Part drag car, part show car, Heat Treatments Racing’s new Pontiac GTO is without doubt the best-prepared car to ever hit a New Zealand drag strip.

Nope, this isn’t the story about a lonely old carpenter who carves himself a race car out of pinus radiata that wouIdn’t go until a fairy granted a wish, and which turned into a rotten little sod whose nose kept growing every time it told a whopper about how quick it could go. Nope, this here story might be told in a Mickey Mouse fashion, but there are very few magic kingdoms, fairies or singing crickets in this yarn. It’s more a tale of drag racing dedication, careful planning and an investment in drag racing that beggars belief almost as much as that story of the little wooden boy.

The Heat Treatments team is serious about the sport, that’s for sure. This stunning, Jerry Bickel-constructed Pontiac GTO is Kevin McGregor’s third straight-line time machine, and each one has been a technological leap forward from its predecessor. The 2000 Camaro previously run by the team was an incredibly trick piece of kit, originally constructed for Super Stock competition. But it never ran in the class, as some racers feared it would dominate and threw up as many objections to the car as they could come up with. Not wishing to make waves, the team directed its efforts elsewhere. Ironically, Super Stock died through lack of participation.

Oddly enough, Pinocchio here has stirred up a bit of conflict over in the wide-open world of Kiwi Top Doorslammer, but more on that a bit later.

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