Im really considering selling my 93 trans am with a 300mile forged 355 that i've been putting together for 1.5 years now. currently working out all the bugs but it trapped 109mph with 7 cylinders and no cooldown after a 40min trip, so it should go low 11's/ high 12's no problem with tuning.I've been looking at some C4 and C5's but the C4 is more in my price range since i dont want to put myself in a hole with the bank for a few years just yet. Ran across a '96 Arctic White Coupe A4 w/100k miles for $12,700 out the door, and the car is in excellent condition except for a scraped wheel. I love the car but the fact that its still an LT1 worries me. My question is what advatages if any over my 93 LT1 trans am? I want a fast street car but the only thing is im afraid of drag racing the vette if i decide to buy one, cuz the parts might be more expensive than my t/a's. How reliable are they with bolt-ons and what sort of track times are they putting up? Also how fast are cam only C4's as well?

Just for comparison my 93 trans am wentconsistent 8.2x@ 83 mph 1/8mile and 13.0x@ 103with just headers, converter, and slicks with low 1.7 60ft's all day. I raced a few stock/mildly moddedC5's with full bolt-on's and tuning and i beat a few and had a hard time with the modded 6-speeds on the street.

 

I dont mean anything by it, because I love Corvettes, but if you have been working at something for a year and a half... that just seems like too much time to give up on it.

Being that it is a Corvette, it MIGHT weigh less and have better aerodynamics, but I believe the LT1 that came is the 93 T/A's is about the same as the LT1 they put in C4's. Now, if you got an LT4, which came with about 30 extra ponies, it had a better intake and i believe it had bigger injectors, that would make A LITTLE difference. OR, you could try and find a ZR-1, but then you are looking at C5 prices to get one of those. ASSUMING you meant high 11's/low 12's (the reverse is about a 2 second difference which is considerable in the 1/4), a low 12 second car is still 2 seconds faster than a stock LT1 'vette. I think the best Chevy could do when they produced them was 14.2 in the quarter. Now, throw some slicks, a cam, and full exhaust on it, you might be getting a bit of a difference.

Corvettes are expensive cars, but a lot of the LT1 parts are interchangeable with the Camaros and the T/A's. Sometimes when I buy parts for my car, I just look for the part and search by engine and not the make. I only see a little difference in price, but a penny saved is a penny earned. As far as the price of the '96, I think that 100K is a lot of miles to be sellin for $13k. I bought mine for $10K, it is a 94 and it had only 79K on the clock. In my opinion, I would just say save the money, save the T/A and put a BIG @$$ blower on it and wipe up the street with a few ricers, and have a few pocket rockets for lunch! Whatever you choose, good luck to you, and there are quite a few guys on here with advice for whatever you ask!

Stay safe!

Matt

 

I think the curb weight is 300-500 pounds less with the vette. No back seat to worry about. The vette will handle a lot better with aero, it rides lower too. Plus the engine bay is sooo much more open, making the engine much easier to work on. Reliability? I'd say its as much as any other SBC, because thats what it is. The electricals were much better in the 90s than in the 80s, solving a lot of the electrical issure (minus the opti).

Plus, its a vette dude! Nothing else like it! But i would shop around, i would think you could find a better deal than that. If you plan on modding, go with an LT1. Parts for the LT4 are hard to find due to limit production #'s (which means more $), plus the LT1 can be modded way past the LT4. See if you cant find a M6, it will give you more options for gearing which is more important when working with the LT1 power band.

 

I still want a damn vette but for now im gonna get the bugs worked out of my car before i get one so i can have the Trans Am and have a Vette as well. I really dislike my A4 after driving my bro's M6 95 z28, its soo much fun to drive and its pretty much stock except for CAI, shifter,and exhaust. Im waiting on some LT's, and 4.10's which should be here next week, so it'll be much more fun to drive.

I do plan on modding the vette if i can get my hands on a good one, but you mentioned finding parts for the LT4 gets expensive. Are you talking about external engine parts, or things like internals? I have an extra LT1 block that i want to build up for a DD with a Crane 227 cam and lots of spray, so that might be an option for the vette. Main thing is I dont want the Vette to run into a lot of problems like my Trans Am did when i fired up the new 355.