It won’t be long before Camaro owners line up in Decatur, Indiana, slavering for bonus horsepower at Lingenfelter Performance Engineering (LPE). Until they do, however, the company is tinkering with a Pontiac G8 GT. Even with Pontiac’s Premium and Sport packages tacked on, this 361-horse six-speed automatic rolls off the showroom floor for less than $33,000, a tremendous bang for any enthusiast’s buck.

To this unsuspecting Magnetic Gray sedan, the LPE guys added a Magnuson TVS MP1900 supercharger, an intercooler, a cold-air intake system whose six-inch inlet looks like a refinery pipeline, a reprogrammed ECM, and a slightly more aggressive shift map for the 6L80E automatic. Without any other alterations, the engine produced a claimed 505 horsepower and 482 pound-feet of torque. If this is as far as you want to go, the Pontiac’s price rises only $11,525.

Beyond the engine mods, Lingenfelter added an engine dress-up package, a Corsa stainless steel cat-back exhaust, and forged CCW wheels with 19-inch Michelin Pilot Sport PS2s (pot-walloping 285/35s at the rear, which stick out of the wheel wells to flick pebbles at tailgaters). Price for all mods, bumper to bumper: $18,494.

At part throttle, the Lingenfelter G8 is civil and quiet and reveals none of its proclivity for civil disobedience. But disable the traction control, and you can leave about 65 feet worth of Michelin graffiti in your wake. At wide-open whack, the blower whines aggressively, like a large caged feline in a bad mood. The beauty of the supercharger is that big muscle manifests down low—just beyond 2000 rpm, in fact—and the power band is thereafter dead linear all the way to redline. Upshifts are crisp without being intrusive, and on long freeway slogs, this blown G8 reverts to a Clark Kent cruiser.

Specifications

VEHICLE TYPE: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door sedan
PRICE AS TESTED: $52,584 (base price*: $50,590)
ENGINE TYPE: supercharged and intercooled pushrod 16-valve V-8, aluminum block and heads, port fuel injection
Displacement: 364 cu in, 5967cc
Power (mfr’s claim): 505 bhp @ 5900 rpm
Torque (mfr’s claim): 482 lb-ft @ 3600 rpm
TRANSMISSION: 6-speed automatic with manumatic shifting
DIMENSIONS:
Wheelbase: 114.8 in Length: 196.1 in Width: 74.8 in Height: 57.7 in Curb weight: 4088 lb
C/D TEST RESULTS:
Zero to 60 mph: 4.4 sec
Zero to 100 mph: 10.2 sec
Zero to 150 mph: 27.0 sec
Street start, 5–60 mph: 4.6 sec
Standing ¼-mile: 12.8 sec @ 112 mph
Braking, 70–0 mph: 160 ft
Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.89 g
FUEL ECONOMY:
C/D observed: 12 mpg
*Base price includes all performance-enhancing options.

At the track, the G8 hooked up so eagerly that it was a cinch to launch. In fact, the car blasted out of the chute more robustly when we simply allowed the traction control to do its thing. After which, this 4088-pound sedan nailed 60 mph in 4.4 seconds (0.8 second quicker than stock) and bolted through the quarter-mile in 12.8 seconds at 112 mph (1.0 second quicker and 8 mph faster). These increases may not sound huge, but the more visceral punch is felt when the car is already at speed. Note, for instance, its 3.0-second 50-to-70-mph passing potential (0.7 second quicker than stock) and its 27.0-second sprint to 150 mph, to which velocity it would still be harrying, say, a BMW M3.

Of course, Pontiac now offers its own industrial-strength version of the G8—the naturally aspirated, 6.2-liter 415-horse G8 GXP [C/D, March 2009]. The manual-transmission GXP we tested attained 60 mph in 4.7 seconds and cleared the quarter in 13.3 seconds at 109 mph. So you’ve got choices. Mind you, the GXP comes with a full factory warranty.

We’ve come to expect refinement and thoughtfulness from LPE, and this Pontiac is no exception. What we like most is that the engine doesn’t overwhelm the stock chassis or brakes. It’s a near-luxo family sedan that will stun the random Mustang Bullitt or Challenger SRT8, a hot rod for the family man.