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People can’t get enough of General Motors’ 1964-1972 A-body platform vehicles. The cars — Chevrolet Chevelle, Olds Cutlass/4-4-2, Pontiac GTO/Lemans, and Buick Skylark/Gran Sport — drove remarkably well when new and make a fabulous foundation for modern hot rod builds today. They are sought after by enthusiasts young and old alike, like the Time Attack Olds you see here.
Pat Gorman, the owner of this ’70 Cutlass, acquired the A-body when he was just 13 years old. He emulated his father, who bought his first Olds when he was 14. The Time Attack machine you see here was a complete reclamation project that Gorman transformed from a rusted relic.
What started as a 13-year-old boy’s first project has morphed into an entire automotive business. (Photo courtesy of Jake Allen Photography)
Decked out in 4-4-2 W-30 regalia and set up with modern aero and handling aids, you might be shocked to learn the title holder graduated college in 2020. That shows you the younger generation of enthusiasts is as passionate about its muscle cars as the grey beards.

The front splitter and rear wing tell you this is a serious car, whether on the street or Lime Rock Park’s road course. (Photos courtesy of Jake Allen Photography)
Today, Gorman is the owner of this car and founder of Gorman Performance Engineering, a company that specializes in A-body suspension parts (though it is expanding into F-bodies and other more universal segments of the hobby). Pat thinks a lot of his automotive passion came from being exposed to them by his dad when he was a youngster.
“I’d say a lot of it came from my dad — at least exposure to muscle cars. I didn’t just love cars because my dad did, but he certainly put me around them. I’d say then around middle school, I started really getting fascinated with the history of cars, like reading up on production numbers and different RPO codes, all that stuff. Just fascinated by the historical side of them and then it’s grown ever since.
He didn’t go to college (University of Connecticut) with the goal of starting an automotive business, but he wanted to study mechanical engineering because of the career opportunities. He liked the idea of getting into automotive engineering, but wanted to remain close to home.
(Photos courtesy of Jake Allen Photography)
The Cutlass was born at GM’s Linden, New Jersey, plant, like millions of others, as a simple 350 car with a Turbo 350 transmission. It was then shipped to Connecticut, where it has lived its entire life.
“I had no idea what I was getting myself into, and how much of an uphill battle it would be, but it was fun just to get started on something,” Gorman recalled. By the time we got it, it was super rusted, barely ran, half the wiring was melted, but it needed a complete restoration.

His original plan was to make it into a mechanically and structurally sound driver for nice days once he got his license, but that plan quickly went off the rails. A month after work began, the body was off the frame in the driveway.
The idea was to keep it mostly stock due to his financial situation. The engine in it was cooked, so he replaced it with an inexpensive 330 small-block from a ’65 Oldsmobile that was being turned into a drag car.
“It ended up being a good find. It was a $300 engine, but it was freshly machined and ran fine,” Gorman explained.
Next came a 200-4R overdrive and front disc brake conversion, patches for the sheetmetal, etc. Pat and his dad focused on the really bad areas of rust — the doors, trunk, quarter-panels — then he sprayed it. His goal was to drive it during the school year, and literally on the last day of final exams during his junior year he was able to take it to school.
By attending UConn, he was close enough to home to sneak away and continue working on the Cutlass.
“That first winter my parents gave me all the painting supplies, so my dad and I knew that was going to be our focus,” Gorman said. “So pretty much every weekend (and even several days during the week), I came home from campus and sanded it with a DA in the driveway to bring it down to bare metal.”
So, how did he end up starting his own business in 2021? He’d gotten an engineering job, but it was not as interesting or fulfilling as he’d hoped. The year 2023 was when he started concentrating on Gorman Performance Engineering and made it his career.
“It really started with filling my own needs. Once we started going down the Pro Touring rabbit hole and knowing the direction I wanted to go with this car overall, which was building it more towards a time-attack car over time, I had been researching a lot of what pro motorsport teams were doing, what engineers were designing for GT3 cars, NASCAR, stuff like that,” he recalled. “I was trying to see how I could bring that technology into the muscle cars as much as possible. You look through the aftermarket and I was pretty disappointed with a lot of the parts I saw as far as chassis and suspension went.
The factory door panels remain, as does carpeting, but everything else is all business. (Photo courtesy of Jake Allen Photography)
“I started with the parts I wanted that didn’t exis. I started with the simple ones. It was just a solid body mount kit for A-bodies. I wanted a set for my car and wasn’t that pleased with what was in the aftermarket at the time.”
Gorman has parts that go across the spectrum. They’re not all hardcore race products. There are three product lines: GP-S, which is for street, but can be used on track. Then there’s GP-R, which is heavy-duty parts for the more serious Pro Touring crowd. They’re developed to withstand the rigors of time attack, road racing, and competitive autocross. At the top of the pyramid is GP-X. The GP-X Series is the pinnacle of design and technology at Gorman Performance Engineering, an elite line of components crafted from materials like billet aluminum, advanced composites, and aerospace-grade alloys.

The engine is a 427 cubic-inch Golen Racing Engines LS. It has five-axis-ported LS3-style heads on top of a Concept Performance LSR block. Compression is a robust 11.1. It makes 700 horsepower at the crank and 645 lb-ft of torque, quite a bit more than the original 350 Rocket V8.
Golen Racing Engines (Hudson, New Hampshire) got the nod to build this 427-inch LS, which makes 700 horsepower at the flywheel. (Photo by Jake Allen Photography)
The transmission is definitely something outside the mainstream, but perfect for track days at Lime Rock Park: A seven-speed dual clutch unit from a BMW M2. To mate the gearbox to the LS, Gorman went to DomiWorks, which has a full adapter plate setup to join it up to the LS. A CAN-formance Engineering Can TCU plugs into the transmission and ties it right into the car’s Haltech ECU. Apparently, this engine/trans combo is popular in Europe, too, hence everything needed to make it work was readily available.
Remarkably, a factory GM corporate 10-bolt rear is still used (from a ’71 Cutlass). It’s simple, effective and strong enough for open-track duty.
Keeping the owner safe and adding structural integrity to the Olds is a complete cage that Gorman designed and installed himself. He did a full 3D scan of the interior, built a CAD mockup, then welded in a cage that is Time Attack-compliant, yet still accommodates his 6-foot 4-inch frame. The carpet and door panels remain, as does the factory dash, though at the moment there’s only a Recaro Profi SPG XL driver’s seat with six-point Sabelt harness. A Sparco seat can be installed for passenger ride-alongs.
To keep track of the vital signs, an AiM digital dash with a power distribution module. It can read off all the car’s CAN buss networks, be a data logger, and provide lap times. The back seat just became part of history.

Naturally, the suspension is all Gorman Performance Engineering. Its chromoly GPR control arms are employed in the rear, as is a GPX carbon rear chassis brace. Up front, a set of prototype GPR front lower control arms work in conjunction with production GPX billet uppers, billet 2-inch GPX drop spindles, solid body mounts —essentially one of everything it makes, plus some prototype pieces.
Custom MCS triple adjustable coilovers are at all four corners. As an MCS dealer, Gorman works closely with their engineering department, so they can do off-the-shelf kits or do things on a one-by-one basis where they work with the customer, learn about their car, then work with the MSC team to give them a valving package that is specific to their setup.
Forgeline 18×11 GA3R wheels reside at each corner and they’re wrapped in VTour P1 315/30R18 200 treadware tires. According to Gorman, VTour is new to the American market and its tires offer excellent heat tolerance and wear, according to Gorman.
(Photos by Jake Allen Photography)
The body has that menacing (and functional W-25 fiberglass hood and the entire car is covered in Twilight Blue paint (a 1970 Cutlass hue), which matches the blue interior nicely. The paint is a bit darker than the original Astral Blue.
A Zebulon MSC front splitter and rear wing keep the Cutlass from taking flight at high-speed. They also press the body down on track for better grip.
Gorman wanted us to mention Evan Duffy, his business partner, who has been a huge help with the fabrication and more.

What’s next for the Time Attack Olds? Ever the development mule, the car will continue to compete at Time Attack events, and then will probably be used to prototype a full A-body/independent rear suspension chassis. It may get some some carbon fiber body panels to drop a few pounds.
Regardless of what’s next, it’s one of the wildest examples of a GM A-body we’ve ever seen.

About the author
Jim Campisano
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