAST 13 ISSUES

MAY 2009
(Latest issue is at the printer and hits the newsstand in the next few weeks)

HPP PAVEMENT POUNDERS SHOOTOUT
VMP Edition
Final Installment: Two ’69 Firebirds, two combos, too much action.
8-SECOND BLOWN AFTERMARKET BLOCK FIREBIRD

THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS
Part II: The 455 is flogged on the rollers and on the strip.


APRIL 2009
DEVIL’S IN THE DETAILS
Part I: Extracting More Power From A Street/Strip 455  


MARCH 2009
INSIDE A RAM AIR V
DCI Motorsports Builds a Big-Inch Factory-Appearing Ram Air V that Runs Hard And Is Completely Street Drivable


FEBRUARY 2009
THE VERDICT ON VALVESPRINGS
Exploring The Science Behind Modern Valvespring Technology


JANUARY 2009
HPP PAVEMENT POUNDERS SHOOTOUT
VMP Edition
Part 3: An 8-Second Firebird And An 11-Second LeMans Punish The Tarmac At VMP.

PUMP-GAS PONCHO POWER
Building 500-plus HP Aluminum-Headed 474ci To Run On The Street
IT’S A STROKER AND IT HAS ALUMINUM HEADS!


DECEMBER 2008
40 HPP PAVEMENT POUNDERS SHOOTOUT
VMP Edition
Part 2: A 10-Second GTO And An 8-Second Grand Am Stampede The Traps At VMP.
AFTERMARKET BLOCK ON GA AND ALUMINUM HEADS ON BOTH!


NOVEMBER 2008
HPP PAVEMENT POUNDERS SHOOTOUT
VMP Edition
Part 1: Pontiac-Powered Strokers Compete for 8, 9, 10, and 12-Second Time Slips
LOOK, STROKERS!

PONCHO HONCHO
Building a 506 HP Street 462 From a 400
LOOK, ANOTHER STROKER!


SEPTEMBER 2008
PUMP GAS POUNDER
Will TIP’s 400-Block KRE head Combo Produce More than 600 HP on 93-octane?
YET ANOTHER STROKER!


AUGUST 2008
LITTLE BIG CHIEF
PART:III Budget Pontiac 350 Dyno Test


JULY 2008
PURE STOCK PREP SCHOOL
Learn What Makes Them Really Run Part I: Engine

LITTLE BIG CHIEF
Building a Budget-Based, Potent, and Reliable Pontiac 350 Street Engine
PART II: Assembling the Long Block


JUNE 2008
LITTLE BIG CHIEF
PART I: Machining the 350 engine components


MAY 2008
MR FOR EVERY 1
KRE Showcases its MR-1 Block and High-Port head combo by Building an 851 HP 505-cube Monster
AFTERMARKET BLOCK AND HEADS, AND IT’S A STROKER!

STROKER KIT SCHOOLING
Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Today’s Stroker Kits But Were Afraid to Ask
LOOK, STROKER KITS!



Let me answer your questions and charges one at a time:
“Did I miss all the aftermarket PMD-based engine builds?”

Obviously you did, but not because we didn’t print any. See the list above and take the time to actually read the participant engine combos in the shootouts. You don’t need pictures of a crank being lowered into a block to get a good engine combo! The shootout recipes are very complete and strip tested. There are a lot of aftermarket blocks and heads in many of those combos, but you have to actually read the magazine to see them.


“Did they only have all the NEW aftermarket PMD-based PMD heads on this webpage?”

If you are referring to Rocky Rotella’s aftermarket cylinder head stories, then NO. They ran in the magazine. I guess you missed these as well.  
JANUARY 2008
CYLINDER HEAD SYMPHONY
An in Depth Look at Some Current Pontiac Cylinder Head Packages on the Market
Part I: Street/Strip Pump Gas Applications

FEBRUARY 2008
CYLINDER HEAD SYMPHONY
An In-Depth Look at the Current Pontiac Cylinder Head Packages
Part II: The High-Flow Specialized Castings


“Was there a screw up at printing and the How To install EFI and Forced induction get omitted?”

Again no. We did an EFI buyers guide followed by a huge multipart install and test on an SD-455 in the 2007 issues. And we have done features on EFI-equipped Pure Pontiac engines since.
There is a forced induction 8-second Firebird in the next issue’s shootout and we are in the process of installing a blower on a Pontiac engine for a story that will run later in 2009.


“The beloved Pontiac engine is under attack, and hardly covered anymore.”

This statement is patently false, as proven in the listing above. If you actually believe this and are not just saying it to get attention on the forums then you have not read this magazine.

You may not like late-model cars, that is your prerogative but they will not be cut out of the magazine based on your opinion, as there is a strong following for late-model Pontiacs as well. And like the owners of classic Pontiacs, late-model devotees deserve to have coverage on their cars, too. The current split in total edit coverage is 70 to 80 percent vintage cars to 20 to 30 percent late-model per issue. You have plenty of Pure Pontiac engine tech to read.

Please don’t misinterpret this response. I don’t dislike you--I don’t even know you. You have a right to your opinion and you are allowed to express it on this board. However, I don’t feel you are providing a fair assessment of HPP’s editorial content, since my listing of the stories that actually did run in the magazine refutes your statements. If you would like to discuss this further, feel free to call me at the office.

Tom DeMauro
Editor
HPP magazine
814-849-5254