hey i am looking for a lt1 one, and i am probly gonna buy around jan. I wanted to know what year would be the best daily race car. Power and driveablity. I looked into and didn't find all that much of a differance expect for the speed destiny and the maf based. So i thought i would go with 9 but i was told to look for a 95 or a 93. What do ya think?

 

Well if you didnt know 93-97 are LT1s. Im not sure if any year outperforms any other, but i do know 93 to 94 was the biggest changes in LT1s. New trannys, PCM, MAF and some other obvious stuff. I think if you want a DD and a race car your going to want to know what kinda race car you want.

Like how fast, what e/t, bla bla bla. Personaly i bought my car then i never wanted to mod it, then i bought a CAI and said thats it, and now im saving for a H/C swap.

I personaly like 93s, speed density and the 4l60 are nice. Other people will soon chime in........

 

I love My 1994 Formula it has the 4L60E you can adjust everything on your tranny by computer. shifts,pressure,speed mph for differant tires size or rearend, i'm not sure if you can do that with the 4L60?
plus only on the 1994 you got the transmission performance button its sweet you can dive smooth or if you want to race you hit the button.

 

if you like '93s then you like 700r4's

 

No you cant do that with the 93, it doesnt have flash memory, you cant just change **** right on the spot. You have to get chips, but thast not so bad. As for the "button" were is that located?

 

93's came with the 700r4, 94 and up has 4l60 (junk IMO rebuilt mine twice) Some early 93's got the viper M6 tranny. 96-97 cars PCM went to OBDII 94-95 some early 96 had OBDI, 93 were OBD, or chip cars. They all really ran about the same, some say 93's are faster stock, but I have seen it both ways, some fast 93 some slower ones.

 

the 93s came with the 4l60, the 94 and up cars were 4l60e

93-94 cars are non-vented opti sparks. they can use a cam made for any year. all you would need to do to use a cam out of a 97 into a 93-94 would be to shorten the dowel pin. to go the other way you would have to get the cam machined. the non-vented optis are driven by a little keyed shaft. the vented opti setups from 95-97 are driven by the actual dowel pin sticking out of the cam.

the 93 cars do not have a MAF and are speed density cars. for programming you have to use a chip so you need a chip programmer and to take out and put back in every time or get a new chip burned and sent to you any time for a tune. they game with 2 different types of t56s with different 1st gear ratios depending on which rear end gears it had. i dunno what you're talking about the viper 6 speed in them but i think that is where u go confused.

there are very few 93 t-top cars i believe and i don't think verts were avialbe in 93. that is just off the top of my head but i'm pretty sure about it.

94 and up can be reflashed and do not need a chip making them much easier to tune.

94-95 were OBDI cars and i like working with them much better.

96-97 were OBDII and not as easy to work with and have more sensors and are more sensitive to changes and will throw codes easier.

there's plenty more if you really want to know.

the 95 cars have OBDI pcms but have OBDII connectors. the cable i have doesn't matter about connectors so that's no big deal, but that can be a pain sometimes. some stupid people might plug in an OBDII scanner and try to read it which works really well

in 94 they went to standard 3.42 gears for the 6 speed cars.

many of the auto cars came with 2.73 rear end gears and non-Z rated tires which meant they were governed at around 115-120 and came with speedos that only went to 120. the gauges are interchangable so if you got one of those cars you could just buy a 150 gauge cluster like the one i just sold and plug it in and have the governor changed with a tune.

 

not true. my 95 has the trans perfom button also. ive seen them on other years also.

 

cool thx for all the info, what i want out of the car is about a 11.8-12.2 second car. I know that the 93-97 are lt1s. I am probly gonna do all the bolt ons frist and than save for H/C/Nos. I am probly gonna get an auto, i can drive manual but auto has less error but less top speed. How much can a stock lt1 hold? Plus do i realy have to worry about my rear end with the times i wanna run? Last how much would a 2002 trans am body kit cost me. I have heard around 1,000?

 

Mine is Bright Red T-Topd. Score.

 

Tell me your not puttin a T/a Kit on a camaro.............those look like **** on camaros IMO.

 

no i am puting a t/a kit on a trans am. 93-97 to 2002

Oh plus would it be worth it puting a cam/heads in this car? so shoud i just do blot ons and nos?

 

Take a look at the interiors of 93-96 vs 97. The 97 has the newer style (like 98-02) interior. Get whichever one you like better. I like the 97 becase it's easier (for me) to fit in a high-end stereo.

 

If you're looking for durability and overall performance, '95 is the best. In '94 and '95 The LT1s came with hardened pushrods. But '94 had non-vented opti<--not a plus. You have to get a '95 single cat (obd1) car and it's great for DD purposes and weekend warriors. Has all the best goodies before the OBD2 era.

 

That button is pretty pointless for racing because there is zero difference in WOT performance between the two modes (unless you've changed that in the tune yourself). The only thing it does is move up part throttle shift points a bit.

 

Miles, oil changes etc. will depend on if you can just do an h/c swap right when you get it, there is a **** load of varialbes; In nitrous, do your homework. .02

 

My 94 A4 has a 150mph speedo and a 3.23 gear. I just thought I would mention that.

 

i have a 1993 formula. it has a 700r4, it came that way from GM.

 

BOOYAH!! yeah, not many 93s with t-tops.

if i was to pick a year lt1 i'd go 95. it has more of the stuff i'm more partial to.

another important thing (very important to me, maybe not other people) is the difference in fans.

all of the cars have two fans, but the 93 and first half of 94 production year are set up so that when the low level kicks on it is one fan at one speed and when the second level kicks on it's the second fan at the same speed.

in the last half of 94 and up the fans are set up to both come on at a low speed and then when the high temp hits they both go to a higher speed.

i like it a lot better and my 94 (which i thought was a 95 until he wrote out the reciept to me) did have the later fan setup which is what i wanted.

california 95 cars come with the dual cat setup, but all others are still the single cat setup. i dont care about cats so this doesn't matter to me.

it's not going to be cheap to do the LS1 conversion but if you're willing to spend for it then go for it. personally i think it's dumb but hey, whatever sinks your ship.

you can see the high 11s-low 12s range pretty easily with a good setup. suspenion and weight is very important. with a good suspension setup, nice stall, bolt ons, and a nice cam you can see low 12s.

if you want it to be a street car then a lot of things like lowering it are going to hurt (well, not optimize at least) performance at the track. i didn't care and want my **** lowered so it is.

heads/cam/n20 is a complicated issue. that's all going to depend on what heads and how much n20 you wanna use. do u want a cam that does badass NA and ok on the spray or do u want it to make the most power it can from the nitrous and sacrifice on the NA end?

heads can change compression which will be important on how much nitrous you can run on a certain amount of timing and certain octane fuel.

you can see 11s with bolt ons and nitrous.

i ran a 100 shot without pulling any timing at all, and actually had about 1.5 degrees added up top and on 93 octane. an lt1 can handle a 150 shot, but i would definitley suggest pulling some timing for that one.

yes you will at least need to think about breaking your rear running low 12s or 11s and especially with nitrous. many people dont' have any problems, but many people do. with an auto you should be a little more on the safe side rear end wise but then you're going to have to worry about the tranny also.

you can see low 12s or 11s without the juice with a very nice setup and that is going to be easier on your tranny/rear end than spraying it and what i'd lean more towards, but you may sacrifice normal driveability.

lots and lots of things to think about.

 

i don't know of any 3.23 cars that are governed down low.