Tuffguy610

iTrader: (2)

Hey all,
I am noticing the hype of the new 09' Camaro, and it got me thinking. I was kinda young when the LS1 F-body debuted in 1997/1998, what was that like? How did Chevy fans/General public react? What about the fourth gen body style debut in late 1992? I was only 7 when that happened, but I remember one day when I went to visit a friend who used to live up the street, and we saw that his aunt bought a 1993 Blue V6 hardtop, and we thought it was the coolest thing. Lets hear some stories, I think this topic would be interesting.....

y2k_ta

iTrader: (80)

Everybody clapped and said "Hip hip hurray! They're putting the Corvette Motor in Camaros and Firebirds"

brad8266

iTrader: (23)

We were very grateful to have to not deal with opti-sparks any longer.

John02Hawk

iTrader: (4)

There's got to be some old articles or reviews around on the internet from motortrend or something..

SladeX

I remember reading all the articles in high school... I was hooked on the LS1 and GenIII motor... then for a few years rumors that the LT1 was going and then I can't recall what mag had a formal announcement (Keep in mind "internet" hype wasn't around either). Remember we were talking about 300HP camaro's in 98 and I was like pfft yeah mine has 300... well ft/lb lol 88SC and my dumb high school self.

I can remember complaints about the price... yeah it was faster than a stang but... damn did it have to cost almost 5k more?

TURBO_TERROR

i was like "wow they put an ugly concode looking front end on the camaro" all the early piston slapping ls1's sounded sweet too

BOO HOO BRIAN

iTrader: (-10)

From what i remember: Everyone thought that the ls1 would perform like the 305 hp lt1 firehawk and ss. High 13's-low 14's . When the gm high tech article came out i think it ran a 13.10 or something ?

I saw an old member here (NOONE) racing at a local track for his first time. His first pass was a 13.07@107. A LOT of us stood up and noticed that gm was severly underrating the ls1. It changed the stoplight wars as well. In 98 if you had a 12 second car it was fairly fast . Then all of a sudden there were lid, egr mod, free raim air cars with autos going high 12's.

ErikElvis

iTrader: (1)

I remember not being able to get over the "frog eyes" at the time. I really didnt like em. Me and my friend use to go and drool at the 96-97 SS's they had in the chevy showrooms. Infact my friend hated the frog eyes too.

y2k_ta

iTrader: (80)

Same here. I didn't like the smiley front end on the Camaro, and I thought the Trans Am front end looked too busy. I was a little unhappy that both front ends were changed so much. Now, however, I have two of those 'birds with the front ends that I didn't like

Tuffguy610

iTrader: (2)

Now that I think of it, I remember hearing that everybody was mad because GM axed the old school small block, and introduced this new V8 that everybody thought was not going to hold up and was going to be extremely hard to modify. I never even heard of LS1s until I was a junior in high school, which IIRC was about 2001, about the time that I was just starting to become a GM Performance Enthusiast.

CaseyEaterMach1

That's what I remember people at the time figured that the 305hp rating has true and the engine was really a detuned version of the Vette motor not the same exact thing. No one really realized until a little later that the things here putting out 340 horse or so. The old school SBC guess were obviously a little pissed or at least saddened that the heart of Chevy was finally being axed for good.

Personally being a fan of both Mustangs and F-bodies at the time I figured they would run pretty even with 4.6 DOHC cars of the time which were high 13 second cars 300hp or so. I didn't really pay much attention to them after that until my friend got a 98Z and ran a 13.8 with an auto his 1st time out within a week of buying the car. Then I saw a few good drivers with 6-spd cars running mid 13's and realized the truth. It's too bad I had to wait until 03-04 when the mach 1's came along for Ford to build an N/A car that was any competition for the LS1 (Although the 99-01 Cobra’s were decently close). I might have bought a WS6 over my mustang had they been a tad bit cheaper (a no options formula was going for the same price as my mach 1 which was basically a fully loaded GT with a better engine and suspension)

austin21

i remember watching the commerical for the new trans am i would say i was probably 10 going on 11 . it was the commerical with the WS6 that ends up eating i think it was a mustang im not sure but i used to love watching that i think thats when i really got hooked on 4th gen F-bodys


EDIT: here it is i had to go find it brings back good memories
http://youtube.com/watch?v=WCtipr5B0Hk

John02Hawk

iTrader: (4)

No, it ate a lamborghini

camar0corey

iTrader: (22)

Yeah I was 13. Don't remember much, I don't think I even was paying attention.I watched the commercial, I don't remember that either.

Tuffguy610

iTrader: (2)

Casey,
I can give props to the 4 Valve Mach 1. They are a very good car. Back then with the price difference between the two, I would have done the same thing as you. Not to mention those Mach 1s are holding their value better than an 02' Formy.

austin21

even better

Wolfgang427

iTrader: (48)

Well from what I recall they were getting rave reviews. I wanted to buy a new SS in 98 and they were backordered like crazy. Some dealers were getting premuims on them. I finally found one that the guy had ordered 6-months before and when he finally got it he couldn't pay for it so he had to give it back to the dealer after 2 months. I bought it from the original selling dealer and still have it till this date. All the hype was true, the LS-1's were undervalued in the HP rating giving much more HP then published. Where else could you get a low 13 second car in 98 for low $20's K.?

TWS

iTrader: (63)

I'm getting the distinct impression that I'm older than most posters in the thread this far...

I remember very well when LS1 F-bodies came out. I was doing the car club thing and hitting the track and street races regularly in my '94 Z28 which I have owned since '95. The '98 F-bodies hit the streets and we (us LT1 racers) immediately started making fun of them. Jokes like "get me an exacto knife so I can port my plastic intake manifold" etc. I also rode in and drove a couple and because a stock LS1 car doesn't SEEM as fast as it is, we thought they weren't. GM put a lot of effort into reducing NVH, (noise, vibration and harshness) so the LS1 cars seemed tamer compared to our slightly less-refined, torquey LT1 cars.

Well, I left Texas in mid '99 and spent a year out by D.C. I raced at MIR and Cecil county, but my heads/cam LT1 held it's own or better against LS1's that I encountered out there. Except for Chris Pippy but he's a nutcase like me. See... the modding of LS1's was just getting started. I was running mid to low 12's and back then that was still something.

I left the US and spent 2.5 years in Europe. I returned at the end of 2002 and got my '94 Z28 out of storage and hit the car scene again. HOLY ****, suddenly LS1's were kicking ***. The aftermarket had really taken off while I was gone and just the knowledge level about the motors and how to tune the PCM's etc had increased manyfold while I was gone.

I promptly "fixed" the situation by buying THREE LS1 F-bodies in 2003.

LS1W66

I was 29 yrs old when I ordered my 6spd Formula
I had run a GM engineer in an LS1 summer of `97 with my old LT1 Formula and at that moment I was hooked. Jan `98 I placed my Order, I was already a seasoned Street Racer, and knew this car would kick alot of Iron *** for a couple years and that it did. Most of the magazines raved about the extra power and the refinements.

Cruz28

I remember hating the new design and swearing I would never own one, still drooling over the 96SS and now I drive a 99 and I love the front end with the factory ground effects or the SS hood. I still don't like it much in plain form unless the car has a good stance (lowered). But when the fourth gen first came out in 93 it won many awards, design of the year was one of them (don't quote me on the words, it's been a while).