How quick can I go for $3,000?
 

The car is a 95 Z28 auto that is stock right down to the air filter. It has 125,000 miles but was well taken care of and needs no maintenance items.

I have a new brother in law that is a die hard mustang guy and he thinks that if you put the same cash in a mustang and a camaro that the mustang will always be faster. I beg to differ. He is still looking for a car to build but it will likely be a fox body coupe. He has said that he isn't of fan of the bottle and I think this will insure my win. The only rules are that both cars must be full interior/weight and stock suspension design.

So with $3,000 to spend on performance parts (need receipts for everything) how fast can I make this thing? I don't want to kill the engine but the rear and trans are fair game because the are first on the list to be replaced after my little wager with him.

I assume nitrous will be the way to go and I will need to buy rear tires and maybe wheels (if I cant use stock) as part of the $3,000 limit. Any tips on what will be needed and what I can get away without? I guess the real question is how fast can I go with $3,000 and keep the engine running for a while afterwords?

cheapest way to go quick would be a nitrous setup, m/t drag radials, and a converter if the budget allows for it. your 10 bolt will hate you for it.

Well if ur able to do some of the work ur self, You could get ur tires and nos. and (here comes ur part) pull the heads and get them shaved to bump up ur compreshon ration( which nos likes alot) Biggest thing u will need to make sure u do is get it tunned after u add the nos. You should be able to get all that done for 3k. Unless u take it to some big shop and let them do it all. Good luck

Pray and spray :)

you can probably get to 88mph with a flux capacitor. or if you're to afraid to go that route you can get nitrous tires and maybe a bolt on or two

I AGREE WITH THE FLUX CAPACITOR.

I personally hate nitrous too. So, I'm going to say, go with some Nitto 555r's. You'll be able to get 2 shipped to your door for around $300, maybe less. Get a decent stall($?), Pacesetter LT's (~$300), universal x-pipe and bullets dumped (~$150-$200+fabrication labor costs), intake (~$200), mail-order tune ($125), LCA's and PHB (~$200). All that will cost you a little over a grand. Then, you've got another $1500-$2000 to do a cam and gear swap. Then, you've got a mid-low 12 second car N/A, in about $3k worth of mods.

so basically the flux capacitor is the way to go.

bolt ons and a 150 shot :)

From bone stock, your looking at 11s, possibly 10s if you're brave. Buy all used parts and trust the guys on the board. I would go cam only and spray if I were in your shoes. Cam, Stall, gears, exhaust, tune and spray. Low 11s, high 10s.
BUT, he is cheating you being that he weighs less and has the same amount of money to spend on mods. The power to wieght ratio is not far off from the 2, but the LT1 is faster, but still use it leverage.

pretty cool wager.

And I'm gonna take some of this advice and search.

If you can do the work yourself you can make that bitch fly for $3000. I'd buy a used nitrou s kit off of here for about $400. I'd get some Mickey Thompson ET street radials (255/50/16s) and some skinnies with VW bug tires. That should be about $800. I'd get some headers and a cheap summit 3 inch true dual setup $500. Get a big stall 3600-4000 and trans cooler for about $500. I'd then buy a used LS1 driveshaft $75, fab your own rod ended LCAs and PHR $200, and box your torque arm.

Pull the heads off and port them yourself assuming you can. Keep the stock valves in them. Get a good valve job and mill the hell out of them to jack up the compression ratio. If you can do the port work yourself a valve job and milling should cost about $175. The last step is the most important. Take as much weight out as you feal comfortable doing. I calculated I can get my car alone down to 2931 lbs without me in it, still having ac, ps, all interior panels, and two seats. That's spending about $100 in random supplies / parts. Add your weight to it and there's your raceweight. That all adds up to $2750 and I guarantee you'll amtrak him.

he wants to keep full weight there mr diet man!

hows ur lil project coming along neways i took a peak at ur thread a min ago... looking good! this winter im going on a major diet myself and will me watching ur thread for references... u still throwing in that turbo?

Hey... sounds like my plan.

So some et streets and nitrous seem like the first thing. How big of a shot should I run on the stock engine? What about a one time spray and pray?

Also, would I be OK without headers and exhaust if I spray? I think I will be able to do a good converter, nitrous (with all the extras), tires, and tune and I might have enough for a bolt on or two.

Like I said, I couldn't care less about the rear and transmission as long as I beat him. I will, however, need the engine to last say 10,000 more miles before I will have the cash to replace it.

Thanks for all the ideas so far and let me know what you think about my plan. Thanks!

Safely I would say a 150 shot. Some have gone upwards of 200 on a stock block, but I haven't heard of any doing it a lot. It's not the drivetrain that'll necessarily go, it's the bottom end.

You don't need headers or exhaust to run the nitrous, but obviously, it will help. I doubt you could get past the 12s with stock exhaust.

i ran 12.20s
worn out bfg dr's,catless 2.5" y-pipe and a welfare cai on a 150 hit
so with more bolt ons and lower than 2900' altitude 11s can be had

i would say u could spay a 200 shot once and should be ok.... spray and pray :)

One more question, how high is it safe to spin the stock bottom end to? I might be able to squeeze a cam into the budget....

You can take a ton of weight out of these cars and still have it look completely stock.

I've been working on it pretty regularly. I'm making some really good progress, but there's two major things I don't have money for right now. I still have quite a bit of stuff I can do. The turbo is still going on it. I was typing out my update earlier at home, but imageshack wasn't working. I'll update it again with what I did yesterday when I get home.