Special Edition Vehicles - mod a firehawk?

i wanted to get some opinions. I've got a 2002 firehawk in flawless condition with 12,xxx miles. i think around 12,500 miles or so. what do you guys think it would do to the resale value if i added some minor boltons to the car. i was thinking 92mm intake and throttle body with some long tube headers with the stock catback and that's it. i don't want to hurt the value of the car since its just something that sits in the garage and is only taken out for an occasional special event. i plan to try and sell it eventually. i've got all of the original equipment down to the factory installed tires. i recently put on some lowering springs and nitto drags just for the look. what does everyone think?

If you are going to drive it, Mod it. Just did heads and cam on mine...wow, what a difference. It drives now, like it should have come out of the factory. The stock numbers can't do justice to what is out there now in new cars. I think the right mods only add to the value. However, if you want a trophy item 30 years from now, leave it stock. But the 12K already means it was meant to be driven and enjoyed.

Keep it stock looks like you got a modded one also

Mods will hurt the value, including what you've already done. The way I look at it is that the value on these cars is low. It just is and it will remain so at least until used vettes cost a little more. So keep your original stuff, mod and enjoy. Demod and part those mods out later if you sell it.

If it has no mods now (sorry if i read wrong) and you want it to hold value drain it and store it. If your going to keep it running and drive it, mod away is my revised 02

Just keep the stock manifolds, intake and TB and switch them back later if you wish. Even if you decided to keep it like that permanently I don't think that tasteful, light bolt-on's like that will destroy the cars value.

Value, Shmalue, ..., Mod it & drive it.
It does no good to sit there & rot away with 200miles a year.
Get some enjoyment out of it while you can.

Who cares what it's worth 20years from now.
If you seriously want to make money in 10 or 20 years, ..., This car is NOT the method.

I'd say headers and little things you can easily reverse aren't too bad. It's when I see people putting turbo kits on them and cutting them up that I just do a facepalm...

i think i was misunderstood. i didn't mean that i wanted to keep the car for 10 or 20 years and sell it. i meant i want to sell it in a year or two. i just have the intake throttle body and headers lying here and was thinking of putting them on the car.

Value, Shmalue, ..., Mod it & drive it.
It does no good to sit there & rot away with 200miles a year.
Get some enjoyment out of it while you can.

Who cares what it's worth 20years from now.
If you seriously want to make money in 10 or 20 years, ..., This car is NOT the method.

Agreed, cars are not a good return on investment. If you want to make money, sell the car and throw the profit into your portfolio. If not, drive it!!

i'm just asking what would be worth more in a year or two. a stock firehawk untouched or a firehawk with the mods i listed. not 20 years from now. not looking to increase value of the car as a collectors item.

"The Wife" says mod away if you plan on keeping her till death do one of you part! otherwise mod away! engine work can't be seen by the naked eye. a turbo or supercharger on the other hand... alittle harder to hide :D

Headers may be a good addition, but the intake/throttle body swap may not be worth it without some more mating mods, such as cam/head work.

If you're just gonna cruise around with occasionally, then it may not be worth it.
Just drive it & not worry about the value.
It'll go down in value whether you do headers or not.
Significantly just because it has headers? I doubt it.

I would keep it stock.

If you NEED to mod, then try to keep it looking stock to the untrained eye. TB and LT with a catback are probably fine, lots of people wouldnt notice the difference visually.

My $0.02 anyways.... good luck!

"The Wife" says mod away of you plan on keeping her till death do one of you part! otherwise mod away! engine work can't bee seen by the naked eye. a turbo or supercharger on the other hand... alittle harder to hide :D

Yeah either me or my car are going to die before we part lol. Never going to get what it's worth to me, already done some modding on it and plan on getting a procharger once i get a good DD :devil:

I put a 383/ with H/C/I MGW Shifter, SLP longtunes, True Duals, Stage 2 HD clutch, and a few other little things, and I LOVE it. I feel like Firehawks are the best of the breed. So why not show it? I love having a rare car that can destroy anything short of a ZR1. You can't say yea my car is super rare then some POS GT mustang with a few bolt ons comes by and makes you look foolish. But that is also my 0.02 cents, but if you are selling it I say keep stock. If you end up keeping it, I saw the more mods the marrier.

i agree with you there. my best friend has a 10th anniversary firehawk that just went 10.2 on a bad pass. hoping for a mid 9 second pass next time out. car is beautiful but the stripes are kind of fading a bit. to bad those stripes are impossible to find.

i'm just asking what would be worth more in a year or two. a stock firehawk untouched or a firehawk with the mods i listed. not 20 years from now. not looking to increase value of the car as a collectors item.

Modding a 12,000+ miles Firewawk will hurt the value vs keeping it 'stock'. I keep up regularly with values and 'collector' type cars and modding is rarely a good thing. Almost every 'collector' will want or respond to the 'stock' example. Your very low mileage 'stock' Firehawk, if 'near mint', is very desireable. I personally would reply to an ad if it was for sale but I would pass over the ad if the car was modded. Most 'collectors' think this way. If the car had many miles then I would join the posters that say 'mod it' but you are asking a very specific question with goals attached. Leave it 'stock'.

If you're looking to sell in a year or two, I'd leave it the way it sits. Some people buying a car want to make it "their own" and will mod it however they feel is right(probably taking off the parts you put on it and selling them). Also, with that mileage, you may even wind up with a small collector that wants the car.

do a cam made for manifolds , i think their are a few , buy a tb and port it , tune , and do some 4.10 or 3.73 gears , no one will know ifs modded and it will make it faster for you . You wouldnt even have to tell anyone about those because they couldnt tell it was modded.

As a Firehawk owner you know what i learned? it's only "rare" to those who actually care. most who are looking for stock low mile red/black/white LT1 or LS1 firehawk will have no problem finding one on ebay or firehawk.org.. unless looking for something real specific like a SOM/M6/leather in a trans am body which will take patients, time and a big bank account with cash in hand to out bid all those others who have been waiting for one to pop up in the classifieds... most just want a fast car at a low price and think it's cool because it says firehawk on the door and can keep up with or beat a modern day camaro, stang or vette. a guy from work who knows nothing about firehawks bought a white '99 M6. he knows nothing about Fbodys and only cares that it's fast. next to not caring or interested in learning about what a firehawk is he didn't know the button next to the headlight switch was for the foglights. ... SO OP, Phoenix! from a modified firehawk guy, you have to answer a few questions to yourself. are you going to keep the car tucked away under a car cover collecting dust for years only to drive it a few weeks out of a year or do you plan on actually using it for what it was made for? you can wipe it clean with a diaper and make it look just as pretty at 160kmiles as it did with 16kmiles if taken car of properly and still get the full enjoyment out of it just as i am doing at 160k miles with people asking what i was repainted which has been never. last i checked that's what car washes and hand washing is for. Stock is boring. but if i could turn back the clock i would have done motor, long tube headers, a cut out and left it at that.. now i'm pushing about 550/600rw, breaking all the stock components not made for the power, a busted clutch, rear end and a dried up bank account.. but you know what! i not only have a documented Firehawk that's all mine, it's a fast as all heck firehawk! although i can't get the power to the ground it's got just as much power as a $100K vette! and it's just a little LT1 firebird :D ... do what makes you happy and don't worry about what others will think because your opinion is the only one that matters ;)

Low miles like that ans wanting to sell in the near future, leave it alone.. My buddy had a 99 and went balls to the wall 1000whp twin turbo build on one with i think around 70k.. His car is not cut up what so ever and could easily put a stock engine back in and no one would ever know.. Just what you want to do man.. I can't leave a car stock for more then a month.

I like the KISS theory...
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/3945/hawk2u.jpg
http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/2482/hawkwax2.jpg
I have a ton of parts waiting to be installed... I'm in no hurry.. If i want to go fast, i drive my "Z"
http://img821.imageshack.us/img821/1290/z06hawk5.jpg

Mod the hell out of it! lol


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I like the KISS theory...
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/3945/hawk2u.jpg
http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/2482/hawkwax2.jpg
I have a ton of parts waiting to be installed... I'm in no hurry.. If i want to go fast, i drive my "Z"
http://img821.imageshack.us/img821/1290/z06hawk5.jpg

What is the option called for that spoiler. I have it on my 2000 Firehawk and it seems to be pretty rare. Anyone know just how rare?

What is the option called for that spoiler. I have it on my 2000 Firehawk and it seems to be pretty rare. Anyone know just how rare?

It does not have an official name other than 'Optional Spoiler' on the build sheets.
Often referred to as "Ol' Lumpy" tho.

Here's your build numbers on the 2000 year.
http://www.firehawk.com/images/lit/2000/2000.pdf

From what I understand, "Ole Lumpy" spoiler was installed on 125 Firehawks in 1999 and 2000 only.

wow so then that is extremely rare.thanks guys

Just mod it and enjoy it. It already sucks that you haven't enjoyed your 2000 T/A as much as you would have liked.

Cars are made to have fun with or at lest cars like this is.Why would you just want to put it up and not drive it?That takes all the fun out of having a fast a** car to just let it site and rust away if it was mine i would drive it like i stole it.There's nothing better then jumping in my 02 Z28 an hammering down but i keep all the oil changes an all other maintenance up to date on it.I haven't had the first problem out of mine.

Cars are made to have fun with or at lest cars like this is.Why would you just want to put it up and not drive it?That takes all the fun out of having a fast a** car to just let it site and rust away if it was mine i would drive it like i stole it.There's nothing better then jumping in my 02 Z28 an hammering down but i keep all the oil changes an all other maintenance up to date on it.I haven't had the first problem out of mine.

Cars normally don't "rust away" when in a garage under a car cover... Some people buy sports/muscle cars to only drive them a few nice summer days, not to beat the sh!t out of them every chance they get.

Personally I wouldn't do anything that isn't easily un-done.

i don't beat the shit out of mine i just like to drive i just don't get the whole buy a bad a** car just to look at it

My thoughts exactly... Mine are always in garage under car covers when not being driven, cleaned.

The thought of driving my Hawk,Z06 down a gravel back road like the Dukes of Hazard makes me cringe... That is what my Avalanche Z71 is for..:nod:

I look at my cars as an investment. All of mine are tastefully modded for "me". I just sold my 87 IROC for $12K to a guy that flew into DFW, i picked him up, he drove it home. Venture to say you could not do that with a "beat to shit" Fbod, new or old...

Just my opinion.
http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/1038/iroc1l.jpg


Cars normally don't "rust away" when in a garage under a car cover... Some people buy sports/muscle cars to only drive them a few nice summer days, not to beat the sh!t out of them every chance they get.

Personally I wouldn't do anything that isn't easily un-done.

my car has wheels, a drive line and drive train, windshield wipers, heat and a/c, a cd player, lights for the night, seats, no catalytic converter though. i maybe a rocket scientist and i believe it was built to be driven, not to sit in a garage to collect dust only to be wiped clean for a 1 time drive a year with no clouds in the sky for only 5 miles. the invention of a car wash should be on modern marvels! life is short, drive naked!

i see what your saying about keeping it clean but you don't have to beat the shit out of it to enjoy it but having it put up out of sight how can you enjoy that just to look at it why have a rare car just to keep it put away i would drive it so everyone saw it that's all i was saying you have a sharp ass car i bet if you took it out and drove more then ten mins away from your house you wouldn't want to put it back up

Mod. Wish I still had mine

don't be sceered meow! http://messageboard.firehawk.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11523 :D

In stock form they have plenty of power. Bolt on the things that will help u get it to the ground better and or handle better.

don't be sceered meow! http://messageboard.firehawk.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11523 :D

My exact plans right there.

Unless its one of the earlier year or rarer ones like PonticaFans I don’t see any real reason not to mod, if you bought your car to augment your 401k good luck. I drive mine, I mod mine, I enjoy mine. I know I have too much $ in it and I will never recoup any of that but I do enjoy my car the way I moded it. And I will continue to mod it as I see fit. IMHO, YMMV.

Drive it
Mod it
Enjoy it!

I have a couple bolt ons and will add a few more, everything will be restorable, But Im doing what I want to do to it. Other things I feel I cant do to such a rare car.
If I ever get the itch too big where I want to motor swap or modify nearly everything, Ill get another F body thats a base model.

Bought mine already modded, but now it's for sale. I'm trying to get just over NADA value out of it and it has THOUSANDS of dollars in it. So, if you do mod it, don't expect to get your money back. Do it for the enjoyment, or buy another that's already modded and keep the one you have stock.